Kultur 11 - Andrew Baker

I thought these articles highlighting the regional differences between parts of Germany were very interesting.  It seems like the perceptions of North and South in Germany sort of mirror our own here in the States.  As for the articles on the differences between East and West, I thought the information here was extremely interesting.  I didn't realize that there was still this cultural divide that existed between the inhabitants of Berlin.  I remember seeing quite a bit of Soviet and DDR memorabilia (some old, some newly produced) for sale in the former East Berlin when I was there in 2004, but assumed most of it was for tourist consumption.  It has to be strange for the generations before mine as well as those who were very young when the wall fell to reconcile the two societies they have lived in. I especially enjoyed the quote in the Ostalgie wiki, "To the statement of the interviewing journalist that "GDR inhabitants did not have the freedom to travel wherever they wanted", Germans replied that "present-day low-wage workers do not have that freedom either."