Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

The unintended consequences of German reunification

Nov 11, 2019
"We all started to realize that life was just going to be different."
A person touches a segment of the Berlin wall at the Bernauerstrasse wall memorial on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 2019 in Berlin.
John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images

East Germany still reeling from the economic aftermath of the Berlin Wall

Nov 8, 2019
Many Eastern Germans celebrate freedom but mourn the loss of economic security.
A couple attempts to peek through cracks in a still-existing section of the Berlin Wall into the so-called 'death strip,' where East German border guards had the order to shoot anyone attempting to flee into West Berlin.
Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Can we learn something from German investment after reunification?

On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're contrasting that economic picture with the steep economic division in the U.S. today.
East Berliners climb onto the Berlin Wall to celebrate the effective end of the city's partition, 31st December 1989.
Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Itemizing Germany's $2 trillion bill for reunification

Nov 5, 2019
After the Berlin Wall came down, the German government poured billions in to the Eastern states. Was the money well spent?
People walk past a section of the former Berlin Wall called the East Side Gallery in 2010, marking the 20th anniversary of reunification in Berlin.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images