Quote:
Originally Posted by Schroeder
Odd. My grandfather came from Stettin (now called Szczecin and part of Poland) and managed to settle into West Germany pretty well. He became a fire fighter in 1947 and was "verbeamted" around the same time (that means he became a federal officer with all the privileges and duties that brings). I also never heard him complain about being treated unfairly because of being from the east.
Maybe it depended on where in Germany people settled?  |
It does. My father'S people first ended up in Rostock, later had to move to Münster. Two very different places, and two very different lives. Rostock was difficult, but managable, Münster was hostile ground. Local mentality also is a factor. Living in Münster myself now, I must say that the old-grown, typical city-mentality is something that i do not like one bit myself. Very stuck-up, and haughtily, though tib has softened up a bit - its the third-biggest university in Germany by numbers, and the students changed it a bit over the years. With the farmers, it is different, Eichendorff called them "the sensible oak-trees", and their is truth in it.
Historical statistics however show that until the late 50s and early 60s, over 80% of the refugees ended up in job and on a social level at the very bottom. In parts that is because they were the ones moving in and facing a job hierarchy that may have been in rebuilding still, but nevertheless favoured local residents who simply knew the place better and had better social contacts to help their careers. For the refugees, it was unknown, all too often hostile ground.
That the government forced house and flat owners and residing families to take in refugees and let them live inside their flats, did not make it any better and raised additional hostility.