Germany, SA take different paths towards assimilation
June 22, 2009
By Donwals Pressly
Germany has had 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall to rebuild its republic. It is still struggling with the problems of integration.
As part of a delegation of journalists from around the world, I was lucky to see the remarkable progress made in the state of Saxony, including the capital Dresden, which was heavily bombed in February 1945 by the Allied forces.
I couldn't help reflecting on the integration of the former bantustans into the greater democratic South Africa after 1994 - particularly Transkei and Ciskei, which now form part of the Eastern Cape.
There are similarities: both the East Germans and the bantustan citizens did not have freedom of movement. Both the Eastern Cape and Saxony have motor plants, including Volkswagen. The company was in South Africa long before apartheid ended, but in eastern Germany it took over the plant that previously made the Trabi, a horrid looking vehicle. One can still spot them on the streets, but they are slowly disappearing.
All German taxpayers pay a levy, which will run to 2019, towards the regeneration of the eastern states. However, there appears to be a feeling of inferiority among the citizens of those states: about 20 percent have either moved to the western states or left Germany altogether.
Knut Nevermann, the Saxon Secretary for Science and Art, noted that the birth rate of 1989, when the wall fell, had halved by 1991. Eighteen years later, the universities in the area were battling with low enrolment, despite offering students excellent bursaries and free accommodation in the university centres, including Dresden and Leipzig. Nevermann reported that the birth rate had recovered to about 70 percent of what it once had been.
Outside Berlin, in Adlerhof, there was once a scientific academy supported by the east German state. The township is now a technological park where centres for scientific innovation - including the Humboldt University science department - are housed alongside lots of little industries. They produce optical equipment for various advanced medical technologies.
When the westerners moved in, there were 5 500 scientists in the park; this dropped to 1 500. It has edged up again to about 3 500 but not without the loss of thousands of scientists to commerce and other parts of the world.
Most business leaders reported that former east Germans were more competitive than their west German counterparts, mostly because they were prepared to be paid less.
Germany provides large subsidies for establishing industry in the east, including infrastructure, while moving away from heavy subsidies for the unemployed, reducing benefits from two years to one.
In South Africa we appear to be moving in the opposite direction, growing the social welfare net.
One suspects Germany is getting its recipe right, although there are still chasms between east and west. In South Africa, the divides are so much greater.
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