很多人在讨论两德统一这个话题的时候就会说当年的统一一点儿都不和平，西德政府纵容西德的资本家恶意侵吞东德的国家财富，并且直到今天东西德的经济差距依然非常巨大，东西德如今存在很大的差距这是事实，但是这真的能怪到西德头上吗？ Many people may not know what East Germany was like when it collapsed, but if it were not for the high nationalism of the West German government and its willingness to accept East Germany at all costs, the two Germany would not have been able to reunify.
西德真的洗劫了东德财富吗？
At the time of the reunification of the two Germanys, the official exchange rate between the East German mark and the West German mark was between 1:4 and 1:5, but note that this is only the official exchange rate, and it is impossible for anyone to be willing to exchange five East German marks for one West German mark when you go to the bank, and on the black market it is almost ten East German marks for one West German mark, and the gap between the two sides is very huge.
But how was it exchanged when it came to German reunification? The East German people's mark cash can be exchanged for West German marks at a ratio of 1:1 (limit of 4000 marks), and the rest is exchanged according to 1.2, which is equivalent to giving you a chance to exchange your RMB with a ratio of 1:1 to 2:1 to US knives, I believe that everyone knows who took the big advantage, to be honest, if it were not for the rise of Germany nationalism in the 90s, no one would want to fill the bottomless pit of East Germany.
At the same time, this inflated exchange rate directly led to a sudden increase in the labor cost of workers in East Germany several times, many enterprises are facing bankruptcy, but if it is really converted according to the exchange rate of 4:1 or 10:1, it is bound to cause the wage income, pension, and deposit amount of residents in East Germany to be far less than that of West Germany, and under the dilemma, Germany Chancellor Kohl chose to protect the people and abandon the enterprise, of course, even if there is no such thing, those big pot rice enterprises in East Germany will not live long under the market economy.
西德政府付出了巨大的代价
From the perspective of West Germany, they really paid a terrible price for the reunification of Germany. First of all, in terms of diplomacy, the world situation was not very friendly to Germany, and the European powers at that time basically did not want the reunification of the two Germanys, United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and France President Francois Mitterrand have prevented the reunification of the two Germanys, and even they pulled Netherlands and Italy over to the platform, and the attitude of the Soviet Union was also very unclear.
In order to silence the Soviet Union, West Germany promised the Soviet Union $20 billion in unified deposits, after which Germany provided Russia with a large amount of aid and loans, plus the previous $20 billion, the total reached $70 billion. At the same time, West German President Kohl assured United States that he would not break away from NATO, and won the support of United States, and at the same time, West Germany was willing to recognize the current border line and promised that Germany and Austria would never merge, which stabilized France attitude.
After the reunification of the two Germanys, everyone living in West Germany had to pay a tax of 7.5% of their monthly income, called the solidarity tax, note that they had to pay 7.5% of their monthly income every month, imagine if everyone was allowed to pay 7.5% tax after the liberation of Taiwan, and no matter whether they were poor, whether they were men or women, would anyone want to pay it? And this tax is paid for 30 years.
In addition, the Federal Government of Germany has also done its best for East Germany in terms of infrastructure construction, and has invested a total of 1.6 trillion euros in East Germany in medical care, education, infrastructure, transportation, etc., which has made the economic level of East Germany reach 80% of West Germany, and the gap between the poorest places and the richest places in Germany is about 0.6 times, is this really a huge gap between the rich and the poor? How can the gap between the poorest and richest places in a province on the mainland not be less than twice as much?