The President of the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH), Reint Gropp, bemoans an overly negative view of developments in eastern Germany. "I believe that this discussion about eastern Germany as a disadvantaged area that needs some kind of special attention is misleading. If you look at the fastest growing regions in Germany, they are regions in eastern Germany," Gropp told the German Press Agency.
He cited the Berlin area and Leipzig as examples. "They are growing faster than Munich, for example. At the same time, however, East Germany also has the fastest shrinking regions in Germany."
Gropp believes that the term "East German" is consistently used in a negative context. "East Germany is somehow only ever really East German when it comes to disadvantages, Leipzig and Berlin and the surrounding area are no longer considered East German in this sense. If things are going well, then it's no longer East German. It is very important to get away from this view."
