Thursday, December 2, 2010

How East Germany Found Its Feet

By Henry Cooper


It has nearly been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. It was erected in 1961 and for nearly 30 years divided East Germany from West Germany. But it was more than this, it cut off East Germany from the Western world. For generations, East Germans were forced to swallow the Communist doctrine while the rest of the world moved forward.

Plainly there had been a huge cultural shock for East Germans when integration first occurred. There were numerous things they now had to become used to. Now virtually twenty years after, there isn't any East Germany but instead only 1 Germany and folk who once lived in East Germany are now changed to modern life.

You have some issues for Germans who were in their 20s and 30's when the wall come down. Things like drug and booze abuse were cryptic.
They found today's world too mad and couldn't get used to things. They reacted poorly and as a consequence had social issues.

Children are a lot more malleable and those who were 5-10 at the time had no problem adjusting. They went to school and then university and now have jobs. You have kids who used to live in East Germany and now own their own hi-tech companies. They have really had no problems getting use to the online age.

Some former East Germans realized they could put their skills to good use and make money from it Mainly from going to the casino and then the online casino. Some of the best players in the world are from behind what was the Iron Curtain. They are able to use their mathematical and deductive skills to good use.

Apropos sport, the previous East Germans were in a different league and folk were concerned that they'd get left behind once the wall came down but this has not been the case. Sportsmen from the previous East Germany have achieved success though not as successful as they were in the doped filled time of the 1960s and 1970s.

There wasn't any doubt that during this time methodical doping by the East German authorities were ready. Ladies did not look like ladies and as a consequence the East German groups achieved the most spectacular results. At the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games they won forty gold gongs and this was 47 4 years after in Moscow. They won 37 gold gongs at the 1988 Seoul Games which were the last Olympic Games they took part in.

Most of their medals came in the sports of athletics, swimming and rowing. It turned out that former Hitler Youth and Nazi Party member, Manfred Ewald was behind it all. He did it with Manfrd Hoeppner and these medals came at a price. Those who won paid the price with their bodies being affected by the side-affects of the doping. Many of them still require counseling and therapy.




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