User:Ballard8/sandbox/berlin wall

Adding information specific to the city of Berlin in the "Cultural Differences" section of the Berlin Wall article:

Berlin still experiences cultural and behavioral divisions between long term residents of East and West. East Berliners have been found to adhere to traditional practices in politics, cultural values and as consumers; often-preferring nostalgic brands and ways, to more contemporary options. Divisions have begun to blur with the influx of outside cultures throughout the city by way of migration to Germany from abroad.

The fall of the wall created a central zone which served as a blending line for East Berlin and West Berlin art, music and style, which has spread outward in the years since unification. The initial rundown urban areas surrounding the wall facilitated an inexpensive space for artists from both sides to come together and develop unified styles while retaining aspects of both east and west. Berlin saw a dramatic increase in the prevalence of the arts across both sides of the city. From 1990 to 1995, theaters in Berlin increased in number by a third. The importance of the arts was present in both east and west before unification and with some stark differences, however, the two side’s artistic characters have begun to meld and grow together post wall. Furthermore, Berlin’s music scene has been both distinct in the east and west as well as morphed in recent years. The themes of both before and after the Berlin Wall have fueled integration of subcultures born out of both sides of the city and their distinct districts.

Following the original euphoria surrounding the dismantling of the wall, what was revealed where many legacies of the physical divide that would continue to challenge Berlin for years to come. Post reunification, the internal governmental structure of the GDR was in collapse and needed to be reformed in a manner that would facilitate a fit within the West Berlin liberal government. This process was quickly implemented, leaving many former East Berlin administrators in place under a new organization, blending eastern European culture within a western European framework. These cultural divides were made evident in the early years, often in simple yet obvious ways. Travelers to Berlin would not find detail on the Eastern areas of the city on maps from West Berlin.

The stark cultural and functional differences of East and West Berlin pre-unification made a direct blending of the citizens and cultures difficult once the wall came down. City planning and economic restructuring made evident differences in handling urban growth and a need for unifying these practices. The rebuilding of the city, post reunification, highlighted the difficulties of blending cultures with Western versus Eastern European influence and values. This difficulty brought into question what it meant to be a “European city”. Even the street names and renaming of streets illustrated the cultural differences of East and West Berlin and the desire to either embrace or forget the historical memory represented in street names.

West Germans of middle age experienced the transition through a different lens than did their Eastern counterparts. West Berlin perceived more stability even in times of initial decline than did East Berliners.

Youth culture has seen often violent transformation since reunification. Right-wing extremism has been of particular harm to the seemingly more susceptible East Berlin youth. Rapid social change in the east lead to an unfamiliar lifting of strict moral guidelines. In the void of this strict structuring, many East Berlin youth turned to delinquency and right-wing extremism. Parents of East Berlin are often culturally equipped to stamp out such delinquency due to the conditioning of the former eastern regime and culture.