Abstract

Reunification of East to West Germany opened a peculiar process of socio-economic transformation of an East European country, the only one incorporated within a Western country. At the same time it provoked worries about a possible clash between the two economies, and a consequent rise of inequality within a system basically equal. The article examines available empirical data on unemployment and poverty in order to assess their comparative state in the two parts of Germany and their influence on the subjective perception of socio-economic conjuncture. Results are surprising, thanks to important intervention by the German welfare state, but also, and less expectably, thanks to some specific features of the ex-DDR social system.