ABSTRACT
The 1989 social and economic upheavals in Eastern Europe, spelling the capitulation of the totalitarian socialist regimes, have entered our consciousness as truly historical events. The Gorbachev era or perestroika facilitated the people’s revolution against the grave economic and social failures of these regimes. Faster than anybody dared to hope, there is now a chance for democratic market-based lifestyles in the countries of Eastern Europe. East Germany, i.e. the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was one of the last countries to free itself from the Communist yoke, and may be the first country to enjoy the fruits of freedom in the form of a higher standard of living, because its newly gained freedoms include the freedom of choosing unification with West Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
