1) The document discusses the experiences of former East Germans 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, including Klaus-Jurgen Warnick who lived in Kleinmachnow outside Berlin. 2) Warnick received land from the East German government in 1969 and built a house, planting trees for his grandchildren, but faced trouble when the original owner returned from West Germany after reunification and claimed the property. 3) While life is better now for former East Germans with freedoms like free speech, they still face economic disadvantages compared to West Germans in terms of wages, savings, and retirement benefits, showing that reunification did not fully resolve inequalities between East and West.

1. The Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, but former
East Germans feel left behind
By McClatchy Foreign Staff, adapted byNewsela staff, Grade Level 6 11.10.14
KLEINMACHNOW, Germany — Twenty-five years ago this week, the Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War
ended, and many people had a chance for a new type of life.
Klaus-Jurgen Warnick is one of those people. In November 1989, he was here in Kleinmachnow,
outside Berlin, as East German guards decided that letting people go to the West was a better idea
than opening fire on them.
Since 1961, the Berlin Wall had split Berlin — and Germany — in half. On the West side were the
Americans, British and French. On the East side was the Soviet Union (now Russia). Life was very
different on the different sides of the wall.
West Berlin, at first run by the Americans, was capitalist, focusing on free trade and free speech. East
Berlin was communist, run by the Soviets, who wanted to build a completely equal society where the
government owned everything and controlled most things.
Ossies, Former East Germans
East Germans had little freedom during this time: they couldn’t travel freely, criticize their government,
or buy many goods.
Still, Warnick says that East Germans like him who crowded around the Berlin Wall in 1989 weren’t
trying to change the world. They just had dreams that life could be a little better.
In many ways, life is better today for Ossies, the name given to former residents of East Germany.
They have free speech and elections. They can travel and they are free from government spying.
Still, Germany remains divided in many ways: Ossies are paid less, have a harder time finding jobs,
have less money saved, and receive less money from the government when they retire than West
Germans.
East and West Germany are still seen as unequal, even though the country is united again. East
Germans make less than west Germans. Employees at one shopping mall in East Berlin make
$1,400 less each year than workers at a mall across the street in West Berlin.
In Kleinmachnow, the problems of splitting, then reunifying a country, are on display, even 25 years
later. In this town it’s the Ossies who have often suffered from the changes.
"I Planted Trees"
The problem in Kleinmachnow comes down to owning a home.

2. In East Germany under communism, personal property was not important because the government
owned everything. In West Germany, under capitalism, owning things — and buying and selling them
— was a foundation of society.
During the 1950s, as communism took over East Germany, many people left for the West,
abandoning their houses. The East German government took the houses and gave them to people,
trying to find places for everyone to live.
Warnick received a piece of land in 1969 and began to build a house on it. He met the love of his life,
and they had four children.
“I planted trees, so that my grandchildren’s grandchildren would know their grandfather’s grandfather
had put down these roots,” he said.
When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years later, Germany began to reunite. West Germans could now return
to the East.
His Dream For The Future
In 1990, Warnick began to have trouble. The former owner of the house returned from West
Germany. The man was nice at first. He said Warnick didn’t have to leave right away, he could have
six months to find a new place.
Eventually, Warnick won the right to stay in the house he built. He had to pay $180,000 to the former
owner and to lawyers. Still, it was worth it to him to keep his house and the trees he’d planted — his
dream for the future.
Warnick is not alone. In Kleinmachnow, almost every property was in a similar situation. Eight
thousand of Kleinmachnow’s 11,000 residents were forced to leave their homes after Germany was
reunited. Nationwide, about 4 million of East Germany’s 17 million people were forced to move.
Looking back, Warnick says they lived in a nation with no idea about land ownership.
“Who believes that their nation, their way of life, will collapse?” he asked.