Germany celebrates 10 years as a unified country today with two-thirds of Germans saying they are pleased that unification took place.
A decade after socialist East Germany went bankrupt and Germany became one for the first time since before the second World War, 70 per cent of former East Germans say they look back positively on the last 10 years, a view shared by 65 per cent of former West Germans.
But only half of all easterners promised a "blossoming" economic landscape 10 years ago are happy with the situation today. The unemployment rate in some eastern states is twice that in western states.
Age breakdowns in surveys commissioned for the anniversary show that 18 to 29 year-olds, those most affected by the unification, are also the most optimistic about their prospects.
Celebrations got under way around Germany yesterday, with the official ceremony later today in the eastern city of Dresden.
The anniversary has been marred somewhat by a political squabble between Germany's two political camps over responsibility for German unification, both the positive and negative aspects.
Dr Helmut Kohl, former leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and chancellor at the time of the historic event, has attacked the Social Democratic government saying that had the Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, and his party been in power at the time, unification would not have happened.
"The CDU is the party of German unity," he said at the weekend, a claim that lead Mr Schroder to accuse him of "falsifying history".
Dr Kohl will not be attending today's official ceremony in Dresden, his legacy as the chancellor of unification tainted by a CDU party fund-raising scandal.
Today's celebrations will be extra-special for 74-year-old Ms Erica Niemczik, from the eastern German town of Pegau in Saxony. She is making her first ever trip into former West Germany, something she can hardly believe is happening. "I would have loved to holiday in the West before, but I am handicapped and found no one in the town who would accompany me," she says.
