When Germany reunified, former DDR East Germans were some of the 'most educated' people on Earth. Books were on thing which could be literally bought for pennies in the DDR, for far less than their production cost, as 'culture and education' were very important in communist East Germany.
Unfortunately the books and advanced degrees were often in subjects like Socialist Economics, Class Struggle or Marxist Theory which did little to make people employable in the reunited Germany.
Even with very generous pensions granted to former DDR citizens, and much lower living costs in former East Germany, it's still common to see people who were clearly formerly important petty officials in the DDR working in service in restaurants or train stations with clear resentment that former West Germans don't give them respect beyond being a waiter or waitress.
I've even seen an older waitress loudly stomp her feet and yell Achtung! when the Germans at the table didn't stop their conversation as she was serving their food. It's always startling when former DDR citizens, say a platform conductor at the train station, yells Achtung! at stragglers not loading trains quickly enough. The word achtung was one of many "Nazi words" like Fahrensführer for bus driver which got dropped in West Germany after WW-II and replaced by other German words.
Achtung didn't get dropped in the DDR, and it fit because the former DDR was a place like North Korea where citizens immediately headed the commands of anyone with the tiniest bit of authority. But former West Germans and younger former DDR citizens tend to roll their eyes at the achtungs, foot-stompings, and attempts at self-importance by these former DDR types.
But we'll see the resentment of the former DDR achtung-yelling, foot-stomping blockheads in the new German Parliament as the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) probably attracted enough votes on Sunday in former East Germany 6.2% (more than 5%) to send the first far-right representatives to the Bundestag since 1945.
Not very many representatives and they certainly won't be participating in government, but this is totally shocking to former West Germans that communists in former East Germany would even dare to think of voting for anyone even slightly resembling Nazis - and like many Trump supporters, the resemblance of the AfD to Nazis is deliberate and more than cosmetic.
Any future reunification of Korea will see these same problems. But like Germany this will be mitigated by the fact that South Koreans will outnumber former North Koreans by more than 2 to 1. West Germans outnumbered East Germans by 4 to 1.
Former West Germans and those like them have responded to this popularity of the AfD among former East Germans in Berlin (which was deep inside former East Germany) with FcK AfD stickers everywhere - or in this case a customized version of an AfD election poster at a bus stop.
Der Blockheads in Saxony-Anhalt (a state in former East Germany) - a stronghold of the new far-right party
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