Editing East Berlin (section)

==Post-reunification==
{{main article|German reunification#Unified Berlin}}
Since reunification, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin.

After reunification, the East German economy suffered significantly. Under the adopted policy of privatization of state-owned firms under the auspices of the {{Lang|de|[[Treuhandanstalt]]|italic=no}}, many East German factories were shut down—which also led to mass unemployment—due to gaps in productivity with and investment compared to West German companies, as well as an inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards in a way that was deemed cost-effective. Because of this, a massive amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it. This stimulus was part-funded through a 7.5% tax on income for individuals and companies (in addition to normal income tax or company tax) known as the ''{{Lang|de|Solidaritätszuschlaggesetz}}'' (SolZG) or "solidarity surcharge", which though only in effect for 1991–1992 (later reintroduced in 1995 at 7.5 and then dropped down to 5.5% in 1998 and continues to be levied to this day) led to a great deal of resentment toward the East Germans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/Withholding_taxes/Withholding_taxe/Tax_withholding_amount/tax_withholding_amount_node.html|title=BZSt - Tax withholding amount|website=www.bzst.de|access-date=2019-10-15|institution=[[Federal Central Tax Office]]|language=en|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015051235/https://www.bzst.de/EN/Businesses/Withholding_taxes/Withholding_taxe/Tax_withholding_amount/tax_withholding_amount_node.html|archive-date=15 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/taxation/business-tax/company-tax-eu/germany/index_en.htm|title=Company Tax in the EU- Germany|website=Your Europe - Business|institution=[[European Union]]|language=en|access-date=2019-10-15|url-status=deviated|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003143910/https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/taxation/business-tax/company-tax-eu/germany/index_en.htm|archive-date=3 October 2018}}</ref><ref name="Grant"/>

Despite the large sums of economic aid poured into East Berlin, there still remain obvious differences between the former East and West Berlins. East Berlin has a distinct visual style; this is partly due to the greater survival of prewar façades and streetscapes, with some still showing signs of wartime damage.  The unique look of [[Stalinist architecture|Socialist Classicism]] that was used in East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) also contrasts markedly with the urban development styles employed in the former West Berlin. Additionally, the former East Berlin (along with the rest of the former GDR) retains a small number of its GDR-era street and place names commemorating German socialist heroes, such as [[Karl-Marx-Allee]], [[Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz]], and [[Karl-Liebknecht-Straße]]. Many such names, however, were deemed inappropriate (for various reasons) and, through [[decommunization]], changed after a long process of review (so, for instance, Leninallee reverted to Landsberger Allee in 1991, and Dimitroffstraße reverted to Danziger Straße in 1995).

Another symbolic icon of the former East Berlin (and of East Germany as a whole) is the {{Lang|de|[[Ampelmännchen]]}} (tr. "little traffic light men"), a stylized version of a fedora-wearing man crossing the street, which is found on traffic lights at many pedestrian crosswalks throughout the former East. Following a civic debate about whether the {{Lang|de|Ampelmännchen}} should be abolished or disseminated more widely (due to concerns of consistency), several crosswalks in some parts of the former West Berlin began to employ the {{Lang|de|Ampelmännchen}}.

Twenty-five years after the two cities were reunified, the people of East and West Berlin still had noticeable differences between them, and these differences became more apparent among the older generations.  The two groups also had sometimes-derogatory slang terms to refer to each other.  A former East Berliner (or East German) was known as an "''{{Lang|de|Ossi}}''" (from the German word for east, ''{{Lang|de|Ost}}''), and a former West Berliner (or West German) was known as a "''{{Lang|de|Wessi}}''" (from the German word for west, ''{{Lang|de|West}}'').  Both sides also engaged in stereotyping the other.  A stereotypical ''{{Lang|de|Ossi}}'' had little ambition or poor work ethic and was chronically bitter, while a stereotypical ''{{Lang|de|Wessi}}'' was arrogant, selfish, impatient and pushy.<ref name="Conrad"/>