Posted on 11/26/2005 5:19:20 PM PST by blam
Exodus of 'Ossie' women following Mrs Merkel west
Rob Hyde in Saxony-Anhalt AND Colin Freeman
(Filed: 27/11/2005)
For years, the east German male has been the butt of jokes over his poor dress sense, outdated haircuts and glum outlook on post-Communist life.
Now the old stereotype's days may be numbered - not because he has changed his ways, but because of a lack of women willing to marry him.
New figures show men now outnumber women by three to one in some eastern regions, following an exodus of women in search of a better life - and husbands - in the west.
In some towns, the imbalance is so bad that, statistically, a young man of marriageable age has only the slenderest chance of finding himself a wife.
Unable to do anything about the quality of east German - or "Ossie" - men themselves, regional governments are trying to offer other inducements to halt the female exodus.
Their task has not been made easier, however, by the example of east Germany's most prominent woman, Angela Merkel, whose ambitions propelled her last week to the chancellorship, the country's top political job.
In two of the worst-hit areas, Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt, young women are being wooed to stay locally with both free housing and subsidised rent - with the local authority paying for a complete refurbishment of their houses too.
Getting them to woo local men in return may be more difficult. "The classic view of east German men is that they are lazy, good-for-nothing spongers, constantly moaning and expecting to be supported by the state," said Andrea Schell, a sociologist at Berlin University.
"Their dress sense and lifestyle is the butt of numerous jokes; they live in time-warped villages where 40 years of the Cold War kept them cut off from the modern world, and Die Toten Hosen [The Dead Pants - an ageing rock group] T-shirts are still regarded as cool."
The gender imbalance is, in part, a legacy of the old Communist East Germany, whose employment laws guaranteed women equal job opportunities and free child care, fostering a spirit of social and economic independence from men.
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, they have proved to be the more economically mobile of the two sexes, heading west to seek better jobs while their male contemporaries stayed put.
"I went west to visit my sister who had already moved to West Germany, and fell in love with the guy who lived next door to her," said Gisela Oberling, who left Halle, in Saxony, in 2000.
"West German men dress better for one thing, and are more confident and open to change. In the east, the men have no life - no get-up-and-go."
According to statistics published by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development, the migration of women was especially high from states such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where there are only 76 females for every 100 males in the 18-29 age group. In some depressed villages, such as Zemnick, Saxony-Anhalt, only 45 of the 140 inhabitants are women.
Even some eastern men admit that in the current grim economic climate - unemployment runs at 30 per cent in some areas - they have little to offer a prospective partner.
"Men like me are really trying to make ends meet," said Frank Krueger, 47, who runs a construction and renovation company in Halle. "There is pressure everywhere as men either stay unemployed or try, but fail, to succeed. Many then come home and take this out on their wife and family - I've been guilty of it and it's really bad."
He added: "Now men here have the added pressure of having more competition over the ever-decreasing amount of women. There's so much negativity here, and things can't work."
Sad.
Looks like a good place to go. Some of our heavyset women might be able to get a date there.
Ya wanna catch fish. Go where the fish are!
A pretty girl is welcome anywhere. She can relocate with no difficulties.
It sounds like the situation with Russian women where they find Russian men poor pickings.
I like Die Toten Hosen.
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