Fifty years of the DDR is hard to overcome in a little over a decade. Maybe entrepreneurs from the West need to move into the former East for it to be jump-started. I saw much the same attitude in a visit to Poland in 1999. Some were moving very quickly into the new times, others cannot adjust to them.
Interestingly enough, the Poles who come to the US adapt quickly to the "culture of opportunity" (versus the culture of entitlement) very quickly. I just wish they would stop wearing cheesy track suits and gold chains, and blasting techno music out of their Escalades in Greenpoint/Ridgewood. ;-)