Celebrations for the 14th anniversary of Germany's reunification got underway Saturday against a backdrop of increasing frustration over lingering economic inequality between east and west.
While the eastern Thuringian town of Erfurt inaugurated an outdoor market dedicated to Germany's 16 federal states in the morning, protests against the government's recent economic reform plan got underway in Berlin in the afternoon.
The political reunification of the country took place on October 3, 1990 under former German chancellor Helmut Kohl (1982-1998).
Economically, Germany continues to pay for the integration of the former East Germany.
An expert at the Free University of Berlin recently estimated the cost of reunification at 1.5 trillion euros (1.82 trillion dollars).
This figure was called fantasy by German Transport Minister Manfred Stolpe, who estimates the costs at 210 billion euros (260 billion dollars) from 1990 to 2003.
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