FOR many visitors to Berlin today, the neighborhoods in the formerly Communist east hold a special attraction.
In the formerly Communist East, the sense of anticlimax is almost palpable.
Still, the television market in most of formerly communist Central Europe remains dynamic, in many cases prodded by a rich infusion of foreign investment.
Germany is engaged in public spending on a huge scale to pay the costs of reunification with the formerly Communist east.
The debate centered around problems in the formerly Communist eastern states, where unemployment is high and violence against foreigners is spreading.
With the world championships a bus ride away, many Eastern European countries, formerly Communist, will no doubt strive to be present.
Some big investment projects are under way, and Bonn agreed this week to a major overhaul of its assistance program for formerly Communist eastern Germany.
Most such workers are in the west of the country and not in the formerly Communist east.
The hyphens are meant to suggest the uneasy assimilation of the formerly Communist east into what was West Germany.
He was reacting to economic bad news not only from the formerly Communist east but from the industrial heart of the western part of the country.