One of the unanticipated costs of unifying Germany has been the expense of
removing all the unexploded munitions in the former East Germany. The Communist
government there was not interested in doing it, and was able to avoid doing so
because there was not a lot of new construction while the communist were in
charge (1945-91). When unification, and a market economy, arrived in 1991, East
Germany was found to be full of unexploded munitions. As the more prosperous
West Germany began pouring billions of dollars into the East, the construction
projects continually bumped into thousands of bombs and shells that had not gone
off. As a result, since 1991, nearly 10,000 tons of munitions have been removed.
Last year alone, there were 1,478 sites in and around Berlin where 500 tons of
munitions were removed, at a cost of $26 million. Berlin has an exceptionally
large amount of unexploded munitions. This is partly due to the extensive air
bombardment of the city during World War II, and also because of the major
battles fought with the Russian troops, who captured the city, in 1945. In
addition to all the unexploded munitions, thousands of bodies, mostly skeletons
now, of soldiers and civilians, have also been unearthed. The construction boom
in eastern Germany is expected to continue for another few years, and so will
the large haul of deadly reminders of World War II.
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