Poles bring new life to eastern Germany

When Daniel Sosin was looking to buy a house for his family in the north-western Polish city of Szczecin he was aghast at how little he would get for his money.

So he went looking across the nearby border with Germany, buying a 150-year-old house in the village of Penkun for about the same price as a bachelor flat in Szczecin.

Mr Sosin is part of a wider trend as people from the new EU member states, often flush with cash from real estate booms in their home countries, are beginning to buy properties in nearby "old" EU states to the west. Penkun is in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of Germany's most economically depressed areas. Thousands of young people have left for better prospects in the west, leaving behind empty houses and apartments that are being snapped up by Poles.

"A few people are sceptical, but the people who are moving here are the same as us - they are Catholics, they come from the same kind of culture, so we don't see any difference," says Mr Schödinger. "They are educated people, and they don't just come here to sleep for the night - they come to live, to join our soccer teams, to play music in our bands, and to put their children in our schools."

The Poles have injected new life by opening small businesses

Where is noimmi

the people who are moving here are the same as us - they are Catholics, they come from the same kind of culture, so we don't see any difference

Getting his ass whipped by Admin;)

I like this part of the article :

Last time Germans are so strange, they want to build monuments for famous Poles in Berlin. They want to build Polish museum in center of Berlin. Strange very strange :P

Last time Germans are so strange, they want to build monuments for famous Poles in Berlin. They want to build Polish museum in center of Berlin. Strange very strange :P

Having poured $1.5 trillion into the east since reunification in 1990, many Germans now regard this grand project as a costly failure -- one that could drag down the rest of the country.