Abstract
At first sight, it seems easy to believe that the German reunification is an economic failure. The fall of the economy, the strong disparities in the country as well as the incapacity of East Germany to develop can demonstrate this assumption. However, it appears better for us to affirm that the reunification is a time-consuming process and is seen as a transition. Indeed, the German economy revives gradually while experiencing difficulties. As regards the disparities, "it was an illusion to believe that East Germany could have rectified itself quickly", as Hardy Hanappi, director of the economic unit of research of the technical University of Vienna, affirms. It will probably take another thirty or forty years to reach a level of equal development between West and East Germany, according to Ulrich Blum, president of the economic Institute of Halle. We will discuss the various hypotheses that rose in 1990 after the reunification of Germany.
