Lost In The Dark

The giant Swiss food company Nestlé jolted Berlin a few months ago by announcing that it is closing its candy factory in the German capital. The company will stop making "Yes" chocolate bars and lay off 450 people — another rainstorm feeding the flood of 250,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost in Berlin since German reunification in 1990. With the city's unemployment rate at an astounding 18.4%, a dark mood of pessimism and angst has settled over Berlin as it struggles with a weak global economy, huge debts and unaffordable welfare provisions that have left the city bankrupt. Every month for nearly a year the two biggest problems cited by Berliners have been the threat of unemployment and concern about the city's shaky finances, according to the opinion researcher Forsa. Berlin's troubles are a severe disappointment to many from both east and west who hoped the capital's reunification would lead to a more prosperous future, and their frustration is now seeping into the city's cultural and nightlife. "There's a mood of great uncertainty," says Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor of the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. "People know they will have to make sacrifices."

Heading the list of Berlin's problems is the financial crisis facing the municipal government. The Berlin city council, known as the Senate, will present its 2004 budget next week. According to Finance Minister Thilo Sarrazin, Berlin has a j46 billion debt and next year will run a whopping €4.3 billion deficit. By comparison, New York City is suffering its worst budget crisis in 30 years, but has only come up short by €2.8 billion. And New York has 8 million residents to share the pain, compared with Berlin's 3.4 million.

What makes it harder for Berliners to bear is that they are accustomed to the high life. The city has three opera houses, five symphony orchestras and three world-class universities, all paid for by the Berlin government; it has 3,000 more police officers than Hamburg, a region of comparable size, and 30% more civil servants. Some of this has to go. "The average Berliner has to accept less culture, moderate cuts in education and a drawing down of the police force," Sarrazin told TIME. "But to be honest, there has been mostly an adverse reaction."

The cuts are being felt. Public swimming pools have been closed, a new subway line has been abandoned midway through construction, and the city has imposed a hiring freeze, not replacing teachers or file clerks who retire or leave the city. The Berlin police force will hire only 100 new officers a year until 3,000 jobs have been cut through attrition. Berlin has withdrawn from the association of German public employers, which agreed to a 4% wage increase for civil servants nationwide earlier this year. Economy Minister Harald Wolf says Berlin is instead offering wage cuts in exchange for not firing thousands of workers. Roland Tremper of the Verdi public sector trade union calls this "a stab in the back for all employees."

The grim mood extends far beyond the arcane details of the city budget. Last week Berliners solemnly marked the 50th anniversary of a nationwide workers' uprising in East Germany that was brutally suppressed by Soviet tanks on June 17, 1953. Those workers were demanding freedom, but today there are plenty of people around who say they preferred life under the communists before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. "If you ask me, they could put the Wall back up tomorrow," says Eveline Kulczak, 35. She has lost her prestigious job organizing fashion shows in eastern Germany, been deprived of her free child care, and been left with a pile of debts by her husband. "As a family, we were better off before the Wall fell," she says. "If I could afford to, I would leave Germany altogether." A growing number of Germans are doing just that.

Hardy Firl, 71, who spent three years in jail for his part in the 1953 uprising, also feels let down by what happened after the Wall fell. "I hated the East German system, but I am not really happy with the way things turned out after 1989," Firl says. "Back then at least the streets were clean, we took care of each other, and you didn't have to be afraid to go out at night."