East Germany was the side with practically no industry, and the Soviets de-Nazified it and made it pay reparations, as the Soviet Union, unlike the US, emerged from the war with massive reconstruction costs and tens of millions of lives lost. It was not in a position to offer the same kind of support the US gave to West Germany, it had to build itself up first and then help out more. Later on, the DDR was much better and support increased.

In addition, the DDR provided free, high quality education, while the West offered higher pay, meaning a lot of educated workers could get the "best of both worlds" by getting educated in East Germany and defecting to the West.

The East had a good system, but it was bogged down by sitiational problems.

[–] galanthus@lemmy.world -2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Well, maybe I should not have used FRG and GDR as an example. I should say that this is not the point I was originally trying to make.

I used those as an example because they are similar countries, and contrasted it with comparing a european nation with a undeveloped african/asian nation. I was not trying to criticise east germany really, and I admit there are many reasons why it was and still is I suppose lacking compared to the west.