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atwrktoday at 1:29 PM0 repliesview on HN

They don't if you mean STEM and emancipation, quite the opposite, actually (compared to West Germany).

In addition to the points of sibling comments, their respective starting posititions were drastically different: West Germany got the marshal plan, which benefitted their economy, the East had to pay reparations to the USSR, which meant whole factories, trains, even railroad tracks, all in all amounting to about a third of industrial capacity, were transferred to the USSR.