Over the years, those on the more comfortable side of the Berlin Wall began to look askance at those on the other side. They were viewed as great athletes (who used performance-enhancing drugs, of course) who were nevertheless small-minded and smug, people who never drove faster than the speed limit on the autobahn, surrounded by informants, dressed in those oddly faded jeans, people with the misfortune to be locked up behind the death strip, and yet who were also there somewhat voluntarily. The West Germans created images of East Germans who were so foreign that it would be impossible to be reunited with them. In doing so, they overlooked the fact that varying levels of consumption and freedom have little effect on deeper-seated mentalities, and certainly cannot change everything in 40 years -- the blink of an eye, historically speaking.