a version of this article was published in the Romanian language national daily “Evenimentul Zilei”
Dresden, one of the former East German cities reunited with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990 has been finely restored over the past 15 years. A proud and strong city before World War II, almost razed in last months of war, the town has been slowly coming to life since reunification. Its path to recovery and renewed glory seems to be, however, still rough. Despite considerable investment in infrastructure and urban renewal, the living soul of the city appears to be just learning how to cope with the new post-communist environment. New buildings and industries, such as the hospitality and telecommunications, are still groping their way around, instead of forging ahead. You can see it in the anemic development of public access to wireless Internet communication and in the demeanor of the local hotel clerks and waiters. As much as the Germans have tried to repair the wounds of the past, the manner in which this was done, from above and from West to East, seems to be at odds with the ultimate goal reunification, that of creating a self-sustaining, dynamic future for both Germanies. A few observations and a couple of comparisons with situations found in other countries that have gone through the communist experience will try to illustrate this, for some at least, paradoxical situation.
A baroque urban jewel, the old town section of Dresden was obliterated by the firebombing raid of February 13/14 1945 in which more people died than in the atom bombing of Hiroshima. After 1989, the city was rebuilt mainly with governmental (Western) money. The downtown area was completely and faithfully remodeled to look just like it appeared in the halcyon days before World War II. The church spires, still pitch black from the great fire, are again lavishly gilded in the rococo style of the exuberant decades that preceded the French Revolution. Futuristic buildings interspersed among the old towers and frontispieces lend a new sense of vitality to the smoky urban landscape. The glittering copper and gold roofs, punctuated by steel girders, concrete pillars, and mirrored glass skylights are a bold attempt to move Dresden from the communist backwater to the limelight of an international tourism destination. Known during the communist period as the “valley of the clueless,†due to the inability of the local television antennas to capture West German television signals, Dresden has been rebranded as the valley of gorgeous architecture and dynamic business.
Despite these efforts, the tourist can feel lonely and neglected in this place. The local Germans speak little or no English. The waiters seem to be aliens dropped from another planet. A simple request for a glass of wine, turned into a round of 10 minute negotiations with the bartender of the supposedly swanky Maritim hotel. The parley ended with the bartender’s unilateral decision that what the customer wanted was a half-bottle of wine.
The only things that some of his colleagues, equally puzzled by unusual requests –“can I also have some ham in this sandwich‖seem to be able to do well is to smile and to let you figure it all out on your own. At the International Communication Association Annual Conference, held in the futuristic Congress Center, where no angle is straight, floors are intentionally tilted and the levels communicate through dizzying empty chasms, which are used as excuses for escalator shafts, public Internet access (or the lack thereof) was a major headache. The 6 computers made available by the conference organizers were too few to compensate for the fact that no Internet Café was visible for miles. (This, of course, if you ignore the sports bar around the corner, which has a very large “Internet Café†sign plastered on its window. Upon approaching the owner for details about the service, he cheerfully and promptly blurts out “komputer kaputâ€).
The Art’Otel, an intriguing urban creature, half hotel, half art gallery, exhibiting ar penke’s punk art, charges 14 dollars an hour for Internet access. (Those who feel sour at the attempted rip-off can console themselves with the fact that what the hotel does not lack is attitude. A 20 foot tall figure standing on its roof, seemingly made from dung and mud, in the manner of the idols erected by the alienated children of Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,†gives the pedestrians, foreign and native alike, the flip.)
Dresden could be a cold shower for the Western traveler used to the pampering usually offered by 21st century hospitality industry. (Did I mention that the futuristic congress center did not seem to be provided with air conditioning? Or if it was, its staff had yet to learn how to use it?). The surprise provoked by Dresden’s (in)ability to attract and enchant its visitors could become especially jarring if the traveler approaches the town, like this writer did, from the East. A long line of Eastern European towns, stretching from Prague to Bucharest, which although not as handsome and still in clear need for a facelift, can beat Dresden both in terms of hospitality and the telecommunications.
Take Romania, for example, by many accounts a backwater. Some of its districts have yet to emerge from social and economic morass, which for lack of a better term can be labeled “central American.†Yet, some locations and some social and economic areas are, in fact, quite lively. Among them are the hospitality and communication industries. Romanian waiters and hotel staffers frequently and effortlessly speak German or English. Many of them seem to have worked for a number of years in Spain, Italy or England. Internet Cafes are available everywhere and the speed is more than acceptable (although the thick cigarette smoke in every single one of them and the yells of joy of the pubescent boys playing “Quake†with each other across the room, through the local network, aren’t).
The greatest telecommunication surprise Romania can offer you can be found in Transylvania. In Cluj more precisely, the former provincial capital of this northwesterly Romanian district, which before WWI was an integral part of the Austrian empire. Cluj is now a second-class city, far away from the hustle and bustle of Bucharest, Romania’s most dynamic and prosperous entry point. Although lagging behind in the areas of retail and urban development, Cluj is an incredibly active IT center. Several neighborhood LANs, constructed and administered by local teenagers burning with the desire to play network games such as “Quake,†have wired the city for broadband long before Internet broadband connections were available.
Landline broadband is, however, a thing of the past, at least for those Clujean young entrepreneurs with an eye on the future. Dan Berte, 24, has just finished covering parts of the downtown with a WiFi umbrella. The service, cfree, is as the name suggests, free and incredibly simple to use. You can sit down at one of the many café terraces lining the sidewalks or even on a city park bench, open your computer or PDA, and there you are, cruising the Internet at your heart’s content. If you happen to know someone who cruises the net from New York City’s Bryant Park, you can chat, peer-to-peer and bench to bench, across the Atlantic.
Dan is not at his first business. He already owns a successful boutique PR company, whose profits, he says, were promptly ploughed back into cfree. Found in the middle of preliminary partnership negotiations with Intel, he makes no small plans. His dream is to cover the entire downtown area with a WiFi mesh network which will offer not only Internet access, but also VOiP (voice) services. Having recently gained the support of the local mayor, he might even see his dream come true. One of the local wireless operators, Vodafone, will face its Romanian unit competing, a la Silicon Valley, with Danofone.
Eastern Europe’s going through a period of rapid change, which caps the painful transition period. The paths ahead of each society in the region are multiple and in the end unpredictable. Yet, the contrast between the Romanian and the East German examples cannot be ignored. Although Romania faces many problems, some related to its historical underdevelopment, some to its immature political system and to creeping corruption (all of which were addressed in the more recent years in a more forceful way), it is at the same time an active society and economy. Its grassroots initiatives, created more by necessity than by design, seem to have pushed it in certain respects farther ahead, at lest in terms of placement for riding the next wave of technological and entrepreneurial innovation, to some of its former Communist block neighbors.
East Germany, reconstructed by above, with Western money, seems to have a hard time adapting to the new world. The locals seems to react to, and not very fast or skillfully, than to act on, the challenges or their time. Romanians, left to their own devices, seems to have found the potential to become more nimble and more adaptive, at lest in certain narrow corridors, such as IT applications, that the East Germans. Eastern Europe is definitely in search of an explanatory model for its future. One that looks not only at intended, but also unintended consequences.