Pre-unification west Germany was the world's envy for a national economy.
Low unemployment, high productivity. Products of quality that set world standards.
Enter the east. Less skilled, horrible work ethic.
Initially, the west embraced their long lost cousins, and started gladly paying, for what they expected would be a short term transition.
Now 16 years later, and still paying, the cousins are less welcome.
Less than two full generations (1945 to 1989) weakened the east German, as a citizen and worker.
A few years more (1989 to 2005) have taken all of Germany down, somewhat.
There might have been some who believed that, but I was working in Germany at the time, and everyone I knew thought it would take at least a generation, and maybe 2 before East Germany was even near West standards.
They certainly didn't want to hire, or work with, the adults. They considered East German adults to be poorly educated, untrained, and with bad attitudes.
That said, they did want the Wall gone. It looks like those people were realistic.
The relatives are wonderful guests--for a defined period of time.