I was stationed in Berlin when the Wall fell. After the reunification I "got" to drive autobahns in East Germany that were previously forbidden to us.
I'd never seen such environmental devastation as I did driving from Berlin down to Munich. All along the East German part of the autobahn trees were dead. Stripped as if they had acid poured on them. It was really quite a sight.
Thanks for your personal account. I was unaware of this. Back then West Germany had a large and influential Green Party that took part in the anti-American protest against Germany getting missiles from us that would be pointed at Russia. Kind of ironic they never protested against the pollution done by the East Germans.
Greenies were communist dupes even back then.