Is the sun rising in the east at last?

Economic prospects in the former East Germany are, on balance, distinctly more hopeful than they were. Some parts of the region have started to exude a new sense of purpose, confidence and creativity. Manufacturing output has shot up. Clusters of automotive, electronic and high-technology industry are beginning to form, especially in Thuringia and Saxony, which were hubs of German industry before the second world war. Yet despite the vast dollops of cash and subsidies that have flown east, progress is slow. By virtually every material yardstick, life has improved. Wages have nearly doubled in real terms since unification. The best economic prospects are concentrated further south, on a 220km-long corridor running more or less along the A4 motorway from Erfurt to Leipzig and on via Zwickau and Chemnitz through to Dresden. This is where, under the so-called Leuchtturmpolitik (lighthouse policy), business and government promote investment in beacons of industry and research that might bolster the local Mittelstand. Eastern politics are beginning to reflect that new confidence.