(WARNEMUNDE, GERMANY, Aug. 10, 1993) - West Germany is having problems digesting East Germany after the reunification Oct. 3, 1990.

  Our cruise ship, Crown Odyssey, docked at Warnemunde, the port entrance to the former East German city of Rostock, a city of 250,000. We spent the day touring around the area in the company of two German guides.

   Warnemunde is located on the Baltic Sea but the Germans call it the "Ostsee" or east sea. This was the major port city of the former East Germany. Large shipyards formerly employed thousands but some are shut down now and the yard at Warnemunde, formerly employing 5000, is now down to 2000. Unemployment in Mecklenberg Vorpommern, the state in which Rostock is located, is 17%.

  Farmers in the surrounding countryside are also hurting. Our guide, Ilke, said this is because of European Community (EC) regulations. When East Germany (German Democratic Republic) was unified with West Germany it became part of the EC.

  The underlying reason for all of this is industry and farmers became non-competitive under the Communist system. Adjusting to a relatively free market is a wrenching change and all are not making it.

  Ilke said there was no unemployment under the German Democratic Republic, the former Communist government. The government arranged everything for you. But after unification a lot of inefficient factories closed. She said alcoholism has become a severe problem. Ilke said, "A lot of people would be happy to have The Wall back" referring to the Berlin Wall that actually ran all the way to the sea. She said some never learned to take care of themselves.

Not All Suffering

  But not everyone has suffered under reunification. Before unification there was a 12-15 year wait to buy a car. And this was the tinny East German-built Traband. Actually, tinny is the wrong word. Ilke said it is made of "hard cardboard". We saw one after a wreck and the trunk lid did appear to be made of pressboard.

  Now the streets are filled with cars from many nations - Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes and Ford. But streets and highways are not geared for the sudden influx and there are monumental traffic jams.

  Our young guides are happy with unification. But older persons who have spent their working life under the Communist regime are having a more difficult time adapting.

  All around are the typical slab-sided apartment blocks standard to Communist countries. Ilke says they rent for $400-500 for a small (80 square meters) four room flat. There may be 1000 people in a block of these dreary buildings. She blames living in these apartments for an uprising of delinquency plus effects of unification. Athletic clubs have been closed and movies are now expensive. There is a real problem with neo-fascists. She said they hang around and blame foreigners for their problems.

  We drove by one apartment building still being repaired after it was torched by Molotov cocktails last August. The building was occupied by Gypsies. Even our guide betrays stereotyped thinking about foreigners, characterizing all Gypsies as dirty and stealing from markets. She said new laws may help curb the anti-foreign actions.

  Ilke said that under the GDR there was a single school system but now it has gone to the German system of three types of schools. The best students go to the Gymnasium for 13 years and are prepared for college.

  The average level goes to the Realschule, a 10 year program, preparing for them for craftsmen trades. The lowest level is the Hauptschule, a 9 year program. This stratification is the system adopted by the Oregon Legislature in the 1991 session which has not yet really been instituted. It was the program of former Speaker of the House Vera Katz, European by birth and now mayor of Portland.

The "Bone House"

  In sight-seeing, we visited a 13th century monastery, the burial place of the Dukes of Mecklenburg. One interesting feature was a small, circular building behind the monastery referred to as the "bone house". The monastery cemetery was small and monks died young (30-35 years old). When the cemetery was full, old graves were dug up and the remains stored in the "bone house".

  A final stop was a visit to the Freilichtmuseum at Klockenhagen, an outdoor museum of early German farm life. Many of the roofs at the museum were thatch, made from a thin reed growing in marshy areas. Thatched roofs are fairly common around the area. All are well-protected from lighting for obvious reasons.

  The museum also featured a session of folk dancing by colorful-costumed children.

  The Crown Odyssey is very well equipped. After dinner on the ship we went up two more decks to the movie theater where we watched the movie "Dave", a comedy well worth seeing.

  At midnight tonight our ship gets underway for the next port of call, St. Petersburg, Russia, the former Leningrad.