It's interesting that you say you see reunification as the "real" Germany bringing the other half in from the cold - because (in a manner of speaking), that was basically how reunification worked. It was, essentially, the process by which West Germany absorbed the former East; the Unification Treaty itself refers to the process as the 'ascension' of the GDR to the FRG. It was not an merger of two equal states, and this is important to remember.

A number of studies of reunification and unified German use language and ideas related to postcolonialism to explain and discuss problems relating to reunification. Following unification, the burden of change was placed overwhelmingly on the former East: even the dial tone on the telephones changed. Western firms and companies moved into the East, often bringing important staff with them. Unemployment, pretty much an unknown phenomenon in Communist times, sky-rocketed in the former East - by 1997, half of East Germans had been exposed to unemployment, compared with one in ten West Germans. Wages were also lower in the East, although they became more equal over time. East Germans lost jobs to Westerners who moved over, attracted by the new opportunities (and lower prices) in the East - while East Germans themselves generally couldn't move West, simply because they didn't have the money. Part of the economic problem was caused by the over-optimism of Western policy makers, who just assumed that the East would undergo significant economic growth following the collapse of Communism - this didn't really happened.

Issues were also caused by a general assumption of Western superiority. Everything East German was regarded as inferior, from their cars and their culture, to East Germans themselves. West Germans themselves also harboured negative feelings on unification as time went on: they saw themselves as funding a redevelopment of the East, which was repaid not with constant complaints rather than with grateful thanks. The stereotypes of the brash, arrogant 'Wessi' and the lazy, grumbling 'Ossi' began to emerge in German culture.

Within the former East, a nostalgia for the GDR began to emerge - you may have heard of films like Goodbye, Lenin! or Sonnenallee which express such 'ostalgic' sentiments. A number of East Germans found they missed the economic stability and strong feelings of community they had in the GDR - things that were lost over time with reunification. Of course, in the West, Ostalgie caused a significant degree of contention - people found it hard to understand why East Germans would miss the GDR, and some even thought such a phenomenon was dangerous, spreading misconceptions about a terrible time in German history.

East Germans did want reunification, but they didn't anticipate just how drastically this process would change their way of life. For a long time, a unified Germany was held up as an ideal by people in both the FRG and the GDR - but, as with anything, the reality of reunification was more problematic, and caused disillusionment in both West and East.

Sources:

• Paul Cooke, Representing East Germany Since Unification: From Colonisation to Nostalgia.

• Paul Cooke and Jonathan Grix, eds, East German Distinctiveness in a Unified Germany

• Mike Dennis and Eva Kolinsky, eds, United and Divided: Germany Since 1990

• Gert Joachim Glassner, The Unification Process in Germany: From Dictatorship to Democracy.

When the protests in East Germany began, which ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the slogan chanted was: ¨Wir sind das Volk!¨ -- ¨We are the people!¨ They were going to the streets, risking their lives for more say in the system, for more freedom, for example to travel wherever they want to, and lastly against the violence of the state. They were not looking to overthrow communism, or to reunite with West Germany. At the very least that wasn't their main goal.

Once it became clear that the protests were not going to be drowned in gun fire, beaten down by the state, many more people started to gather in the streets, and the slogan slowly changed to ¨Wir sind ein Volk!¨ -- ¨We are one people!¨ What the East Germans presumably meant by this was, that both the police and the protestors were one people, so they should not resort to violence. Yet West German media picked up on this slogan and took it to mean East Germans were demonstrating for reunification.

If you speak German, heres a link about the sloagn.

Really, there may have been a third option between the Berlin Wall and reunification: two peaceful 'Germanys', with different systems, existing together, with freedom of travel etc. This might have quickly failed, but who knows.

During reunification many West German companies also made a bargain, taking over East German companies. One famous example is how, from on day to the next, a West German private insurance company took over all East German insurances.

EDIT: spelling

A big part of East Germans was happy to finally be able to reunite with their families in west germany, finally have access to a broader range of goods to consume, freely travel around the world, etc, etc.

But there's also the 'losers' of the reunification. East germany is still (over 20 years later) not on the same level (economically) than west germany, and many people think they got screwed over when the GDR collapsed.

You might have heard that people in east-germany are more nationalistic than west-germans, look back sentimentally on the GDR ("Ostalgie"-a pun on the german words for nostalgia and east), or you might have heard from PEGIDA.

All these (seemingly purely xenophobic) symptoms can be interpreted as east germans being upset over drawing the short end of the stick in the reunification.

To summarize: Many easterners were glad germany was reunited, if not due to a nationalistic stance, but for family, leisure, travel, etc. But also many people felt that they were screwed over by it.

This might be off-topic; if so I apologize. Was there any significant economic disparity between the "east" and "west" pre-WWII?