A new confidence: the east German economy finally gets a boom

As supply chains fray around the globe, branches of industry are choosing Germany's east to return to Europe

In over 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, eastern Germans have been told several reasons why they lag behind the west: an uncompetitive industry, a lack of jobs, a shortage of young workers.

But Germany's new government believes the formerly socialist workers' and peasants' state" is missing something else: trade unions.