AP PHOTOS: Remnants of East Germany, 30 years after its end

Thirty years after Germany was reunited, many once-decrepit city centers in the formerly communist east have been painstakingly restored and new factories have sprung up. The mighty West German mark was introduced to East Germany on July 1, 1990 — a little over three months before reunification on Oct. 3 — and inefficient companies found themselves struggling to compete in a market economy, while demand for eastern products slumped and outdated facilities were shut down. Casualties of the transition included East Germany's clunky cars, the Trabant and the more upmarket — though still spartan by Western standards — Wartburg.