BERLIN – A few miles from the former Berlin Wall, Frank Mader reflects on a life divided between East and West, a tale of two halves that don't fit neatly together but which captures the twists and contradictions of Germany's journey 30 years since its reunification.Mader, an energetic 65-year-old, was born in East Germany and grew up in the communist country's coal-mining heartland.
Before finishing high school he began training as a machine operator — a model student in the self-styled “workers and farmers state."When party officials spotted his talent for writing in the factory newspaper, Mader got a place in journalism school and then a job at ADN, East Germany's state-run news agency.