This paper discusses personnel management issues that arose when the East Berlin (Germany) Municipal Library and the West Berlin America Memorial Library united in 1995 to form the Central and State Library. The first section provides historical background on the two libraries and their merger. The second section summarizes the East-West conflict as generally present in Berlin and the defining aspects of this conflict among staff at the unified Central and State Library including: euphoria; disillusionment and mistrust; the beginning of the third phase of mutual recrimination; the first phase of understanding, where misapprehensions are recognized; and the second phase of understanding, in which the respective ethical systems are understood, learned, and respected. The third section describes the following measures related to unification that have been introduced in order to mitigate the East-West conflict: (1) external leadership; (2) complete neutrality; (3) common long-term goal; (4) short-term improvements in service with mixed staffing; (5) reaching understanding of different points of view by working together; (6) different clientele required different behavior; (7) clear decisions, anticipation of difficulties resulting from compromises; (8) improving the information culture; (9) conscious fostering of changes in behavior to each other; (10) changing the nature of discussions; (11) delegating responsibility to the shop floor; and (12) unanimity is neither achievable nor necessary, acceptability will do. (MES)