Why the gap between former East and West Germany is growing

Despite the disappearance of the infamous Berlin Wall in 1989, 30 years after the famous West and East German alliance, the divisions of both sides became more evident than ever before for both experts and politicians.

A recent survey showed a sharp difference between the two sides on a variety of issues, from Germany to migration. This shows that, like the recognition of Berlin, there is no ongoing national integration process.

A study by the Allensbach Institute found that 71{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of West Germans felt German, while only 44{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of East Germans felt the same.

47{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of East Germans told German leaders that they thought it more worrying. Studies show that the views of democracy are very different.

The same study found that only 31{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of East Germans think that democracy is the best model of governance, while 72{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of West Germany think that this is the best type of government. This is even more surprising as the former East Germany lived under totalitarian communism for decades.

Despite the economic figures and steady financial growth of the former East Germany, experts believe that East Germany is still not sufficiently treated by Berlin or West Germany.

“The people of West Germany do not understand the problem of East Germany. If you ask the western people what changed after unification, nothing will answer. Ask people in the east and they say everything. ”Petra Kopping is a prominent social Democratic politician who, as a current state minister, is leading Saxony's integration efforts.

Saxony is one of Germany's eastern states, and important Sunday elections will be held with Brandenburg this Sunday.

West versus east

Kopping's assessment of East-West perceptions of unification is steep but seems to be consistent with what has happened on both sides of Germany since the 1990s.

With the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the Allied forces, which divided Germany into four other regions after Germany and Nazi, and the Allied forces after World War II, and the two Germans based on the Soviet Union, the victor of the war, ended the separation. Yourself for a while after the conflict is over.

West Germany became part of the western block, but East Germany was part of the Soviet-led Communist Party alliance. The Berlin Wall essentially became a powerful and tragic symbol of the strict division between capitalist and communist blocks during the Cold War, as well as the separation of Germany.

In 1990, unification was long known for the triumph of liberal order over totalitarianism in Germany and the West, and was considered the result of Germany's desire for unification.

But under the German Union, led by a more economically developed West, the entire Communist East had to change its way over most capitalist West. Not only did it not lead economic growth, but according to the West, there was also a non-democratic society, the East had to change.

As a result, nearly two million of the most skilled and educated Eastern Germans moved to West Germany since 1990, in search of better job opportunities and personal prospects. But their moves also exacerbated the social and economic prospects of East Asia and increased their anger and turmoil in the East.

The rapid rise of Russia and China raised legitimate questions about the prospects of liberal order, and as migrants hit Europe and the West, suspicion of liberalism was exposed to the emergence of the right-most movement in the world.

“Then came the crisis of migration. Germans around the country are angry [German Chancellor] Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to allow more than one million refugees in September 2015, but the backlash in former East Germany was particularly toxic, ”writes German writer and editor Anna Sauerbrey.

In Clausnitz, mobs tried to stop new arrivals from getting out of the bus. In Dresden, the demonstrators moved a mock gallows across the street. ”

Clearly, the feeling of east and west was reduced by the West. Berlin felt more concerned about refugees than they did.

“People told me:` `You and your refugees! You must integrate us first! ”Remembered Social Democratic politician Coping.

Eastern alienation

Feelings of alienation resonate more powerfully than ever before in eastern Germany.

Prior to Sunday's local elections, the leader is the Alternative Alternative (AfP), a far-right party with a similar success to the rise of Nazism.

On the other hand, the second strongest party is the socialist party Die Linke (left), which originated in the ruling Communist Party of East Germany.

A sense of alienation in the east is emerging in a country that began in East Germany with two powerful politicians from President Joachim Gark and Merkel. Both politicians have a similar background as Gauck, a former priest like Merkel's father.

But the Germans of East Germany, with two powerful politicians, were abandoned by the establishment of Berlin, which occupied most of the leadership status of East Germany since the collapse of communist rule in 1989.

Studies conducted by Leipzig University have shown that Eastern Germans have only one of five major political positions. A study conducted in 2017 concluded that Easter accounts for 17{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of the German population, but only 1.7{7be40b84a6a43fc4fae13304fce9a2695859798abfc41afd127b9f8b21c5f9c5} of the top rankings in the military, business, judicial and political fields.

According to East Germany, the leadership structure itself is evidence of "humiliation," Coping said.

"The dominance of West Germany in the elite is still regarded as cultural colonialism," said Thomas Kruger, a rare politician rooted in East Germany that leads government ministries unrelated to East Germany.

"And that's a problem," he concluded.

Source: TRT World