12 The German Times • German Unification 1990 – 2020 October 2020

Now it’s our turn, right? Thirty years after reunification, some Germans feel that the country is as divided as ever. In truth, the East is just finally asserting itself

To this day, there are significant But no matter how much the West their colleagues from the CDU and SPD: BY MARTIN MACHOWECZ income gaps between East and West invested, they have argued, eastern If you don’t change anything, the AfD in (see chart on page 10). In recent months, Germans remain unsatisfied, ungrate- our states will become even stronger! ver the past several years, one particularly unsavory example was ful and have even begun voting en This explains why Germany’s exit there’s one question that revealed, when employees at Bautzner, masse for populist parties! from the production of brown coal is Ohas dumbfounded western a long-standing mustard manufacturer Of course, the whole situation looks now proceeding entirely in line with Germans as they gaze eastward: How in the East, went on strike. Just like the much different from an eastern per- conditions set by the East. As all open- is it possible that the whole “growing famous Löwensenf, which is made in spective. The fact is that four million pit mines and power plants are shut together” thing hasn’t worked out, even Düsseldorf, Bautzner belongs to the young and well-educated eastern Ger- down in the coming decades, roughly more than 30 years after the fall of the Develey Group. But employees living mans moved to the West after 1990. €17 billion will flow into the Lausitz Berlin Wall? Or, rather: Why are Germa- in Bautzen doing the same job – that The sweat and toil of these young region alone as compensation. Why? ny’s eastern states – the ones that once is, making mustard for Develey – were people contributed to western Germa- Because the economy there is entirely formed the GDR – still so different? being paid annually between €8,000 ny’s increasing prosperity in the post- dependent on coal – and because it is In 2020, the fact that much continues and €12,000 less than employees with reunification period. Ulrich Blum, the also one of the regions with the highest to distinguish East from West is hard to the same mother company living in former president of the Halle Institute share of AfD voters. deny. A glance at election results shows Düsseldorf. This phenomenon can be for Economic Research, once did the In the past 30 years, eastern Germans that the increasingly radical right-wing seen in almost all industries and at most calculation and concluded that eastern have done everything they could to extremist AfD party receives three large companies. Germans largely paid for unification attract attention to their concerns – and times as many votes in the East as in now, the AfD has delivered precisely the West. The leftist Linke party is also this attention. If the other political par- much stronger in the East than in the ties seek to take the wind out of the West. Yet people’s attitudes in the East AfD sails, the only way to succeed is to toward politicians, parties, institutions The Federal Republic shine the spotlight more prominently and capitalism are different and, gener- on the East, to give eastern Germans a ally, far more critical. Should we just will have to become stronger sense of being heard and even accept that the East will never become more eastern in to give them power. But anyone hoping more like the West? to empower the East must be ready and No. This is precisely the wrong the coming years willing to actually share power. approach to the issue. For several years To this day, Germany’s Federal Court now, many eastern Germans have been of Justice, which is based in Karlsruhe, asking themselves why on earth they has resisted relocating a large number should become more like the West. There is hardly any private wealth themselves, precisely by enabling this of its judges to Leipzig, as was origi- They have grown more accepting of in the East today, and not one DAX immense gain in highly productive nally intended in the Unification Treaty. their history and have even developed company is based in the former GDR. workers for the West and by completely Moreover, Germany’s public broadcast- an air of serenity with regard to it, their Most of the apartments in major east- opening up eastern Germany as a new ers have refused to relocate key posi- nature and their origins. Their new- ern German cities belong to investors market for West German companies. tions – such as editors-in-chief – to the found approach effectively says: “We from western Germany and the rest At the same time, eastern Germans eastern states. might indeed be the smaller and less of the world; eastern Germans who began noticing a trend: despite our Yet, in spite of all that has happened developed part of this country, but we’re own valuable real estate are an excep- skills and strengths, our new bosses in recent years, there are still a number most certainly not the worst part of it.” tion. According to a 2019 study by are reticent to share power with us, of good – actually, very good – develop- If we look a little bit closer, we see that the German Institute for Economic we don’t have any access to wealth or ments to speak of. Eastern Germans it’s this growing self-confidence on the Research, on average, eastern Germans property, and our political influence no longer simply accept their situation part of eastern Germans that may actu- don’t even possess half as much wealth is limited, even if Angela Merkel – one as fate as they hide out from the devel- ally lead to a more placid coexistence as western Germans. of us – became chancellor and is now a opments around them. And, eschew- of the two Germanies. With a little Fundamental differences also per- major figure in global politics. ing the Western slur for Easterners’ bit of luck, Germany’s future strength sist with regard to the distribution of Taking all of these factors into “non-stop moaning” or jammern, they might just lie precisely in the differences power. Germany has 106 universities account allows us to interpret support no longer moan and complain. They’re between the country’s two sides. After and, at last count, only two university for the AfD as aggressive resistance getting more involved, mixing things all, doesn’t meeting eye-to-eye involve presidents are from the East. There are to the political framework. While it’s up a bit, questioning a number of fun- a healthy dose of confidence on both practically no eastern German court far from true that all AfD voters in the damental “truths.” There is no doubt sides? presidents – not even in the East itself East are racists, right-wing extremists that the Federal Republic will have to When musing on the fact that eastern – and a negligible number of eastern and unemployed persons, a party that become more eastern in the coming Germans are different from western German chief physicians. Apart from is able to attract almost one-third of years. And if western Germans are Germans, we must first and foremost Chancellor Angela Merkel herself, there the electorate is obviously resonating smart enough to recognize the oppor- consider that life in the East is quite is only one other eastern German in among a broad swathe of the popula- tunities that arise when two sides meet different from life in the West – in both the federal cabinet. The heads of most tion. Over the past several years, the on truly equal footing, there’s no doubt good and bad ways. major federal departments are western AfD has managed to give eastern Ger- that the 40th anniversary of German Let’s start with the good. At the Germans, and Germany’s army, the mans one feeling in particular: If you reunification will provide great cause moment, eastern German cities gen- Bundeswehr, is headed up almost exclu- vote for us, you’ll finally get the atten- for celebration. erally look better than their western sively by western Germans. These facts tion you deserve! German counterparts, having blos- bring us closer to the core of the East- And, unfortunately, all other political somed over the 30 years since the fall of West conflict, which remains fueled by parties must now admit that the AfD Martin Machowecz the Wall. Rents are lower and there are a fundamental misunderstanding. has kept this promise. Eastern Germany was born in Meißen in 1988 and free and open spaces everywhere. Many Over the past few years, many west- has never held as many cards in its hand grew up in eastern Germany. eastern Germans would argue that east- ern Germans have continued to argue as since the rise of the AfD and the He studied political science ern Germany is the more vibrant and that they invested endless amounts values it embodies. Minister presidents in Leipzig and now heads the Leipzig office of the weekly attractive part of the country today. of money in the East, opening up from Mecklenburg-Western Pomera- German newspaper Die Zeit, But – and this is where things get branches and production facilities in nia to Saxony suddenly possess a form as well as the editorial team of difficult – it’s also the poorer part of the East and pumping billions into of political capital they can leverage. Zeit im Osten. Germany. infrastructure and city landscapes. In other words, they can now threaten EAST IS EDEN IS EAST A wound neglected Understanding eastern Germany’s shift to the right requires revisiting the moment its path forward was set

(comprising the former GDR terri- mans were unexpectedly thrown not entirely removed, then at least the forefront of these xenophobic living conditions after the GDR BY WOLFGANG ENGLER tory). Concerns are growing as to into an “open society,” a shock to worn down a bit. This question attacks points indeed to the GDR have left no psychological traces how long this situation will con- the system that prompted them is aimed directly at the ability of as the source of the behavior. whatsoever. Second, they would astern and western Ger- tinue and whether it might even to cling to their mental legacy as the new, post-1989 German soci- However, as time leaves that era be guilty of a one-dimensional many continue to drift take a turn for the worse. What’s a means of coping and surviving. ety to win over eastern Germans ever further behind us, the more interpretation of the GDR’s heri- Eapart in political terms, going on in the East? By doing so, however, they pre- and gain their support. The idea problematic this ascription of tage, labeling it as a handicap and despite economic achievements The prevailing and essentially vented their own inner arrival in of avoiding this chapter in history blame to the GDR becomes. The burden rather than as a legacy (i.e., growth, employment, wages, western German narrative blames the West, their integration into by simply skipping over it as if it average age of eastern Germans in all of its contradictions. And, pensions, etc.) in the former the GDR for the malaise, attribut- the “liberal democratic basic weren’t worth a closer look – and today is well below 50; most have finally, they would be justify- states of the GDR. While voters ing it to the knock-on effects of order.” Their aversion to new instead stubbornly continuing to lived the majority of their lives in ing the mistakes and injustices in the West are increasingly going the second German dictatorship. things, foreign things and foreign blame the GDR as the sole cause a post-Wall world. Some of the that were part and parcel of the green, voters in the East are lean- After 1945, the argument goes, people, their phobias, their latent of the malaise will only exacerbate people taking their conservative upheavals after 1990, which ing toward blue: the right-wing unlike the citizens of West Ger- and occasionally manifest racism the discord. and right-wing extremist senti- threw countless people either terrorist group NSU was based many, people in the East stumbled – all of these, so the story goes, are To be sure, up until 1989, East ments to the streets have actually temporarily or permanently off in the eastern city of Jena, the from one totalitarian regime into expressions of the fact that east- Germans lived in an ethnically lived their entire lives in the new track. The notorious disregard anti-immigration movement the next within a short period ern Germans continue to schlep and culturally homogenous soci- Germany. for post-Wall history, especially Pegida with its militant marches of time. Both outwardly and around the heavy baggage that ety. Its precipitation into eco- Anyone who insists on attrib- when looking for the root causes and unabashedly racist slogans inwardly, they adapted to the they acquired during the GDR and nomic globalization as well as uting the behavior and attitude of the “susceptibility” of eastern has its origins in Dresden and customs and norms of a largely have refused to discard ever since. cultural and religious diversity of eastern Germans solely to the Germans to right-wing ideas, Leipzig, the right-wing AfD party “closed society,” developing a col- The question arises as to why was often unsettling, and it led legacy of the GDR makes a three- does enormous harm to the pro- has enjoyed one electoral success lective habitus that bore unmistak- this toxic legacy was not dis- to defensive reactions that esca- fold mistake. First, they would be cess of unification. after another, often winning more ably authoritarian characteristics. posed of over the course of the lated for the first time in the early infantilizing eastern Germans by To this day, the stories told by than 20 percent of the vote in the After the upheavals of 1989, the past three decades of joint eastern 1990s. The fact that it was mostly declaring their experiences since most of the eastern Germans who five so-called “new” federal states argument continues, eastern Ger- and western German history, or if adolescents and young adults at 1989 to be irrelevant, as if their experienced the initial years after October 2020 The German Times • German Unification 1990 – 2020 13

Eternal underdogs Many eastern Germans have a love-hate relationship to reunification; our author is one of them

democrat Oskar Lafontaine, this nascent anger. In 1990, he had they send special teams to Saxony that needs to be explained, the fundamental structures. Eastern BY SABINE RENNEFANZ former Chancellor Willy Brandt, been given the task of presiding to find out exactly what’s going special path. Germans continue to earn less the then-Foreign Minister Hans- over the dissolution of the GDR. wrong there again, and especially I, too, spent the past several years and acquire less wealth than their on-German friends Dietrich Genscher, Hannelore In the space of six months, his job why the “Ostler” – the eastern- doing a lot of explaining. And now western compatriots. No large of mine like to think Kohl, Helmut Kohl and then- was to dissolve a state that had ers – are so bent on voting for the I find myself increasingly won- corporation has its headquarters Nwe Germans celebrate Federal President Richard von existed for 40 years. It was “a fare- wrong party. Years ago, the big dering whether this was the right in the East, and only recently have German Unity Day by throwing a Weizsäcker. Next to them, small well without tears,” he said in a “East” theme was the Stasi, the thing to do or whether my work we seen one (!) eastern German big party. I personally don’t know and thin at the edge of the photo, speech at Berlin’s Schauspielhaus former GDR’s security appara- only reinforced a cliché. This is why rector at a university in eastern anyone who actually celebrates stands Lothar de Maizière, the last on Oct. 2, 1990. tus; but today, it’s the right-wing I don’t think much of those online Germany. While it’s true that our the national holiday on Oct. 3. It’s head of government of the GDR. “That wasn’t entirely true,” de political party known as the AfD. initiatives launched by younger chancellor grew up in East Ger- just a day off work, a day to relax, The image speaks volumes on the Maizière admitted in a recent This is the case despite the fact eastern Germans, such as “Wir many, there are hardly any eastern take a mini vacation, do some gar- unequal balance of power that interview with the Berliner Zei- that the West is home to all of sind der Osten” (We are the East), Germans in top political positions. dening or binge-watch TV. prevailed at the time of German tung. Whereas West Germans the AfD’s top functionaries and even though they’re obviously well In fact, more than half of the state Still, I was invited to a German reunification. It also says a lot were able to go on living as they the western states of Bavaria and intentioned. In short, they want secretaries in eastern German Unity Day party once. It was about the root cause of the prob- always had, he argued, East Ger- Baden-Württemberg deliver the to show that the East has more to ministries come from former organized by the German lems and misunderstandings that mans were shaken to their core in party large numbers of votes. offer than just neo-Nazis. Yet, in West German states; that figure Embassy in London. I remember continue to this day. a way unlike any time since World This is not a complaint, not a doing so, they take up a position rises to three-quarters when it the snow-white villa in the afflu- “Taking leave of a social and War II. “I always thought the pro- sociological finding. It’s just an in an established hierarchy that’s comes to the heads of political ent district of Belgravia, the red political system doesn’t mean let- cess of reunifying the infrastruc- observation. existed ever since tall and portly departments. There are even more carpet draped over the stairs and ting go of personal memories,” Helmut Kohl pushed small and thin Americans than eastern Germans the room full of pinstripe suits. wrote Hans-Dieter Schütt in his Lothar de Maizière to the outer on the boards of Dax-listed com- Although most of the men in book Glücklich beschädigt (Hap- edge of the picture – here top dog, panies. Is it any wonder that 57 attendance were simply the office pily damaged). To this day, many there bottom dog. percent of eastern Germans sur- heads of German savings banks people in the East feel as if they’ve The eastern German On a warm night this past veyed in 2019 said they felt like in London, they dressed as if they lived two lives; the life they actu- summer, a show called “The crazy second-class citizens? were English bankers. I watched ally remember living and the life curriculum vitae will always ‘80s in Germany” was broadcast My son is almost six years old the West Germans celebrate they were told they’d lived by the on the public TV channel ARD. and enjoys asking big questions in German unity. I watched them harsh verdict of history. Accord- be seen as a deviation The show was all about music the evening just before he goes to celebrate themselves. ing to Schütt, East Germans were from the norm, the one that and pop culture in the 1980s; bed: What’s the biggest threat to I can still see the ambassa- asked to decide whether they’d unfortunately, the GDR wasn’t mankind? Is there a medicine that dor, a tall, good-natured man been supporters of the system – needs to be explained mentioned once. At a subsequent works against COVID-19? Why from Swabia, sashaying across thereby subjecting themselves to editorial meeting, I expressed does everybody have to die? Some- the thick carpet as the Filipino doubts about the nature of their my astonishment that an omis- times we just talk about the day we house servants dressed in livery character – or whether they were sion such as this could happen had. One day, I told him about my brought freshly tapped German willing to admit that all of the ture and the economy was going The SPD politician Wolfgang 30 years after German reunifi- meeting with de Maizière. What’s beer, sausages and meatballs to passion and hard work they’d put to be difficult, and that psychologi- Thierse once suggested that cation, and I recommended that the GDR, Mama? I told him about the guests. The famous German into the system had been in vain. cal reunification would be easier. people from eastern and west- we ask the broadcaster how this the country that disappeared over- singer Marius Müller-Western- Schütt wrote this in 2009. In the end, the opposite was true.” ern Germany should tell each came to pass. In response, a col- night and how everything changed hagen sat in the corner nibbling Perhaps one thing that has We East Germans don’t cel- other their stories; this was his league of mine noted: “The show for me back then: the money, the on a sausage. That evening, I met changed since then is that this ebrate on Oct. 3. We work, we idea of how the two sides could was probably produced by WDR language, the school, the rules. I only one other woman from the two-sided experience has led scream and shout, we beg for be encouraged to grow closer. [West German Broadcasting]. For was still a child myself at the time. former East Germany; she worked to the emergence of an eastern attention. Oct. 3 is one of those German President Frank-Walter them, the East is very far away. My son listened intently as I told as the embassy’s deputy spokes- German identity. As Moritz von rare moments when all of Ger- Steinmeier expressed a simi- That’s just the way it is.” Another my story. “But why did you guys person, and together we walked Uslar observed in his 2019 book many turns to look at the East lar sentiment last year when he colleague explained: “Sabine, the put up with all that?” he asked. It around that West German party Nochmal Deutschboden (Deutsch- – when, for a change, people offered that people should “listen show was about the eighties. You was hard to explain that I wanted as if we were strangers. boden again), people flipped that are actually interested in what to each other.” However, coming weren’t German back then.” those Western clothes, I wanted The preamble to Germany’s feeling of inferiority – of being we have to say. It’s a time when 30 years after the fact, the latter And here’s another anecdote to travel, I wanted that Western constitution states that Germans left-behind, second-class citi- former government heads, civil request is possibly just too late. for good measure: a friend of music; but I didn’t want Kohl’s fed- achieved their unity and freedom zens – and transformed it into the rights activists and other con- Plus, it’s quite clear that eastern mine wanted to write her doc- eral republic. Next generation, it’s in “free self-determination.” This very opposite: “The fun that an temporary eyewitnesses are Germans are the only ones telling toral thesis about the selling-off your turn now. is the official story of what hap- eastern German gets from being asked to give interviews or con- their stories. Eastern Germans of GDR publishing houses but pened; the story that gets written able to tell those arrogant west- tribute essays. Books are penned feel a constant pressure to jus- was not able to find a university in in books. And it’s not wrong per ern Germans to their faces that in anticipation of the big day, tify and explain themselves, to Germany willing to supervise her Sabine Rennefanz se. But it’s also not the whole story. nobody wants to have anything plays are written and we all take elucidate the issues driving their work. So she went to the US and is politics editor at the Berliner Zeitung and the There’s a famous photo that was to do with their pretty democracy, a quick look back at the GDR behavior. In reality, however, completed her doctorate there. author of several books, taken at the first German Unity their turbo capitalism and their before it turns and sinks again when they do this, they’re actu- Her book was published in Eng- including Eisenkinder. Day celebrations on the steps of Western values – that fun is just into oblivion. ally bowing down and subjecting lish first, and when she applied for Der stille Wut der Wende- the Reichstag in Berlin in 1990. It getting started.” On every other day, the West- themselves to western Germans. positions in Germany from the generation (Iron kids: The quiet rage of East Germany’s features an entire generation of When the photo mentioned dominated media are only inter- The eastern German curriculum US, she immediately got a job. ‘Wende’ generation, West German politicians: to the above was taken, de Maizière ested in the East when election vitae will always be seen as a All our explaining and storytell- Luchterhand, 2013). very left, we see the then-social could not have had any idea of time rolls around, at which point deviation from the norm, the one ing has done little to change the

Into the future with one foot in the past: Why so many eastern Germans feel at odds with the West thirty years after reunification

the fall of the Wall still revolve of ongoing training measures as Basic democratic rights, ties pushed forward against all objec- bank bailouts, open borders for foster and fortify the strength around the historically unprec- a substitute for employment or to the West, the social market tions and second thoughts. Yet, migrants. Enough! It’s our turn and resources of the people. And edented economic laceration that unemployment – hence the great economy – these were the pil- no sooner had the primary goal to speak.” And, lo and behold, a this clearly does not reflect the occurred immediately after they metamorphosis from citizen to lars upon which the Federal been achieved – guaranteed basic stream of politicians, journalists eastern German experience after joined the Federal Republic. In employment-agency client, a mon- Republic of Germany was built rights and elementary freedoms and scientists suddenly made the Wall came down. The rapid large swaths of the country, life umental insult. and flourished. The democratic for all – that millions of eastern their way to the East – the place socioeconomic demobilization of atrophied and social cohesion dis- The experience of former East framework of West Germany Germans lost their economic and they’d disregarded for so long – to eastern Germans was a disaster solved. The familiar foundations Germans is similar to that of hun- stood on a firm foundation that social footing. A gain in politi- find out what was going wrong. that should not have been allowed of social interaction crumbled, dreds of millions elsewhere, most proved sustainable. Things con- cal and legal self-determination In light of the growing attention to happen. The long-term conse- leaving many with a sense of of whom never lived in a dictator- tinued to improve, and the longer often went hand-in-hand with a they were getting, those who until quences of that failure are now having been left behind, of being ship, but were subject to the same the economic upturn lasted, the loss of socioeconomic self-deter- then had been ignored mused: affecting the entire country. lost in oblivion. structural upheaval, stretched more people became convinced mination. The terrain upon which “We obviously did something A public debate about these Those who still wanted to make out over time. In the US rust belt that they had done well for them- people had been moving started right this time. This is exactly failings, without reservations something of their lives looked for and in the traditional industrial selves on the whole. As a result, giving way, and this is precisely why we protested so radically. We or assignment of blame, is of ways to leave, which is precisely regions of England and France, people were happy to live within what undermined any identifica- wanted to make people aware of utmost importance if we are to what millions of eastern Ger- for example, the same profound the political and legal framework tion they might have had with the our situation, of the misery that keep things from spiraling out mans have done since the early economic and social transforma- of the new polity. framework in which they were reigns here.” of control. 1990s. Individuals who kept their tion occurred and produced the The German-German unifica- now being asked to move. The lesson we should take jobs or found new ones consid- same results: a mass alienation of tion process after 1990 turned The refugee crisis of 2015 from this process is simple to ered themselves lucky and – as citizens from democratic institu- this sequence on its head in caused this well of discontent understand. The top priorities Wolfgang Engler a result of this privilege – often tions, procedures and processes the East. Democracy had been to overflow. “Everything has of a social transformation as is a cultural sociologist. He was rector of the Ernst Busch in non-unionized workplaces. along with the attendant rise of fought for from the bottom up; been decided and implemented radical and all-encompassing Academy of Dramatic Arts in Everyone else faced the threat of nationalist, vulgar and populist reunification had been approved over our heads,” people cried. as that which took hold in east- Berlin from 2005 to 2017. precarious employment, the trap tendencies and parties. of by a majority of Germans and “Treuhand policies, Hartz laws, ern Germany after 1990 are to