The far right and far left are taking advantage of the persistent socio-economic gap and the differences in mentality between the two parts of the country
Rodrigo Zuleta/EFE (via 14ymedio), Berlin, 9 November 2024 — The 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is taking place at a time of dissent between West and East Germany, reflected in the electoral successes of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which are taking advantage of the persistent socio-economic gap and differences in mentality between the two parts of the country.
The two parties are questioning part of the consensus that has guided German politics for decades. Despite the differences that mark their respective policies, there is one thing that brings them together: their rejection of arms shipments to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, and their ability to take advantage of popular discontent in the east.
And the 35th anniversary comes with the added political uncertainty generated by the break-up yesterday — on Wednesday — of the governing coalition formed by social democrats, greens and liberals.
The fall of the Wall in 1989 was the greatest triumph of the citizens’ movement in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) — the East — and at the same time it was the moment when it began to lose importance and when the West German government, headed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, took into its own hands the process that would lead to reunification.
“The two events had different actors. The fall of the Wall was driven by the citizens’ movement in the GDR from the summer and autumn of 1989.”
“The two events had different actors. The fall of the Wall was driven by the citizens’ movement in the GDR from the summer and autumn of 1989,” historian Arne Bauerkämper, emeritus professor at the Free University of Berlin, told EFE. Although the fall of the Wall was key in the process that led to reunification, the actors who had promoted it subsequently lost strength.
A key moment was the elections of 18 March 1990, the only free elections in the history of the GDR, in which the coalition representing the citizens’ movement barely won 3%. “Many see this result as unfair to those who took great risks in 1989 and had unleashed a dynamic that led to the fall of the Wall,” Bauerkämper said. The elections were marked by a fundamental question: what the path to reunification should look like.
Some, such as representatives of the citizens’ movement, were in favor of the GDR undertaking a series of reforms and then entering into negotiations for a reunification on relatively equal terms with the Federal Republic of Germany.
On the other side were the supporters of a rapid reunification who ended up winning the elections with the Alliance for Germany, led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), chaired by Lothar de Maizière, who would be the last Prime Minister of the GDR. Among other things, his program included the immediate introduction of the Western framework into the East.
“The price of not having attempted something common and on equal terms, that is, a true reunification, is being paid now”
In a recent article entitled From Revolution to Reunification via the Fall of the Wall, historian Sascha-Ilko Kowalczuk recalls that the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher congratulated Kohl on Maizière’s victory, which “hit the nail on the head.”
After Maizière’s victory, the road to reunification was dizzying, but the process — which between May and November 1989 had taken place on the streets — had moved into the offices.
The end result was the dissolution of the GDR, whose territories ended up assuming the legal order and economic system of the West, with almost no room for negotiation.
“The price of not having attempted something common and on equal terms, that is, a real reunification, is being paid now and at the risk of democracy,” writes essayist Dirk Oschmann in his book “The East: An Invention of West Germany.”
The euphoria of 9 November 1989, when the Wall fell, gave way months later to the first disappointments when, following the introduction of the West German mark in June 1990, companies in eastern Germany lost competitiveness, leading to an increase in unemployment.
“In September 2022, it was found that confidence in democracy in eastern Germany had fallen to 39%, while in the west it was 59%”
Although the material situation has improved steadily since 1990, the differences between the two parts of Germany and the fact that East Germans have little presence in positions of responsibility have led to a kind of protest culture.
At some AfD demonstrations, one can even hear the slogan “Wir sind das Volk” (We are the people), which was the motto of the peaceful revolution in the GDR.
“In September 2022, it was found that trust in democracy in eastern Germany had fallen to 39%, while in the west it was 59% – a horrendous difference of 20 percentage points, which is almost equal to the horrendous wage gap of 22.5%,” writes Oschmann.
It is this discontent that the AfD and BSW are taking advantage of in eastern Germany to attract votes with populist messages from the right and the left, which allow them to win regional elections in the first case and to play a key role in the formation of governments in federal states such as Thuringia and Brandenburg in the second.
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