The re-divided Germany

Was German reunification premature? Could and should it be reversed? Marcus Bensmann, co-author of the infamous Correctiv research on the “secret meeting” in Potsdam, is of this opinion . Because of the high poll numbers for AfD and BSW, we have to “think about a separation,” said Bensmann. It is unacceptable for former GDR citizens to endanger the “successful model of the Federal Republic”. Is that true? Do East Germans need tutoring to catch up on what West Germans have long mastered? Or should citizens of a part of the country that produced a Nancy Faeser or a Karl Lauterbach perhaps turn their attention to their own front door and refrain from lecturing them? The conflict is as old as reunified Germany and should gradually be buried at a time when younger people in particular hardly think in terms of “Ossis and Wessis”. And yet, it has recently started to flare up again. Because forecasts for the state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia are ringing alarm bells for representatives of “our democracy”. It would be possible that East Germans understand democracy as something different due to their different life experiences – and that a synopsis of the different perspectives could be an enrichment for Germany as a whole, not a threat. Manova starts one with this Series of articles that explores the sensitivities in East and West around the election date of September 1, 2024, illuminates the historical dimension and also provides an outlook on a future, which should preferably not include a “re-separated” Germany. More of a synthesis of the best that both sides have to offer.