When the Berlin Wall was torn down with angle grinders and shovels on November 11, 1989, the people of Germany had one of two entirely different experiences. In the West, life continued. The borders were a little bigger, and the Allied presence lessened a little, but they lived on. But in the East, everything changed.
As written by Sabine Rennefanz, a German political journalist for the Berliner Zeitung, “The official narrative over the past 30 years has been of unification as a great German success story.” The truth, she decided, is much more complicated.
East and West Germany, though officially reunified in 1989, remain economically, culturally, and politically separate, almost as if they were two entirely different countries. When the wall fell, the whiplash felt as the East German economy snapped from a publicly controlled communist infrastructure to a privately owned capitalist regime was extreme. Reunification brought a period of rapid privatization, significantly rising unemployment rates in the East, and a mass exodus to the West. East Germany was left reeling—stuck in the gray space between the Soviet influence of the last 44 years and the Western democratic culture of a country which they hadn’t been part of since World War II.
In the 44 years East Germany was under the control of the USSR, there was more than enough time to integrate Soviet-style economic culture and political disposition. Those features do not simply disappear when the USSR vacates. It is, however, an interesting case study in terms of the effects of communist ideology on economic development and quality of life. The result is stark. The difference between states on either side of the former border is so extreme, one might say the Berlin Wall never fell. GDP in East German states, though slowly rising, remains 20% lower than that in West German states—the same as it was 15 years ago. Wages, disposable income, and unemployment are far lower than in the West.
Though the East German economy is slowly recovering to match its Western counterpart, there are currently no predictions as to whether they will ever become economic equals. The continuous brain drain the East has been experiencing since the 1990s has been of no help. As the Berlin Wall fell, East Germany’s skilled workers, academics, and anyone else looking for greater opportunity migrated to the West in massive numbers, contributing to a huge economic boost in West Germany at the expense of the East.
Yet despite a comparatively depressed economic state, the gender pay gap in the East is 12 points lower than in the West. Soviet-era policies and the economic culture surrounding the workplace are mainly responsible—overvaluing traditional work and undervaluing the role of stay-at-home parents. It went so far as to refer to non-working mothers as schmarotzer (parasites). In East Germany, women were encouraged to work outside of the home in far greater numbers than what was normative in the West, incentivized by generous maternity leave and free childcare. As a result, East German women’s employment rates as of 1989 were 1.6 times higher than in West Germany.
Despite the East being at a deficit with the West in terms of overall wages, Eastern mothers recover an average of 70% of pre-birth earnings seven years after having a baby. Western mothers, on the other hand, recover only 45%. Lingering bits of this aspect of Soviet-style influence have resulted in East German mothers returning to work after an average of one year post-birth, as opposed to West German mothers, who return to work an average of three years post-birth (when job protection ends).
The fact that those numbers are so low in the first place is a problem unto itself. The decision of when to return to work is also likely just one component of a far larger equation regarding the gender pay gap. The stark contrast between West and East underlines the lasting influence of the Soviet bloc in ways that are not always visible through naked numbers, both good and bad.
Regardless, very few Germans regret reunification and even fewer East Germans would choose to return to Soviet rule. Reported happiness rates have increased fourfold since 1991. But although few regret the move, the situation is far from perfect. 57% of East Germans feel like second-class citizens, with only 38% holding the belief that reunification was successful at all. For those under 40, who either were children or never lived under the Soviets, that number drops to only 20%.
Most worryingly, East Germany disproportionately supports the right-wing extremist party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). In the 2021 national election, the AfD corralled 19.2% of total votes from the East, outstripping the West by 2.5 times.
Many theories exist surrounding why this is happening. For 44 years, the ruling party comprised the far left. The political socialization older generations of East Germans grew up with under communist rule lent itself more towards nativist and populist sentiments.
Through the influence of Cold War-era sentiments, it is possible to find the reason why East and West Germany remain so fundamentally different through governmental representation. Though East Germans make up 17% of Germany’s population, they only compose 1.7% of the top positions in military, business, judiciary, and politics. That, along with the fact that East Germans are stereotyped as “nasty” and “lazy communists,” in the West, has led to a feeling of abandonment by both the government and their fellow citizens. As Anna Sauerbrey from the New York Times theorizes, “Three decades of buried rage and fear have surfaced in a toxic, xenophobic nationalism.”
It is also possible that many of the differences between the East and West can be accounted for by the fact that the East is far more rural and agricultural-based. The International Inequalities Institute proved in 2022 that people in rural areas tend to harbor far more conservative political sentiment than in urban areas. This, along with the significant inequality between regions in terms of disposable income, GDP, and unemployment, leads to support for the party associated with the East German identity and East German issues.
East and West Germany are so fundamentally different that freelance journalist Emily Schultheis writes that even 35 years later, “East Germany is still a country of its own.” The situation that Germany as a whole finds itself in is incredibly unique. Those with the greater economic and social capital were left unaffected by the wall’s fall, with less incentive to extend empathy to those with less. This has lent itself to vast inequality and cultural divides, left unaddressed for at least 35 years.
In the West, nothing changed. In the East, everything changed, and yet so did very little. East Germans remain far from achieving economic and political equality with the West. The concrete blocks of the Berlin Wall may have been torn down in 1989, but, 35 years on, the country is far from united.
Featured image: The Sunday Times
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