German politics

December 1, 2008 nnyq.com edit
  • Is there one Germany, or is there still two? i.e. is there still an east germany and a west germany, is there stil the iron wall? The political parties in the states may show if there is still a divide.


  • Dear Crystallizedginger, In 1990, Germany was reunified (a moment I have actually lived to see myself) - there is formally only one German republic, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, in German: Bundesrepublic Deutschland). The German Democratic Republic (GDR, "East Germany" or in German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik) ceased to exist. So, the answer, at face value, is that there is only "one" Germany, the FRG (which is also the name of the former "West Germany"). The Federal Republic of Germany is composed of 16 States (in German: Bundeslaender). Five of these Laender were part of East Germany - Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In addition, the City-State of Berlin was divided between four powers, and effectively between "East" and "West", was reunified. East Berlin was the capital of the GDR, while the capital of "West Germany" was Bonn - after reunification, the reunified Berlin became the capital of Germany. Nevertheless, there is still very much social and political divide between "East" and "West" in Germany, or between the East German and the West German society, eventhough formally, the two countries have been reunited. One of the most striking evidences to this "invisible" divide, is the results of the latest federal elections in Germany (Sept. 2005). In the West, The Christian Democratic Union (CDU, and its sister-party in Bavaria, the Christian-Social Union, CSU) gained 37.5% of the votes, while the Social-Democrats (SPD) won 35.1% and the "Left Party" ("Linkspartei", a patry on the extreme left, which is partly composed of people associated with the former GDR ruling party, the SED) gained only 4.9%. In former East Germany, the results were totally different: The Social Democrats were the largest party (gaining 30.4% of the votes), and the CDU gained the same percentage as the "Left Party" - 25.3%. Other, smaller parties, like the Greens and the Liberals, achieved less success in the East; but notably, in some parts of the East (namely Saxony), the neo-Nazi-associated NPD achieved a relative success (not managing to enter the German lower-house, the Bundestag, but still alarmingly strong). You can see the East-West comparison I was talking about on the ARD site. Bundestagswahl 2005 Read more about the political divide: Dr. Manuela Glaab, "15 years after unification: Germany's divided political landscape", 03.10.2005 ? Forschungsgruppe Deutschland, Deutsche Welle, Germany's Divided Political Landscape", 21.09.2005 Understanding The German Elections Part 3 Election Results: Divided Germany (david Medienkritik is a very interesting blog for those interested in German-American relationships and in Germany in general, however, one should remember that it is biased towards the "Conservative Right"). Paul Belien, "It's the German Reunification, Stupid", Brussels Journal, Sept. 21 2005 The differences and gap between the former-East and the West is not only political. Culturally, some former-East Germans feel "colonised" by West-German culture and as "losers" of the reunification process. This resulted, among other things, in a wave of "Ostalgie", nostalgia to East Germany, accompanied sometimes in idealisation of the life in the German Democratic Republic. Ostalgie in Wikipedia The Economist, Ostalgie or ossification? Hello, Lenin? Germany's Ostalgie phenomenon The East is generally also "poorer" than the West, and there are higher rates of unemployment in the "new" Bundeslaender. Read for example: Wikipedia, Reunification of Germany Naturally, one could argue that there are other types of cultural and political divide in Germany. For example, the Bavarian party CSU has always won elections in the region in a landslide, unknown to its sister party, the CDU, in other areas in Germany. Similarly, in other countries, one could notice a North-West divide in Italy; an Urban-Rural (Red/Blue) divide in the United States, which doesn't make these countries divided. I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any further clarification on this answer before you rate it.


  • Oops, I obviously meant "North South divide" regarding Italy


  • thank you very much, it has given me a good background answer


  • Dear Crystal, If the answer hasn't given you what you wanted, you should have asked for clarification that would have detailed your request further, and not rate the answer.


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