The physical wall fell – but the Iron Curtain remains

 

GDR
The Iron Curtain never fell here

Wolfgang Hansson

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 18.14

In many ways, Germany is still divided into East and West. Graphics: Sofia Boström

We drive on narrow, winding asphalt roads in eastern Germany.

Suddenly it appears embedded in greenery, the 30 meter long piece of the border wall that we had been tipped about.

Worn and overgrown with grass, it stands just outside the village of Görsdorf where the Iron Curtain separated East from West almost 35 years ago.

Although in practice it never disappeared.

Quick version

• A surviving section of the former border wall in East Germany reflects the mental division that exists within the country, despite the cessation of the physical border 35 years ago.
• This is reflected in the different political orientations between East and West Germany, where the far-right Alternative for Germany has become the largest party in the former GDR states, while the Christian Democrats dominate in West Germany.
• This division facilitates growing political extremism, and there is concern that parties such as Afd may increase their power in future elections.

The piece of wall in front of us was part of the former East Germany's internal border wall that was supposed to prevent people disaffected with the socialist paradise from fleeing to the West.

Anyone who tried anyway risked being shot by the East German border guards.

Today, a sign announces that the lone piece of brick serves as an insect hotel and as a home for bats.

Physically, the border disappeared after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. But mentally, the border is very much alive.

Something that was not least noticed in the recently held EU elections. The result is a picture as tragic as it is clear that the old borders still exist.

In all states of the former GDR, the far-right Alternative for Germany became the largest party, apart from the capital Berlin.

In western Germany, the Christian Democrats, the CDU, dominate almost everywhere. Apart from Bremen where the Social Democrats won and Hamburg where the Greens triumphed.

When I traveled around the state of Thuringia the week before the election, most villages were plastered with election posters from Afd. Messages such as "Our homeland first" and "Stop migration".

              

            

             The piece of the wall outside the village of Görsdorf.
             1 / 2Photo: Stefan Jerrevång

 

The local population's hatred of the incumbent German government is compact. People are upset about environmental measures to reduce emissions that would cost them a lot of money. They are upset that migration has not been stopped. That pensions are too low and that there is a shortage of jobs. They are angry that German taxpayers' money is being used to send weapons to Ukraine and that the country is no longer importing cheap gas from Russia.

One party managed to capture this discontent. Dept.

Previously, it was mostly the remnants of the old East German Communist Party, Die Linke, that had that role.

For the inhabitants of the former East, it does not seem to matter that the Afd's top candidate Maximilian Krah made pro-Nazi statements just before the election or that his assistant in the EU Parliament was arrested for spying for China and possibly Russia.

Afd belongs to the parties in the EU Parliament that almost always vote against sanctions against Russia and against the West sending weapons to Ukraine.

Nor did the fact that the party in three states was classified as "guaranteed extremist" by the German security service had any deterrent effect.

Germany has invested enormous sums in making the country grow together into a united nation. For 30 years after the Berlin Wall, there was a special tax for residents in western Germany that went to renovating houses, roads and other things in the east.

But nothing seems to have helped.

A large part of people in the old East are convinced that they are worse off than their compatriots in West Germany. They get extra upset when refugees who arrive are given housing and money for food and other necessities. I hear a lot of rumors that they get more in allowances than German citizens. It doesn't matter that it's not true. People in the East believe it anyway.

People are unhappy that everything from the old GDR was scrapped and declared useless.

There was much here that was better than in the West, is an opinion I often hear. Everyone had a job and a living wage. A place at preschool was a matter of course. There was a sense of solidarity and community between people.

When the wall fell, all state-owned East German companies became worthless overnight. For a pittance they were bought up by capitalists in West Germany. Many were shut down immediately because they were unprofitable or produced goods that no one wanted anymore. Why drive around in a Trabant, the stinking GDR car, when there were comfortable Audis and BMWs.

It has been over 30 years since this happened but many in the eastern parts still feel left out, like second class citizens. Not nice enough for the west.

They liven a  world of nostalgia where the old communist era is idyllized and glorified. They yearn for a society that no longer exists. A bit like many Sweden Democrats.

The price Germany has to pay for the failure to reunite East with West is, among other things, growing extremism, especially on the right but also on the left.

Afd also grows in western Germany, but there is no doubt that the best soil is in the east.

In just over a year, there will be parliamentary elections in Germany. Given how unpopular the current coalition of socialists, environmentalists and liberals is, it can be assumed that the Afd will advance strongly in the elections in September 2025. As in the state elections held this autumn.

The physical wall is gone almost everywhere - but the mental wall is as high as before.