…and why young people of the “summer of solidarity” with him. In three länder in the East of Germany is elected in the fall. The right-wing populists could be the strongest force. What is the reason?
Demonstrators in Leipzig on October 29. January 1990: their Slogans are now used by the AfD
Without the civil rights movement in the former GDR, Germany would have looked different today. Quite different. Tens of thousands of activists contributed 30 years ago that the wall came down the country United again, which had been divided for decades. People who went in the East of Germany to the streets, demanding freedom and human rights. Now, just before the state elections in three Eastern German Federal States, are recognized in the Slogans of that time on the other side. In Saxony and Brandenburg will be at 1. September elected, in Thuringia, at the end of October.
It’s the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), with “become a civil rights activist”, “is the end of the turn” or “The East” to the East German voters advertise. are Campaign slogans that tie in with the post-reunification years, for many, marked by frustration, disappointment and unfulfilled promise.
“No freedom of speech” in Germany?
On its website, the AfD will compare today’s Germany with the former GDR. “Those who think ‘differently’, will be just as suppressed as it once did the Stasi,” it says. The “state security” in the GDR spied on politically oppositional, intimidated dissenters, and injured in a massive civil rights.
“It feels like in the GDR”, said recently, one that has not been 30 years ago at all. Björn Höcke is the front-man of the right national wing of the AfD, is leading the party in Thuringia, and comes from West Germany. However, he means to say: “we have not made the peaceful Revolution, dear friends.”
Andreas Kalbitz, country Manager of AfD in Brandenburg, on the campaign trail
A reminder: Germany is a democratic state of law is. Nevertheless, such statements make some people a nerve. In the state elections in all three Eastern States, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany, could be, according to the polls. And, although not a few AfD leaders to be open to make the right ideas and regularly making racist Statements stand out.
23 percent of the voters in the Ex-GDR would choose AfD
The EMNID-Sunday question from the middle of August, according to 24 percent of the voters in East Germany would vote in a Federal election, the AfD. In the West of the Republic, it would be 12 percent.
“Many people are disappointed from the former GDR, to feel not understood, not seen by the majority of society in the West,” says the social scientist Judith Enders.The hinge in order that the East Germans pay just 17 percent of the total population. More importantly, their lack of representation in the pan-German society, however.
In Eastern Germany, only 1.7 percent of all top positions in the German economy, politics and administration. After the reunification, the socialist GDR Elite was replaced by the West German. This Elite reproduce today, even after 30 years, says Enders.
Enders grew up in the East and has co-founded an initiative that seeks to think the “East concept” differently. Self-confident and offensive.
But not all in the former GDR made the. “Some of the sentence.” The 30 years after the reunification, many would have perceived as a collective insult. Statistics show that people earn in East Germany is still significantly less than workers in the West. In addition, since the fall of the Berlin wall, hundreds of thousands of – mainly young – have left East of your home to the back. Those who remained there, had to contend with the collapse of the East German economy and high unemployment. On average, 6.6 percent of people in 2019 in the East of Germany were unemployed, in the West, 4.7 percent.
A ‘summer of solidarity’ in East Germany
The consequences of the turn to explain not only the election result of the Right: A study by the University of Leipzig showed that almost every second Respondent in the East of Germany reservations against foreigners and minorities. In Germany every third person is sharing such positions. In the past years, the East was ” always negative in the headlines: whether it Is because of the racist Pegida movement, due to attacks on migrants, or because of some radical right-wing ausschreitun in Chemnitz.
Many in the former GDR brace themselves against the East of the Republic is seen as a Bastion of Right-wing. The initiatives ‘when If Not Now’ and ‘awakening East’ fight against racism, but want to also discuss how East Germans took the time in and after the GDR’s true. Under the slogan ‘summer of solidarity’ to organize in the East of Germany concerts, readings, podium discussions.
According to the organizers, about 40,000 people were in Dresden against racism on the road
24. August called on both alliances with other initiatives for the #Indivisible-Demo, for solidarity instead of exclusion. Ana Cara Methmann grew up in Northern Germany and is living since ten years in the Saxon town of Leipzig. She is spokeswoman of the #Indivisible Alliance: “We call for a clear definition on racism.”
The city and the country are divided
Methmanns adopted hometown of Leipzig, is a town of said, in Saxony. In the European elections in may the Greens were able to establish themselves there, with 20.2 percent as the strongest force. The AfD section 15.5 percent, far worse than in the entire state. Germany is not divided only between the West and the East, the rift runs between the city and the country.
Often it is the practical things that cause this rift in the daily life of the people. A Bus departs only twice a day, and a train station that is 20 km away. Methmann, gives seminars throughout the state, for example, about discrimination, has experienced this yourself. In Saxony, the conservative CDU have done in government over the decades, their contribution to a strong AfD. “It has been put less money in the youth work, youth centres have been closed,” says Methmann. To create opportunities for people to participate actively in the social life and to strengthen democratic initiatives and individuals, sees them as the best means against Right.