Monday, September 29
Divided again? 35 years after reunification, Germany feels it is growing apart
This Friday, on October 3, Germany will mark 35 years of reunification with a national holiday. Yet a new survey suggests the country feels increasingly divided. Nationwide, 61 percent of respondents said they do not believe Germany is becoming more unified. In the former East, that figure rose to 75 percent.
The poll was commissioned by the Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, which has posed the same question to the public since 2003. For fifteen years, from 2004 to 2019, the results pointed towards growing cohesion. In that period, the share of respondents who perceived increasing unity climbed from 28 to 52 percent.
That trend has sharply reversed in recent years. By 2020, only 47 percent still sensed greater community. In 2023, the proportion had fallen to 37 percent, and this year it has slipped again, to just 35 percent. Among respondents in the former East, the figure is a mere 25 percent.
The survey statement read: “The people of East and West Germany have now largely grown together into one nation.” Participants were asked how strongly they agreed with the sentiment. Anna Kaminsky, Director of the Federal Foundation, said the findings “show how fragile the sense of unity is” across Germany.
