The Berlin Wall has fallen, but Germany remains divided
Western and Eastern Germany remain wildly different to this day
The picture above paints a picture worth a thousand words. The iconic photograph, aptly titled “Victory Banner over the Reichstag”, shows a Soviet soldier holding a Soviet flag over the Reichstag (a government building in Berlin). This image symbolises the defeat of Nazi Germany and the victory of the Allies in World War 2.
As you may know, Germany was divided between The USA, The UK, France and the Soviet Union after World War 2. It was up to these countries to hold elections and restore order in their respective parts. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin decided to turn his part into an authoritarian communist state similar to his own. This Soviet satellite state would be called East Germany. The Western Allies decided to unify the territories under their control. This decision was taken due to two main reasons: their ideologies were similar and they wanted to limit the spread of communism. They established a democratic capitalist state similar to theirs. This state would be known as West Germany. The capital of Berlin was divided between these two states, with West Germany controlling West Berlin and East Germany controlling East Berlin.
Of course, the Cold War ended in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall (dividing West and East Berlin) fell in 1989, and Germany was fully reunited two years later. However, more than 30 years later, echoes of the division between the West and East are still visible in a “united” Germany.
Here are 5 maps that show the drastic differences that still exist between Western and Eastern Germany:
1. Religion
This map shows the striking difference between the percentage of religious people in each district of Western and Eastern Germany. Eastern Germany is actually the least religious region in the world. The nation of East Germany had adopted a policy of state atheism. Christian groups were persecuted and broken down, leading to a vast majority of the population being atheists. The effects of this policy are clearly visible today.
2. GDP per capita
Again we see the divide between Western and Eastern Germany. This can be traced back to the economies of West and East Germany. After World War 2, The USA distributed $13.3 billion (~$173 billion in 2023) to Western European countries for postwar recovery as part of the Marshall Plan. Out of this, 11% (~$1.46 billion) went to West Germany. The USA kept supporting West Germany economically throughout its existence. On the contrary, the Soviet Union levied high reparations and occupation costs on East Germany. It is estimated that East Germany paid the Soviet Union $14 billion (in 1938 prices) between 1946 to 1953 (~$303 billion in 2023). Naturally, this led to higher economic development in West Germany.
3. Votes to right-wing extremist parties
Eastern German districts have been leaning towards the right for a long time. In modern times, this is due to right-wing parties promising to limit immigration to Germany, a policy which many people living in Eastern Germany agree with. The interesting thing about this divide is that it goes way back.
In the 1924 federal elections, the DNVP (German National People’s Party) party secured many of the Eastern constituencies. The antisemitic DNVP was the main right-wing party in Germany at that time. This pattern continued in the 1932 federal election, where the Nazis won many of the Eastern constituencies.
4. Streetlights in Berlin
This is a photograph of Berlin taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station in 2012. It is immediately obvious that lights in East Berlin are more yellow and lights in West Berlin are whiter. This is because West Germany was a lot more environmentally conscious than their Eastern counterparts. West Germany imposed environmental regulations in 1970, leading to lesser environmental damage in the nation compared to East Germany. Thus, the streetlights in West Berlin are less polluting, cleaner and more efficient, leading to this stark difference.
5. Broadband availability
Here again we see the East-West divide. The reason for this is Eastern Germany’s large rural population and low population density. This makes providing all households with broadband more difficult.
You may be surprised to learn that the 4th biggest economy doesn’t have great high-quality broadband access. Only 16% of German companies use cloud services, compared to 45% in Japan and 63% in India. Germany only gets 2% of its internet from fibre-optic cables, compared to 76% in Japan and 58% in Sweden. Consequently, Germany ranked 29th out of 34 industrialised economies for fast internet speeds in a study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Improving high-quality broadband access across Germany is naturally a high priority for the current government.
Conclusion
There is clear evidence that a divide between Western and Eastern Germany exists. It is also clear that many of the divisive factors can be traced back to the capitalist and communist states of West Germany and East Germany that existed during the Cold War.
However, it doesn’t always have to be this way. Germany is investing a lot of resources in getting the Eastern part of their country on par with the Western part. As the East develops, the divide will diminish. When Eastern Germany catches up, the German unification will truly be complete.
Interesting observations Sifar.
This is not unique to Germany though.
India, also has a East-Wesy divide, with West India doing much better exonomically than Eastern India. Sanjeev Sanyal has interesting observations in this regard, in case you are interested in reading.