Together but Apart: German Unity Day’s Significance in an Election Year
As German Unity Day approaches, election-year politics expose the old rift between East and West.
Demonstrations at the Berlin Wall in 1989. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
By: Abigail Greene
History and Significance of German Unity Day
German Unity Day is celebrated on October 3 to commemorate the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990. After the Second World War, Germany was divided into four occupied zones, with France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union each controlling one zone. In 1949, the French, British, and American zones combined to form the German Federal Republic (West Germany), while the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
Although Berlin was squarely situated in East Germany, its political, economic, and historical significance led to its division into two halves, one controlled by the West and the other by the East. As millions of East Germans fled westward, East Germany constructed the Berlin Wall around West Berlin. Entry to and exit from West Berlin were only possible through designated routes and tightly controlled checkpoints. Because of the largely arbitrary placement of the border, the Wall separated families and divided communities until its collapse in 1989.
On November 9, 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall signified the end of the division between East and West Germany. The following October, the two Germanies were officially reunited. While the holiday of course has special significance in Germany, Unity Day also represents the larger collapse of the Soviet Union and of communism in Eastern Europe, heralding the end of the Cold War.
Celebration of German Unity Day
Interestingly, although German Unity Day is often identified with the destruction of the Berlin Wall, it is not celebrated on the day of the Wall’s collapse, November 9. This is because November 9 is “Schicksalstag” or the “Day of Fate,” the date of multiple crucial turning points in German history, including Hitler’s Beerhall Putsch and Kristallnacht. October 3 was chosen somewhat arbitrarily as a more neutral date for the signing of the official reunification treaty and, consequently, German Unity Day.
Unity Day, unlike other European national holidays, is not celebrated with festivals or parades. A poll by the Allensbach Institute found that most Germans find it important to contemplate history on Unity Day, but few plan any activities. It is mostly a day for rest and reflection.
International Significance and the Modern East-West Division
During the Cold War, Germany was a microcosm of the conflict between West and East. Nowhere else was the division of people into two ideological camps as dramatic as where it involved a physical barrier between families and neighbors. The Berlin Wall became a flashpoint in the final days of the Cold War because of its high number of escape attempts, even in the face of political crackdowns.
While many Eastern Europeans sought to leave the Soviet Bloc at this time, they faced great uncertainty as to what awaited them in the West. Germans, on the other hand, were in a unique position to peer beyond the Iron Curtain and see what life in their country would be like under a different regime. Their physical closeness to a different life gave many the motivation required to take the dangerous step of leaving. German Unity Day represents the desire of many Europeans in the 1990s, not just East Germans, to flee totalitarian rule and regain freedom of movement and expression.
Germany’s national elections in 2017 demonstrated that the political divide between West and East remains relevant today. Germany’s far-right party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), received twice as much support in eastern Germany as in western Germany (22% compared to 11%). The western half of the country is more liberal, with more support for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The 2017 election results led to debate over why eastern Germany leans so much further right than the rest of the country.
Role of Division
One theory is that the modern political divide relates to the country’s history of division. Because the creation of East Germany was overseen by the Soviet Union, East Germans lived for decades under one-party rule, without free elections or civil liberties.
Today, East Germans are less likely than West Germans to believe that democracy is the best form of government (78% of the population compared to 91%). East Germans are also more likely to be opposed to Angela Merkel’s immigration policy, with 99% of AfD voters saying they voted based on the AfD’s promises to restrict immigration and the “influx of Islam in Germany.” This might be because East Germany’s physical isolation from the rest of the world for decades led to a society that still today is more racially and culturally homogenous than that in the West. Although eastern Germany is home to far fewer immigrants than western Germany, the shift from a homogenous to a multicultural society feels more dramatic there, possibly fueling this reactionism.
Role of Reunification
Another theory, however, connects the current political climate to reunification rather than division. When Germany was reunified, the East was essentially adopted into the western government and economy, as opposed to the two states combining to form a new government. This is reflected in the fact that the formal name of Germany remains the Federal Republic of Germany, as it was in West Germany. The eastern states are still referred to as the “new states,” despite their shared history with the West.
As a result, many eastern Germans have a feeling of “estrangement” from the country and alienation from its politics, which has been intensified by higher rates of unemployment and lower salaries compared to their western counterparts (although the economic gap has narrowed somewhat in recent years). The East has some of the lowest voter turnout and highest mistrust of government in the country. This likely plays some role in the embrace of anti-establishment, populist political figures.
2021 Elections and the International Impact
Germany will hold national elections again this year on September 26. Current projections indicate that the AfD is unlikely to lose any seats in the Bundestag; it may even gain a few. However, the Green Party is predicted to garner more seats this election.
Just within the past few months, the Social-Democratic Party has experienced a sharp increase in popularity, while the moderate-right Christian Democratic Union has continued the negative trend in popularity it has been experiencing all year. In general, it seems like the AfD will still have some role in politics, but that the new government will likely lean further left overall. In spite of these changes, however, the political division between East and West remains apparent.
Just as the division between East and West Germany used to be a microcosm of the Cold War, the current political situation is once again mirroring larger political trends. Although far-right politicians have found some success in a number of Western countries, including the United States, Britain, and France, democratic backsliding has been much more pronounced in Eastern European countries like Hungary, Poland, Belarus, and Russia.
Germany’s federal politics reflect these trends: support for the AfD increased across the country in the leadup to the 2017 elections, but the increase was sharper in the East. Germany Unity Day is a day to reflect on history, but with elections around the corner, we’re reminded that some history is not as far behind us as we might like to think.
Abigail Greene is a second-year student at Columbia Law School and a staff member of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2019.