Overview
- In a new 240-page conversation book, the Left party veteran Bodo Ramelow and historian Ilko‑Sascha Kowalczuk assess Germany 35 years after reunification under the title “Die neue Mauer – Ein Gespräch über den Osten.”
- The authors argue that deep hostility toward the West and its political system persists in wide parts of the East, citing western arrogance and misunderstandings of life in the former GDR.
- They link the discontent to early reunification errors and a drastic collapse in employment that, they say, went largely unrecognized in the West.
- The book contends that the AfD capitalizes on this mood and warns that negative or reactionary political trends often emerge earlier in the East before appearing in the West with a delay.
- Ramelow and Kowalczuk voice concern about the near-term political climate, pointing specifically to the municipal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on September 14.