Longing for the Wall and Barbed Wire? The Romanticization and Political Consequences of Inner-German History Before and After 1990

Thirty-six years after reunification, many historical facts seem to have been forgotten: the causes of the Cold War from 1947 to 1990; the reasons for the collapse of the GDR—economically, politically, and ideologically. Also forgotten are the reasons why the Federal Republic of Germany was able to develop a stable political, social, and economic system since 1949—despite all the burdens from National Socialism, despite recurring crises and challenges. The West’s economic contributions to the “reconstruction of the East” are today defamed as a “takeover.” The trauma of identity loss experienced by many GDR citizens is cited as justification when they vote for ethno-racist and nationalist parties such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) or when ballots are cast for the anti-capitalist, partly anti-Semitic Left Party and the anti-Western, pro-Russian BSW—which together garnered more than 50 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6, 2026. Prior to 1990 in West Germany there too were extremist parties and political movements—from the NPD to the DVU to the DKP—that threatened the parliamentary-democratic system enshrined in the Basic Law. But none of these groups ever came close to political power. Magnus Brechtken analyses the differences in this development between East and West and contextualizes them within the history of the 20th and 21st centuries. His presentation lays the foundation for further discussion, which is urgently needed today.

Part of the Berlin Conversations Series of the European Democracy Institute

Prof. Dr. Magnus Brechtken is a German historian. He is the deputy director of the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich and teaches at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. In 2017, he wrote a biographical study of Albert Speer, which won the 2017 NDR Culture Award for Non-fiction.

---

For more information, e-mail [email protected].

Time: 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm CET/GMT+1

Location: Julie Johnson Kidd Hall, Waldstraße 15, 13165 Berlin

Subscribe: Save this Event: Subscribe / .ics File