Who's Bad at Democracy Now?

Germany’s persistent East-West divide is not just a product of the past but of present-day political inequality

It’s been more than a third of a century since the German unification of 1990. Between Hamburg and Munich and Cologne and Frankfurt-on-Oder, you’ll easily find adults who have no personal memory of the country’s Cold War division, even quite a few who were born after it. Germany divided, in other words, is history.

And yet, it isn’t. That’s what this year’s Day of German Unity – a public holiday on 3 October – has, once again, made clear. For one thing, differences and even tensions between the former West and East Germanies have persisted.