The status of German unity 30 years after reunification is characterized by a progressive equalization of living conditions, similar attitudes and a comparably high level of voluntary commitment in East and West.

At the same time, the current report by the “Commissioner for the New Federal States”, Marco Wanderwitz (CDU), indicates that there are still serious differences.

They affect, for example, the lower economic performance of the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Berlin.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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    Economic power in the west is around 20 percent higher than in the east, and hourly wages in the west, at an average of 26 euros, are considerably higher than in the east, where an average of 20 euros is paid.

    The gross domestic product per capita in 2020 in the eastern countries including Berlin was around 32,500 euros.

    In the western countries the value was around 42,000 euros.

    Big differences in wealth

    The persistently low export quota in the eastern countries led to fewer slumps during the pandemic, and domestic business was more stable than foreign trade.

    The unemployment rates have now approximated - and have been for a long time: In the east, the rate in the pandemic year 2020 was 7.3 percent, in the west it was 5.6.

    This is a small difference compared to the previous gradient.

    The differences in wealth remain large and will probably continue to grow through inheritance.

    In the east one has on average only half as much wealth as in the west, namely around 88,000 euros compared to 182,000 euros.

    The differences in pay between men and women in the east are remarkably small.

    The West has a lot more catching up to do here.

    However, wealth alone does not seem to make life satisfaction, which is comparably high in East and West.

    However, the Eastern Commissioner was also able to report that in surveys in both the Eastern countries (33 percent) and the Western countries (25 percent), a large number of them describe themselves as “second-class citizens”.

    The population decline remains worrying.

    The report predicts a sharp decline of up to 20 percent in other parts of the East, apart from boom regions such as Leipzig, Dresden or Berlin-Brandenburg.

    There is also a big difference in the proportion of foreign populations: large parts of the eastern countries have between 2.1 and 6 percent foreigners, in the west it is between 16 and 37 percent in many regions.

    "You don't do that"

    When presenting his report, Commissioner Wanderwitz complained about an “extremely problematic and entrenched tendency” in eastern countries to vote for right-wing extremist parties. This is "a problem that reaches the very foundations of democracy". The official report, for which the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the federal government as a whole are responsible, states that, “One of the remaining differences is that a larger minority in the new federal states has a skeptical and distant basic attitude towards politics; however, these differences are of a degree and not of a substantial nature. "

    Wanderwitz renewed his criticism of voting behavior in the eastern federal states, where the "right-wing extremist AfD" got three times as many votes as in western countries. Wanderwitz said: “If I vote for right-wing extremist parties, then something is wrong with me. You don't do that in a democracy. These are women and men who have no good plans for this country. "

    Instead of considering moving ministries based in Bonn to Berlin, Wanderwitz thinks more of the Bavarian model, where entire ministries have been moved from “overheated Munich” to other cities, such as Nuremberg. When asked whether it was still appropriate after 30 years to refer to the eastern countries as “new countries”, Wanderwitz replied that they had been puzzling over another name for a long time, but nothing was found. The term "East Germany" is too generalized for him.