East Germans are "not adequately represented across all management levels" in reunified Germany.

This is the result of an evaluation of the data from executives in about 100 supreme and higher federal authorities as well as the administrations of supreme and higher federal courts, which the Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe, Carsten Schneider (SPD), initiated.

Stephen Locke

Correspondent for Saxony and Thuringia based in Dresden.

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Of a total of 3,639 management positions in the highest and higher federal authorities, the proportion of East Germans is just 13.5 percent.

If you leave out Berlin, the figure is only 7.4 percent.

A similar picture emerges in the judiciary.

Here just 5.1 percent of the judges are native East Germans.

This means that the underrepresentation of East Germans in managerial positions is "even more clearly visible," according to the report that Schneider presented in Berlin on Wednesday.

East Germans make up about 20 percent of the population.

In the count, East Germans are those who were born in East Germany.

West Germans who have moved here, who also make up a large part of the management staff in East Germany themselves, do not count.

The traffic light promised a lot in the coalition agreement

It is still an unresolved problem that East Germans are still "significantly underrepresented in management positions in our country more than 32 years after reunification," said Schneider.

However, the federal government has decided to change that.

"We are improving the representation of East Germans in leadership positions and decision-making bodies in all areas," says the coalition agreement, which also promises a concept for implementation.

Schneider now presented this.

Because the gross imbalance in German leadership positions also violates the principle of “proportional federal parity” laid down in the Basic Law.

This means that civil servants in the highest federal authorities from all countries are to be used in an appropriate proportion.

East Germans should not only be in more leadership positions in politics and administration, but also in the judiciary, culture, media, science and business, said Schneider.

"That is crucial for the cohesion of society and the stability of democracy." Because the process in East Germany has been the same again and again since 1990: West Germans in management positions in various institutions prefer to fill their positions with West Germans.

This is a problem insofar as East German perspectives, experiences and sensitivities often play no role in the decision-making process.

Just a few months ago, for example, the "Germany Monitor" showed that satisfaction with democracy and the political situation in the East was only 39 and 31 percent, respectively.

This is a decrease of ten percent compared to 2020.

The decline is about the same in the West, but the level of satisfaction there is still 59 and 54 percent respectively.

Not only Schneider concludes that this is also due to the lack of representation of the East Germans.

Many still felt like second-class citizens and excluded from the main debates and decisions in the country.

However, Schneider wants to do without a frequently demanded Eastern quota when filling vacancies – also because a clear definition of East German origin is becoming increasingly difficult.

Instead, he wants to turn several small screws.

In the future, the federal government has made a voluntary commitment to give East Germans more consideration when filling management positions.

To this end, selection committees should be made up of more diverse staff and managers should be specifically prepared for their tasks.

In addition, more federal authorities and research institutions are to be located in the East and cooperation with East German state governments is to be expanded.

In addition, the exchange of personnel between federal and state authorities as well as between administration and the private sector should also take the East/West theme into account in the future.