Germany
Merkel and Memory in Modern Germany — with Katja Hoyer and Faisal Al Yafai
Katja Hoyer joins New Lines’ Faisal Al Yafai on The Lede to discuss her history of East Germany, reunification and the former state’s most famous living politician, Angela Merkel.
The Specter of a Homeland
The German far right is strongest in the country’s formerly communist eastern states. Tracing the Cold War legacies of East Germany shows how a movement that is rising across Europe also feeds on unique national and regional histories.
Looking for the Roots of Today’s Germany
At some point after 1945, a new, socially liberal and pacifist Germany emerged that appeared almost the antithesis of what came before. As three books published in 2023 make clear, it was a long and winding journey to get there — and one based on continuity as well as rupture.
Germany Sees a Rise in ‘Anti-Antisemitism’
Middle Eastern politics have never been easy for Berlin. The German state supports the Israeli one, for obvious reasons, and the narrower limits on free speech are an outgrowth of WWII: You can’t praise Hitler, fly a swastika, deny the Holocaust or utter antisemitic hate speech. But the tendency in Germany right now is to squelch as much criticism of Israel as possible.
African Experiences in East Germany Are Erased but Not Forgotten
Africans came to East Germany for education and work under the banner of solidarity, yet the legacies of the East German experiment with anti-racism and anti-imperialism are entangled in the broader German history of race and empire.
The Unkept Promise of German Unification
Amid the renovated and repurposed villas that once belonged to the owners of the bell foundries and textile mills that once made Apolda a manufacturing hub were decrepit homes too that lay in ruins, and abandoned factories. They told a different story — one of a long Soviet occupation and what many here call the unfulfilled promise of Germany’s reunification.
The Right’s Resurgence in Eastern Germany
There are many reasons for the growing popularity of Germany's far right. According to polling, two-thirds of AfD voters are drawn to the party because they are unhappy with the others, not because of ideological reasons. The party also appeals to those in eastern Germany who are opposed to immigrants — at times angry over state expenses on refugees but mostly, experts believe, because there is no interaction between the residents and the new arrivals.