82 FRANK BÖSCH AND JENS GIESEKE
in post-unifi cation Germany embodies as much as Angela Merkel—an
East German woman following a pragmatic path to the political center
that had fi rst been paved for the SPD by Gerhard Schröder. It was thus
an East German who helped to liberalize the rather West German lean-
ing CDU/CSU and ensure that it could hold onto its majority. An internal
party transition could hardly be any more entangled than that of the CDU.
As of yet, no term has been coined for this liberalization of German
society around 2000. The longing for a new beginning was exemplifi ed
by the idea of the “Berlin Republic,” but its short-lived popularity is quite
telling. It has only occasionally popped up since then in the media, per-
haps because it was really only refl ective of the frenzied Internet and TV
journalism scene in Berlin and not a general public phenomenon.^142 In
the end, the idea of the Berlin Republic was more of a promise than a
new national identity. Despite the boom that engulfed Berlin, the Federal
Republic of Germany remained strongly federal in its political culture.
Even in the new federal states, a special “East German” consciousness
has continued to dominate alongside a strong attachment to one’s “home
state” within Germany.
The transformation of politics and what was considered to be political
was therefore a conjoined history in more ways than one. Despite the
many diff erences that existed before the fall of the Wall, ties existed be-
tween the protest movements and alternative cultures across the border.
Moreover, at least on a subcutaneous level, social dissatisfaction and the
distance to state institutions grew in East Germany. But, with the excep-
tion of DKP circles, the relationship between East and West remained
quite one-sided as political culture in the FRG looked to the changes tak-
ing place in neighboring countries to the West, mostly ignoring the GDR.
Twenty-fi ve years after reunifi cation, the political cultures in East and
West Germany have moved closer together, but the diff erences are still
discernible. The acceptance of democracy is almost just as strong in
the East, but its implementation has met with more criticism. Likewise,
trust in the government and the parties is still weaker in the former GDR
states, and only half of the East Germans feel “at home politically in the
Federal Republic.”^143 Yet, xenophobia is only marginally stronger in the
East, and the convergence of notions of social justice has been getting
stronger. In terms of political culture, the north-south diff erence is gain-
ing ground alongside the east-west divide. The diff ering levels of success
enjoyed by the Pegida demonstrations, the populist AfD (Alternative for
Germany), and the Left Party in East and West, however, point to the con-
tinued existence of historical and socioeconomic diff erences across the
old German-German border.