{"id":153350,"date":"2024-09-06T07:41:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-06T07:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voxweb.nl\/?p=150785"},"modified":"2024-09-06T07:41:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T07:41:44","slug":"its-not-easy-being-from-the-east-of-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voxweb.nl\/blog\/its-not-easy-being-from-the-east-of-germany","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not easy being from the East of Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEast is East and West is West\u201d read an article headline in de<\/em> Volkskrant<\/em> a few days before the regional elections in Thuringia and Saxony. \u201cAnd in Germany, it also stays like that.\u201d When international news outlets write about my home state (Thuringia), it usually gives me a headache.<\/p>\n

This time, it was about the, by now, almost notorious regional elections, where the AfD scored a sweeping victory last Sunday. \u2018Wait,\u2019 some of you might ask. \u2018Weren\u2019t those the same guys that had the secret meeting about \u2018remigrating\u2019 millions of refugees, migrants and \u2018non-assimilated\u2019 German citizens?\u2019 And yes, you would be correct. That AfD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018I cannot count how many times I\u2019ve been asked if I know any Nazis\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not easy being from the East right now. And it has never been pleasant to begin with. \u2018I had a teacher from Saxony,\u2019 one girl told me during my introduction week, back in 2016, after learning that I\u2019m from Thuringia (which is not Saxony, but no one really cares). \u2018She was really racist.\u2019 I\u2019m sorry about that, I replied. But not everyone from the East is racist. \u2018No,\u2019 was her answer. \u2018They are.\u2019 We didn\u2019t become the best of friends after that.<\/p>\n

I cannot count how many times I\u2019ve been asked whether my parents are AfD voters (no, they are not), if I know any Nazis (yes, there was one the year ahead of me in school) or how the socio-economic historical developments during the fall of the Berlin Wall inform modern East German politics (well, that one is complicated).<\/p>\n

East Germany has a right-wing problem \u2013 that\u2019s true. But, and that\u2019s a pill hard to swallow, so does the rest of the country. So does the Netherlands. And France. And Italy. And, quite frankly, most Western democracies. I\u2019m not writing that to point fingers (preferably away from Erfurt). I\u2019m saying it because people \u2013 in Germany and abroad \u2013 have a tendency to view the rise of the right as a \u2018you\u2019 (East) and not a \u2018me\u2019 (West) issue.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you want a democracy to stay healthy, you have to actively engage with it\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s always those crazy other people, living in those crazy other parts of the country. Not me. I\u2019m sane. I\u2019m not part of the problem. When in reality, not being a Nazi yourself is, unfortunately, not enough to stop Nazis from coming to power. Just watch Cabaret<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you want a democracy to stay healthy, you have to actively engage with it \u2013 and most people simply don\u2019t. No one has time to volunteer in their community. The news is difficult to digest, so better not pay attention. And if someone says something really atrocious about refugees, that\u2019s just their opinion, no need to fight grandma on Christmas. And I get it. I\u2019m tired too. But that\u2019s a collective ailment and not nearly as exclusively regional as it\u2019s often being framed as.<\/p>\n

The East was supposed to become politically normal over time, is what the article in de<\/em> Volkskrant<\/em> is insinuating. It just didn\u2019t happen. Because the East is the East and the West is the West and most East Germans are Nazis (or at least voting for them) and normal people are not.<\/p>\n

I know, there are quite some Germans who\u2019d like to re-erect the wall right now. Trust me, they have told me. But I doubt it will provide the remedy we\u2019re all hoping for. If you look around and find yourself in an ugly reality, it\u2019s not enough to get enraged about the people who have littered the place. You have to start picking up the trash \u2013 because, truly, no one else will.<\/p>\n

Het bericht It\u2019s not easy being from the East of Germany<\/a> verscheen eerst op Vox magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEast is East and West is West\u201d read an article headline in de Volkskrant a few days before the regional\u2026<\/p>\n

Het bericht It\u2019s not easy being from the East of Germany<\/a> verscheen eerst op Vox magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1987,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3276,3277,84,368,3285,25,28295,28296,28297,28298,28299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afd","category-alternative-fur-deutschland","category-blog","category-de-volkskrant","category-nazis","category-nieuws","category-regional-elections","category-sachsen","category-saxony","category-thuringen","category-thuringia"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1987"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153351,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153350\/revisions\/153351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discomedia.nl\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}