On the Day of Unity, two things made me start a new Project. First, photographing walking people – as in demonstrating or participating physically in public events – and then the overal Critique about East-West German divide, which is in many ways remarquable in its historical bias and simple social and political denials.
See photos of Project WALKING TO UNITY
As for getting to thinking about this divide in Contemporary German culture, some opinions, sources and thoughts below.
Why Is Eastern Germany So Far Right?
Opinion from the New York Times article online by Anna Sauerbrey, Oct. 4, 2018
Ms. Sauerbrey is an editor on the opinion page of the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
Almost 30 years after reunification, the former Communist region is now home to right-wing extremism.
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Overall, however, the debate about what’s happening in the east is dominated by western voices. Even 28 years after Germany’s reunification, most prominent journalists are westerners, as are most prominent policymakers and business leaders.
So when Germany discusses why the east is so far right, condescension almost inevitably sneaks in: For the sake of the argument, eastern Germany is unbuckled from the rest of the country, and the historical border is redrawn. In this new, old divide, eastern Germans are reduced to being subjects of analysis and policy proposals — never participants in the conversation.
The east and west are still like unequal siblings. The strong one loves his smaller and uglier brother and accepts that his deviant behavior comes from trauma, but he still looks down on him. This subjugation of eastern Germans to mostly western German psychoanalysis is a political drama in itself. It seems like even in their most violent, most determined actions, eastern Germans can never be agents.
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