FRG AND GDR IN THE FOCUS OF MODERN WEST GERMAN MEDIA

UDC
DOI: 10.36871/ek.up.p.r.2024.11.12.006

Authors

Anna A. Seregina,
Graduate student of the Faculty of Global Processes at Moscow State University. Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow, Russia

Abstract

This article explores the peculiarities of the perception of East Germany in the West German press. Particular attention is paid to the post-unification period, when the eastern states faced difficult processes of adaptation to the new political and economic reality. Despite more than 30 years since the formal unification, East Germans still do not feel that they are full citizens of a unified Germany, as sociological research shows. The paper also analyzes how the West German press covers the problems of East Germany, in particular, the growing popularity of right-wing movements and the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) party in the “new” states. The author highlights media tendencies to stigmatize East Germans as “anti-democrats”, “Nazis”, and fails to take into account the complex reasons why right-wing ideas resonate in this region.

Keywords

Germany, GDR, German media, East Germany, inequality