A wall that never came down

On the night of November 9, 1989, during a press conference, officer Günter Schabowski announced the easing of travel restrictions for citizens of the German Democratic Republic, under communist rule, to go abroad. When asked by an Italian journalist about when this measure would take effect, a confused Schabowski checked his notes and responded, “ist das sofort...,” meaning “it’s immediate.” Those three words changed the history of a continent. Hundreds, and then thousands, of East Berlin residents approached the border crossings, and there, just as confused, the guards lifted the controls and allowed Berliners to cross.

Schabowski’s response was a mistake—the law did not authorize uncontrolled travel immediately—but at that point, there was no turning back. The Wall had fallen. A year later, the two Germany were reunified under a single government—or at least, that’s the official story. For many in the former communist Germany, today they speak of “dissolution” and “absorption.”

The federal government unified the currencies, education systems, and healthcare—unified them in the Western style. During the first year, it was possible to convert your savings from East German marks to West German marks, but this did not prevent the collapse of the communist economic structure, which resulted in unemployment and loss of influence for the citizens of the now-defunct democratic republic. Until 2020, West Germans paid a special tax aimed at balancing the social and economic conditions in the East: tax reductions for factories relocating there, greater unemployment aid, etc.

In 2008, the German state withstood the economic crisis, but the European Union was at risk of collapsing—and if Europe collapsed, so would Germany. In this context, German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to support a bailout plan for Southern European countries: Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and—Ireland, though not in the south, also benefited. This didn’t sit well in the East. -Why support the Greeks or Spaniards?- Some asked, -We don’t need the European Union!- Others exclaimed. That’s when Alternative for Germany (AfD) was born, an Euroskeptic party that rejected EU bailouts and promoted Germany’s exit from the Union. This DEXIT project, a blend of Deutschland and Exit, fizzled when the disastrous consequences of BREXIT became clear in the UK. However, the project did not die, but rather reinvented itself. It's a new goal: stopping immigration.

Since 2015, the AfD has launched a campaign to block immigration, first from non-EU European countries (Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia, etc.), then supporting gas pipeline connections with Russia, and a strong anti-Islamist message.

The 2015 refugee crisis, following the Syrian civil war, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the subsequent consequences, have created a perfect environment for AfD ideas to flourish, especially in Germany’s economically less developed regions, and particularly among men between 18 and 24.

The division marked by the Iron Curtain in 1949 remains visible in 2025. Germany is a country with unresolved conflict and a political group feeding on this discontent, turning it into an idea that has set off alarm bells even among the most conservative right-wing sectors of the continent.

Today, the AfD garners the support of 20% of the German population, while being rejected by figures such as Giorgia Meloni in Italy or Marine Le Pen in France, who consider them too extreme. Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution is investigating some of its members for using SS expressions and consistently trivializing the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime in the 1930s and 40s.

In 1989, the physical wall fell, but the ideological one remains, and is becoming increasingly evident.