The 9th of November is an oddly important date in Germany history – not just the fall of the Berlin Wall, but various other things including the end of the Kaiserreich and Kristallnacht. All of which is presumably coincidental, but is a little odd all the same.
Anyway – while the fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the most important singular events in German (and also European) 20th century history and of the formal (and very, very real) division of the two Germanies, it’s worth noting that it wasn’t the end of divisions between the former DDR and the original territory of the Federal Republic – an obvious point, perhaps, but one overlooked in some of the more “branded history” coverage of the 20th anniversary. You only need to look at the election maps in the post below to see that - the division is especially sharp as regards Die Linke (for obvious reasons) but it shows up in the maps of support for all the major parties; even the Greens who’s utterly urban base means that regional divisions don’t dominate their support patterns as much as the other parties. But here’s the interesting thing – divisions of all kinds (though not so sharp as exist now) between what is now the East* and the West long before 1945. People who believe that all divisions between the ex-DDR and the rest of Germany can ever melt away are optimistic but also foolish.
*Before 1945 and the loss of all territories east of the Oder-Neisse line, “Eastern Germany” was Germany east of the river Elbe. The modern land of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia were regarded as being part of “Central Germany”. Central Germany was industrial with strong Socialist (both SPD and KPD) tendencies, “Eastern Germany” was largely rural (though included Berlin) and protestant-nationalist-conservative – though with large votes for SPD in places (especially Lower Silesia – now part of Poland) and for the KPD in parts of Berlin.
Further useless but mildly interesting historical fact – the greatest KPD stronghold in all of Germany was the borough of Wedding in Berlin. It was not included in East Berlin after 1945 and is the most dependable part of the city for the SPD.
