A Conversation About the East
Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk is one of the foremost experts on the history of the GDR and has been one of the most prominent and dedicated observers of the reunification process for 35 years. The FAZ called him the “punk among German historians” (FAZ).
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Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk und Bodo Ramelow: Die neue Mauer Ein Gespräch über den Osten
Bodo Ramelow has been politically active in East Germany since 1990 and served as Minister-President of Thuringia from 2014 to 2024. Today, he represents the party Die Linke in the Bundestag. The two sat down to discuss the causes of the AfD’s sweeping election victory in the new federal states.
The contemporary historian and the pragmatist, each from their own distinct perspective, arrive at a highly nuanced picture of the present-day German-German reality.
Much of what went wrong in the East after 1990 can be explained by oversights and mistakes in the reunification process.
Using numerous examples, Kowalczuk and Ramelow show how wrong West Germans often were in their assessments and how their arrogant behavior caused a great deal of damage. But the fact that large segments of the population have turned their backs on democracy and the rule of law has much deeper causes. The questions about the future of our democracy are not limited to the East.
Anyone who wants to know how we can prevent the fire from spreading to the West in the near future should not miss this event.
IN GERMAN
Additional information
Dates
November 2026
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