The renewed East-West debate in Germany has led the bestseller author Dirk Oschmann of Leipzig to assign media outlets some blame for the escalation. Speaking to “Spiegel”, Oschmann stated that it would have been better if recent articles published in “FAZ” and “Spiegel” had never appeared. Those articles had raised the question of whether the financial transfer payments from the West to the East should continue even if the AfD came into power in Saxony-Anhalt.
The East German Germanist, Oschmann, discussed this new East-West conflict in a segment moderated by the news magazine, alongside West German sociologist Armin Nassehi. Oschmann expressed that as an Eastern German, he feels “confronted with discrimination and exclusion” by this media coverage, which enrages him.
Nassehi admitted that he, too, found “some of the texts we discussed to be problematic aesthetically and in tone.” However, he argued that people must be allowed to write such things. “That is the problem, and simultaneously the character of a society that is not centrally controlled: it must deal with complexity.”
Nassehi believes that solutions lie more in comprehensive political projects that encompass the entire Federal Republic. He pointed out that issues like artificial intelligence changing working life or demography challenging healthcare systems require political courage from parties. They must articulate what they intend to do against these recognized problems, going beyond their respective local concerns and “folklore.” Instead of minor adjustments, such as one extra pension point, they need to define a large-scale, nationwide project.
