East Germany's economic backwardness in many areas has not yet been compensated for. In 2024, full-time employees in the former East Germany still earned 837 euros less than people in the former West Germany, writes public broadcaster ZDF in an article about the differences between the two parts of Germany - 35 years after their reunification.
East Germans still earn and own less
The financial resources of households are also higher in the old West German states than in the new ones in the east – respectively 182,000 euros versus 88,000 euros on average per household - according to 2018 data.
This means that people in the eastern states inherit less than those in the western states: in 2024, western Germans received four times more in inheritances and donations than people in the eastern part of the country. Public broadcaster MDR has calculated, based on data for 2022, that West Germans donate and inherit nine times more money than East Germans.
“The great economic and social inequality between regions limits both the structural development opportunities of the underdeveloped regions as a whole and the individual development opportunities of their residents“, commented Rai Kollmorgen, professor of sociology at the University of Görlitz-Zittau, to German Television 2.
Unemployment in the new and old states
The East German states have faced enormous changes - first the introduction of the market economy, and later the transition from an industrial society to a service society. These changes also affected people seriously for another reason: in the 1990s, unemployment in the eastern German states was significantly higher than in the west.
“The former GDR was a significantly smaller and economically weaker part of the new reunified Germany, so the east was forced to adapt to the west“, sociologist Kollmorgen told ZDF.
The population is only increasing in the western states
In addition to economic factors, there are other factors that contribute to inequality. For example, there are fewer young people living in eastern Germany than in western Germany. In 2024, young people under the age of 30 made up 32% of the population in the western states, and 28% in the eastern states.
In addition, the population in western Germany is growing, while that in eastern Germany is shrinking. The DPA agency cites official statistics that show that between 1991 and 2024, around 1.2 million more people moved from eastern to western Germany than those who moved in the opposite direction. Almost half of these moves took place in the first ten years after reunification. In 1991, for example, around 165,000 people left the eastern federal states to move to the west, the agency added.
According to Professor Kollmorgen, this combination of economic and social factors could lead to a “downward spiral“ in the affected regions - to an increasing interaction of negative factors, which will generate even higher support for the right-wing populist party “Alternative for Germany“ (AfD).
The West lags behind the East in terms of child-rearing conditions
However, there are also areas in which East Germany has advantages - for example, in terms of gender equality. Women in the western federal states work part-time much more often than in the eastern ones. This is due to the better infrastructure in East Germany for raising children in nurseries, kindergartens and school classes, which is due to traditions from the GDR era.
As a result of these factors, the differences in pay between men and women in East Germany are smaller than in West Germany, where women earn nearly 17% less per hour than men - regardless of the industry, professional experience and position. In East Germany, this difference is significantly smaller - only 5%.
However, sociologist Kollmorgen notes that in both the GDR and the FRG, housework and child-rearing were considered purely female responsibilities. This means that for women in the former GDR, this led to a significantly higher workload.
How (une)qual are East and West today?
The data show that there are still differences. However, not everything can be explained by the GDR's past. “All German regions also show influences that date back a long time, i.e. before the founding of the FRG and the GDR“, Professor Kollmorgen points out in this regard.
In his personal life, the sociologist perceives the unification of Germany as a gain: “The free and democratic constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany gave me the opportunity to engage intellectually with topics for which there was neither literature nor public space in the GDR“, he also told ZDF.
Emilian Lilov Editor