Why German Reunification Is Still A Good Idea

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This is hardly surprising, given that disintegration was a much more significant shock than reunification. After more than four decades of separation, production infrastructure did not return to the original spatial distribution after reunification. Furthermore, the manner in which reunification was conducted likely exacerbated these disparities.

Unanticipated psychological impacts

Convergence is not just about money, and some measures that may have seemed justified from a strictly economic point of view have had unexpected impacts – particularly on the psychology of individuals, which plays a role that is equally important and difficult to measure in economic affairs.

For example, job losses related to the privatization of state-owned enterprises in the East decreased individual trust, reduced political engagement and increased support for radical parties, as Kellermann's work has shown . These sentiments of distrust have now become deeply entrenched.

Support for extreme parties is not diminishing, and many of these voters oppose the European project. On September 1, the AfD won the state election in Thuringia , marking its first-ever victory in a state election, and came a close second in Saxony. A recently formed populist left-wing party, BSW, came third in these elections.

Thirty-five years after reunification, there is no clear path back to convergence for the former East German states. On the contrary, we are currently experiencing political and policy paralysis. This has been aggravated by major geoeconomic shocks that have hit Germany in recent years, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which increased inflation , and the Fortress China strategy, which reduced German exports to China .

Political, economic and social fragmentation is back.

European inequalities

To make matters worse, German reunification occurred in a context of more general divergence between European regions . As worrying as it may be, the German situation is far from being an isolated case within the European Union.

Around the same time, another unification took place in Europe. The Maastricht Treaty, which went into effect on November 1, 1993, marked the foundation of the European Union (EU). It led to an increase in cooperation among member states ands development of European institutions and it set the stage for the creation of a common currency, the euro. However, much like German reunification, it did not lead to regional convergence within the European Union, as one might have expected.

Similar divides to those between West and East Germany exist in other European countries, such as the urban-rural divide in France, but also within the European Union, where peripheral regions have struggled, with a few exceptions. The path to sustainable recovery for these peripheries is unclear.

Instead, several factors make us fear that we are drifting toward political and economic disintegration within European states and Europe, as the recent experience with Brexit shows.

Better allocation of funds

While these problems cannot be easily solved, I would still like to suggest two avenues to explore. One promising area focuses on the effectiveness of EU funds. As discussed in my joint article with Jérôme Creel“ThisGenEU ,” there is an urgent need to significantly change the level and use of EU funds in order to address the real challenges of today, beyond just future climate change targets.

We now know much more about how EU funds can be used effectively. One problem is that some local governments may be tempted to respond to these funds by cutting public spending, which risks undermining their intended effects . Therefore, it is crucial to target funds that foster medium-term growth and to combine them with policies that enable peripheral regions to use them more productively, in order to avoid a“Dutch disease” type of situation.

Dutch disease

This term refers to a situation where financial inflows cause economic distortions such as rising wage costs, overheating the real estate market or excessive concentration of investments in low-productivity sectors and end up harming a country's economy in the long run. Politically, it can also lead to an institutional“Dutch disease,” where excessive reliance on external funds weakens incentives to reform local institutions, creating institutional blockages and ineffective governance.

For example, European funds should be supervised by Europeans and not by local authorities. Disconnecting their management and use from local political authorities is crucial. Similarly, industrial policy should be implemented at the European level, in order to balance competition and coordination among different regions. Regional governments could also be given more responsibility in the provision of public goods to ensure healthy competition among regions.