http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html en-gb 30 Fri 01 Jan 2010 09:10:24 GMT+1 A feed of user comments from the page found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html?page=15#comment3 The significance of 1989 and 2009 are tied closer then we might want to credit, The European elections then presented the Green Party in England with 15% of the national vote, except it was the last FPTP election and none won a seat. The wall fell and so the various stages of societal change were visible and still are.Take 2009, due to the unforseen circumstances of a newspaper expos'e denuding the Governments last integrity, showing that the meperors are not wearing cloth, the Greens are presented with another unique opportunity to win support for their honest and long term policies, this time under PR.Both 1989 and 2009 will be remebered for differing reasons, one for the demise of the wall, the other for the demise of its ancient politcal system its entry into the 21st. century. But the common factor is the rise of the Green Party when things get pear shaped, a sign for an underlying support and trust that is widely ignored by the media, academia and public alike.And no, I am not a member anymore, but an Independent, just in case someone asks Mon 01 Jun 2009 13:21:18 GMT+1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html?page=10#comment2 Lothar Bisky in fact joined the SED in 1963 having left West Germany in 1959 to become a student at Leipzig university. See Jesse, E., Lang, J.P. (2008) Die Linke - der smarte Extremismus einer deutschen Partei. Munich: Olzog. Fri 29 May 2009 16:28:10 GMT+1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html?page=5#comment1 As a Brit who's lived in Germany since 1990 I continue to find Germans & Germany both delightful and perplexing.Amnesia or perhaps more correctly general ignorance about the reality of the communist era amongst under-30's in former East Germany is both well documented and astonishing, particularly as the German school curriculum goes to extreme lengths to explain the horrors of the Nazi period.However, if you bear in mind that the school curriculum is set locally by each of the 16 German "Bundesländer", and that the vast majority of the teachers and associated bureaucrats in the education ministries in Berlin and the other former East German Bundesländer were in their posts before the wall came down, their unwillingness to denounce their communist past is less surprising.In reality, the support for the far right is much smaller and far less significant than that for the far left. Given the natural concerns about the "brown" contingent, the activities of the far right tend to be over-report and over-rated.Another factor in the growth of the far left in former East Germany is the undiminished and significant gap in wealth, job prospects and general level of education between former West and East Bundesländer. The spread in yesterday's unemployment figures makes this all too clear, with Berlin above 14%, and the other Eastern Bundesländer not far behind, but Bavaria below 5%.The continued drift of German politics to the left and the very high levels of personal taxation frustrates anyone brought up in an Anglo-Saxon culture. But given the current economic climate and the likely collapse into bankruptcy of Opel, which is still seen by many Germans as an iconic National brand, who can blame them ? Fri 29 May 2009 13:18:25 GMT+1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/markurban/2009/05/germanys_new_dividing_lines.html?page=0#comment0 the nexr great step forward will come from Germany, they are already fed up with the European 'dream'...only they will do something about it... Thu 28 May 2009 15:55:28 GMT+1