Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke at an event in Halle on Sunday to celebrate 31 years since the reunification of East and West Germany at the end of the Cold War. Merkel — who grew up in East Germany — said that “mentally and structurally, unification hasn’t been completed yet.” She was referring to the persistent divisions between the eastern German states, which once formed the communist-ruled GDR, and the western Republic that absorbed the new states in 1990. Western Germans have remained, on average, wealthier than their eastern counterparts. The rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), especially in the states …
