What’s Going On in Germany’s East? (Swiss Press Audio 2019, by Peter Voegeli) - Swiss Press Award
Radio SRF Echo der Zeit
Peter Voegeli
Post reunification, the continuous migration of people from Germany’s east to the west was significant. Round about three years ago, it stopped. At this very time the first major wave of refugees arrived, sparking protests, particularly in the east. Journalist Peter Voegeli wants to find out what is going on in Germany’s east, why, for example, is the AfD (the Alternative for Germany political party) so successful there?
He visits three towns in his report: Heidenau, where the mayor says that the good and the capable have moved to the west; those who are not in any sense mobile, have remained. Zwickau in Saxony, where former employees of the Trabant plant feel they are not taken seriously. And Dresden, where supporters of the Pegida movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) demonstrate. Many East Germans see themselves as victims. At the end of the report, the Saxon minister of state, Petra Köpping, puts it in a nutshell – she recounts how, when presenting the integration program for refugees in 2015, members of the public had said to her: “You, Mrs Köpping and your refugees, start by integrating us first!”
Interview with Peter Voegeli
