Ingrid Reiter ist bei der AfD. Sie meint, Ost- und Westdeutschland unterscheiden sich heute vor allem im Umgang mit ihrer Partei. „Von meiner Familie in München höre ich immer wieder, dass man nicht offen sagen kann, wenn man die AfD wählt. Man muss sich verstecken. Das finde ich furchtbar, wenn man sich in Deutschland für seine Meinung verstecken muss.“
Das sei in Bernau bei Berlin, wo Reiter mittlerweile lebt, ganz anders. „Im Osten muss man sich nicht verstecken, wenn man die AfD wählt.“ Sie ist an diesem Nachmittag ins Alte Stadthaus nach Cottbus gekommen, um mit einem für sie per Algorithmus ausgewählten Gesprächspartner über die politische Lage in Deutschland zu streiten. In ihrem Umfeld stoße sie bloß auf Menschen mit der gleichen Meinung. „Aber ich will mit jemandem sprechen, der ganz anderer Meinung ist. Ich möchte eine offene Diskussion.“
So wie sie sind knapp hundert andere Menschen nach Cottbus gekommen. Das Alte Stadthaus ist am Sonntag, eine Woche vor der Landtagswahl in Brandenburg, gut gefüllt. Von überall aus Deutschland sind die Teilnehmer angereist – und das trotz des Dauerregens und der plötzlichen Kälte. Im Rahmen der Leserdebattenaktion „Deutschland spricht“ wollen sie einen Menschen treffen, der völlig konträre Ansichten zu der ihren vertritt. Während sich parallel in ganz Deutschland Tausende Menschen an den Bildschirmen zum Streit zusammenschalten, treffen in der zweitgrößten Stadt Brandenburgs die Diskussionspaare persönlich aufeinander.
„Wir Deutschen haben doch oft die gleichen Probleme“
Für Kerstin Schönrock war die Anfahrt nicht lang. Die Zweiundfünfzigjährige wohnt schon ihr ganzes Leben im Umland von Cottbus. „Urbrandenburgerin“ nennt sie sich selbst. „Ich will, dass wir nicht mehr übereinander reden, sondern miteinander“, sagt sie über ihre Motivation, an diesem Tag mit politisch Andersgesinnten zu diskutieren. Sie stört sich daran, dass in den Medien und auch an diesem Tag noch immer von „den Ostdeutschen“ gesprochen werde.
“It starts with the fact that we talk about the old federal states and the new ones as if there were still a wall after thirty years. When you meet people from there, they often have the same problems as we do. They are nice, and some are not. Just like here.” She is worried about what is going on on social media channels like Tiktok. She finds it worrying that the established parties are hardly represented there. “The political content my children are presented with there without ever having looked for it worries me.”
Many people believe that German society is more divided today than it has been for a long time. Especially on the Internet, where people do not meet in person, there is often a toxic culture of debate that does not aim to gain knowledge but rather to denigrate the other party. Should Germany provide more military support to Ukraine? Has Germany taken in too many refugees? Do East and West Germans have the same opportunities?
The FAZ, together with the “Zeit” newspaper and eight other partner media, asked their readers a total of seven questions in “Germany Speaks”. More than five thousand readers responded to the call for debate and registered for a conversation. At 54 percent, just over half of the participants were of the opinion that German inner cities should be car-free. Only slightly less, 52 percent, agreed with the statement that Germany has taken in too many refugees.
A young Ukrainian learns a different view of the war
Marko Berezhanskyy and Daria Cichon have found a place in the middle of the Old Town Hall for their debate. The 16-year-old, who came with his mother, and the 28-year-old both found out about the debate via online articles. “I move very much in a bubble where you rarely come into contact with different opinions. The event offers the incentive to step out of there completely,” says Cichon.
The two have different opinions on German support for Ukraine. Berezhanskyy fled from Ukraine to Germany two years ago and now lives on Lake Constance – he thinks that Germany should provide Ukraine with more military support. Cichon sees things more differently after the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk. Through his discussions with her, Berezhanskyy has gained a different perspective on the war in Ukraine: “If Ukraine focuses its strength on offense and not defense, the question arises from a Western perspective as to why this should be supported.” He had not even thought about this perspective before the conversation.
Before the debates begin in pairs, speakers from Brandenburg provide food for thought on stage. Franziska Benack, director of drama at the State Theater in Cottbus, is scheduled to give a lecture that will shed light on how “theater in a divided city” is possible. But Benack conducts a quick survey in the hall and rejects the thesis contained in the title: Cottbus is not divided. Most of them are cyclists, and almost everyone thinks that Cottbus is not well represented in the media. “When we say divided, we mean politically divided: into the 30 percent who vote for the AfD and the 70 percent who don’t.”
She regularly experiences at the theater that an entire auditorium laughs until it cries, and then again that a play is torn to pieces by the audience and critics. But that is precisely what she finds so appealing about the theater: the counterargument; that not everyone has the same opinion as her. And she wishes everyone present a “wonderful afternoon of debate.”
A teacher who works with young people to explore the reasons for migration
This is exactly why Jörk Wegener has travelled from Berlin. The geography and sports teacher sees the AfD as very problematic and is concerned about the rule of law and democracy. As part of his teaching work, he also works with young people who have dropped out of school and want to find their way back. There he experiences right-wing extremism; criminality by foreigners is projected onto all migrants. In the young people’s view, “the two Syrians who committed the terrible acts in Solingen and Mannheim are exemplary of a million Syrian refugees.” Wegener wants to offer the young people a change of perspective – and at the same time take their fears and anxieties seriously. In the project, he tries to explain to the young people why Syrian people come to Germany in the first place.
The perspective of the students is represented among the speakers on stage by Stefan Tarnow. He is 18 and the speaker of the Brandenburg State Student Council. In May, only a few votes separated him from being elected to the Lübben City Council, for which he had stood as a candidate. “For most people, the issue of migration will be at the forefront of Sunday’s state election. For me, it plays a subordinate role, after all, it’s about state politics.” Tarnow is committed to fighting right-wing extremism in Brandenburg – which is why he is concerned about the AfD’s results in Saxony and Thuringia. “Populism has also become socially acceptable in schools, for example when people talk about ‘knife-wielding migrants’.”
He hopes that the people of Brandenburg will vote differently next Sunday. For him, the main thing that separates East and West today is “the incomplete unity in the mind.” He criticizes Merz for saying that people in the East have to explain more than those in the West. He also experiences that some of his friends see themselves as East Germans. “But we were all born after the fall of the Wall. We are all Germans.” That is why the media should not talk about the East elections, he says, “but about the elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.”
An election campaign in which young people do not see themselves
The upcoming state elections in Brandenburg are also of interest to Anke Hille-Sickert and her conversation partner Katharina Krefft. Hille-Sickert lives in Cottbus and works as a teacher, including in politics. Young people would hardly see themselves reflected in the election campaign debates with their personal life situations, she says. “Here in Brandenburg, people are allowed to vote from the age of 16 – and then you wonder why so many young people are voting for the AfD.”
Philosopher Romy Jaster has the closing words on stage. She is researching the culture of debate at the Humboldt University in Berlin. She reminds us of something central: although the country is currently extremely polarized politically, there is also something good about that. “Dissent is something that we should view positively if we deal with it in a cultured manner,” she says. “If we surround ourselves only with like-minded people, there is a high risk that our own blind spots will remain undiscovered.” Only in conversation with people who think differently, in the friction of opposing opinions and in contradiction can we humans advance our knowledge.
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