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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

35 years ago, on October 3, 1990, Germany was reunified. Just two months later, voters in the former GDR went to the polls in the first free federal election since the Weimar era. Despite decades of socialist dictatorship, East German voting behavior displayed marked regional differences. Thread🧵

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Dominik Flügel @fluegeldo.bsky.social · 4d

Warum wird eigentlich überall Austerität durchgesetzt, wenn sie politisch und ökonomisch umstritten ist? In meinem Rezensionsessay vergleiche ich die Antworten von Clara Mattei und Fritz Bartel – im aktuellen @redaktionmerkur.bsky.social und hier kostenlos: www.merkur-zeitschrift.de/artikel/wozu...

Text auf weißem Hintergrund:
Dominik Flügel
Wozu Austerität?
»Ob über den Staatshaushalt, die Zentralbankpolitik oder andere Regulierungen - Austeritätspolitik, breit verstanden, basiert auf der Annahme, dass die Bevölkerung zu viel konsumiert und zu wenig produziert.«

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Teresa Völker @tevoelker.bsky.social · 1d

New paper out with @dasalgon.bsky.social: “Far-Right Agenda Setting: How the Far Right influences the Political Mainstream” doi.org/10.1017/S1475676525100066 #openaccess in @ejprjournal.bsky.social🧵

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 1d

Lippe

Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 1d

thinking about releasing a diss track against whoever drew the state borders of the German Reich

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Christian Stecker @pluggedchris.bsky.social · 2d

Wir suchen Wahlhilfenhelfer zur #Kommunalwahl in #Hessen 2026.
👉 Anmeldung zur Infoveranstaltung: tudaipol.limesurvey.net/994956?lang=de

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Søren Torbjørn Svendsen @sorentsvendsen.bsky.social · 3d

En anden læseværdig 🧵 om samme emne

bsky.app/profile/juli...

Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

35 years ago, on October 3, 1990, Germany was reunified. Just two months later, voters in the former GDR went to the polls in the first free federal election since the Weimar era. Despite decades of socialist dictatorship, East German voting behavior displayed marked regional differences. Thread🧵

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Clemens Villinger @clemensvillinger.bsky.social · 3d

Other explanations for the voting patterns: Even before 1989, the 'block parties' were a limited form of political pluralism. Due to the accessibility of Western media, East Germans were familiar with West German parties before 1989. They had also experienced the Volkskammer election in March 1990.

Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

It is striking how a society that lived for decades under a dictatorship imposing state ideology and restricting political and personal freedoms nonetheless exhibited such diverse voting patterns when democratic elections and greater political freedoms were introduced.

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Reposted by Julius Kölzer

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 5d

The last time I posted the income relationship to presidential vote among White respondents to the @electionstudies.bsky.social ANES, people asked for additional estimates among all voters.

Updated estimates here:

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 2d

I am sorry

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 2d

What is a political scientist doing at IKEA? Investigating accommodation

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

For yesterday’s 35th anniversary of German reunification, I dug into the data from the first free Bundestag election in the former GDR — and mapped out a few visuals 👇 The political heterogeneity that emerged is striking given the past four decades of socialist regime and one-party rule.

Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

35 years ago, on October 3, 1990, Germany was reunified. Just two months later, voters in the former GDR went to the polls in the first free federal election since the Weimar era. Despite decades of socialist dictatorship, East German voting behavior displayed marked regional differences. Thread🧵

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

Such a timely and important paper! (especially for the German audience on this platform)

Toni Rodon @tonirodon.bsky.social · 21d

🚨New article🔥

▶️The Impact of Holocaust Survivors' Testimonies and Politicians' Framings on Political Attitudes in Germany, at @nationsnationalism.bsky.social with Julian M. Hoerner.

We show how political framings of Holocaust memory shape attitudes today onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧵

The Impact of Holocaust Survivors' Testimonies and Politicians' Framings on Political Attitudes in Germany

How do politicians' framings of the need to remember the past shape contemporary political attitudes? This research note addresses this question by focusing on the case of the memory of the Holocaust...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

Klar, man kann das auch aus einer anderen Perspektive theoretisieren, aber dass sich ein so großer Teil einer Gesellschaft für eine Partei entscheidet, die bis vor einem Jahr zentraler Feind staatlicher Ideologie war, ist einfach ein spannendes Phänomen an sich. Mehr will ich gar nicht sagen.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

Obviously, election data was obtained from the one and only GERDA
www.german-elections.com

Overview German Election Database

The German Election Database provides comprehensive datasets of local, state, and federal election results in Germany for research on electoral behavior. Bundestagswahlergebnissen, Landeswahlergebniss...

www.german-elections.com

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

As some have noted, the map also shows that there were some rural villages in Thuringia with very high results for Bündnis 90. To be honest, I have no explanation for these cases, maybe @steffenmau.bsky.social.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

This suggests that, beneath the surface, political life and the political landscape in the GDR may have been more diverse and heterogeneous than we often think and than common narratives frequently suggest. Thanks for reading and happy Reunification day!

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

It is striking how a society that lived for decades under a dictatorship imposing state ideology and restricting political and personal freedoms nonetheless exhibited such diverse voting patterns when democratic elections and greater political freedoms were introduced.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

The DSU was the only right-wing party to gain notable support in 1990, winning 10% in East Germany, although it didnt compete in the West German states. The party soon declined, but its former strongholds in Thuringia & Saxony are now again bastions of the contemporary far-right.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

Lastly, the significantly higher support for far-right parties often observed in East Germany today was not as present in 1990. At the time, the main far-right parties, the NPD and the Republikaner, had their electoral strongholds in West and South Germany.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

The party’s strength in this region is often attributed to Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who grew up in Halle and was a popular figure there as a key architect of reunification. The region also had a strong national-liberal tradition dating back to the Weimar Republic.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

The market-liberal FDP won a similar share of votes in East Germany with about 5.1%. Its support was concentrated in southern Saxony-Anhalt. In Halle it even won the direct constituency seat with around 34% of first votes (something the party had not achieved since 1957 & has never achieved again).

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

Bündnis 90 won about 6% of the East German vote, fairly evenly spread with somewhat higher support in cities that saw large protests against the government in 1989. The party had its roots in citizens’ movements & opposition groups in the GDR and later merged with the West German Greens.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

The PDS, successor to the SED, won just 16% of the East German vote. Yet it still topped 30% in places like Peenemünde on the Baltic coast and Strausberg in Brandenburg—both major garrison towns of the East German army, with Strausberg even hosting the Air Force Command.

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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 4d

The shorter distance to Berlin & Hamburg, as well as the absence of Catholic minorities, might be important factors. Moreover, since most parties had little organizational presence + ressources in the East, the West German SPD may just have built local party structures there faster than the CDU.

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