Persistent inequalities? Looking towards and beyond the continuing East-West divides in German society

A special issue of the journal "Raumforschung und Raumordnung | Spatial Research and Planning (RuR)" will focus on the ongoing socio-economic and political divide between eastern and western Germany. The guest editors are Franziska Görmar and Jörn Knobloch from the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography.

Over the past ten years, the debate on persistent East-West inequalities in Germany has gained momentum again. The debate continues to play a prominent role in Germany’s self-perception with regard to politically relevant socio-spatial inequalities. However, 35 years after reunification, there are increasing approaches in academia and politics that consider other socio-spatial differences to be more politically relevant. For example, research has identified a problematic urban-rural divide and major socio-spatial differences between northern and southern Germany. These "new" spatial inequalities may challenge the political relevance of the East-West distinction. For example, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) points out that the eastern German states have continued to catch up in terms of financial and economic power, while the urban-rural divide is increasing everywhere. ‘Left-behind regions’ no longer exist only in eastern Germany, but increasingly also in old industrial or rural regions of western Germany, which are also facing major challenges in the current transformation processes.

However, this is not enough to completely relativise the socio-spatial East-West distinction. Eastern Germany is predominantly rural, which is why various marginalisation effects overlap there, leading to an exacerbation of socio-economic problems in individual regions. These problems in "left-behind regions" (in eastern Germany and elsewhere) are often heavily covered in the media, creating the image of a "different Germany". At the same time, marginalised regions, both in eastern Germany and elsewhere, are often underrepresented in political arenas. The high election results for populist parties (AfD and BSW) also suggest a political differentiation between different regions, with the AfD in particular also showing rising results in the west.

Thirty-five years after reunification, this special issue therefore aims to analyse East-West differences and their causes, as well as other socio-spatial differences (e.g. urban-rural, North-South) and their inequalities, and to examine appropriate responses to them. The contributions should go beyond explanatory patterns in the sense of a "revenge of the places that don’t matter" in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of the differences and thus critically question spatial concepts of differentiation.

The submission deadline for abstracts is 31 January 2026. For further details please see the full text of the call for papers (PDF).