Why is ex-East Germany more tolerant towards Russia than many other ex Warsaw Pact countries?

Question

I am happy to be corrected that this is not the case, but from fairly frequent news items it seems to me that sentiment towards Russia in historic East Germany isn't all that negative. Or at least is more positive than West Germany's.

For example, Meduza.io, Nov 6th, about the Ukraine War:

In response to the question “Do you believe that NATO provoked Russia for so long that it had to go to war?” 19 percent of respondents answered in the affirmative. Twenty-one percent said they partially agreed with the idea. That means nearly 40 percent of Germans believe that the cause of the war is unclear and that NATO shares responsibility for it, or even forced Russia into war. In the former GDR in eastern Germany, the share of respondents who answered in the affirmative is 59 percent — making it essentially a mainstream belief.

Or, again, Euronews Feb 2022

In East Germany, once part of the former Soviet bloc, more people (43%) blame the US for intensifying the conflict, compared to the 32% who point the finger at Russia, while in the West, the majority (52%) blames Russia, and only 17% the US, a Forsa survey found last Thursday (3 February).

This is in contrast to many - not all - ex Warsaw Pact countries where anti-Russian sentiment is the norm, sometimes veering into Russophobia. Poland and the Baltics come to mind. Many countries who felt the USSR's boot have no love lost for Russia. And typically, some of the harshest sentiments towards Communism comes from people who lived underneath it. Nor are some East German memories very positive, such as the data protection laws specifically passed remembering the Stasi.

I understand that Germany's overall relationship with Russia, pre-2022, is partially motivated by the very well-founded historical guilt re. WW2. But that effect should affect all of Germany, not be enhanced in ex-East Germany.

And this question, BTW, is not limited to just sentiment about this war - although an answer stating that the war itself is causing a step change in relative East German/West German - Russia sentiment would be a good answer as well.

Answer 1

The aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union played out very differently in Eastern Germany compared to the other non-Russian Warsaw pact countries. After its annexation by the FRG, the formerly state-owned companies were dissolved or sold to West German investors for almost nothing. Most leading civil servants were fired (due to their association with the SED dictatorship), and replaced by officials coming from Western Germany.

As such, I would expect that the Russian narrative that Russia is "just trying to stand up to an aggressive expansionism of the West" would find a much better reception in Eastern Germany. In comparison, eg Poles will be acutely aware that Poland joined NATO out of fear of Russia, not out of fear of the US.

A secondary aspect is the narrative of Putin as the leader of the neo-fascist forces fighting liberal decadence (eg "Russia had to invade Ukraine to prevent gay parades!"). This is definitely not a complete success, but (with the notable exception of Poland), overall far-right parties seem to be rather fond of Putin. In Germany, the leading far-right party is the AfD. On the federal level, the AfD is mostly a fringe party, but it had significant success in some of the Eastern German states (scoring eg 27.5% in the last elections in Saxony).

Answer 2

Several factors come together. Being pro-Russian is a way to show that one is nostalgic for the past and/or against the mainstream.

• The economic dislocations from the fall of the Communist system were both especially cushioned and especially humiliating for East Germans. West Germany stepped in, took over, and effectively did the bankrupcy proceedings of the East German economy (see Treuhand). West Germany also paid for pensions, infrastructure renewal, etc. Having their life work achievements taken away and being turned into a charity case rankled for many. Imagine a 40-year-old or 50-year-old engineer being 'cushioned' into welfare. (Today we're talking about the children of that generation, of course.)
• The political mainstream consensus of West Germany and then the unified Germany could be represented by the Greens, Social Democrats, Free Democrats, and Christian Democrats. All of these have been in coalitions in some states. Outside this consensus were the Left (on a federal level, their eastern branches are more pragmatic) and a succession of right-wing parties, most recently the Alternative.
  The Left (die Linke) is a successor of the communist party of East Germany. The Alternative (AfD) amalgamated a number of protest movements against the mainstream consensus (against the Euro, against refugees, against Covid measures) under ever more right-wing leaders.

The Russian narrative that Russia was betrayed by the West with the NATO expansion resonates with the East German narrative that East Germany was betrayed by West Germany with the shutdown of their remaining industry.

As to the AfD, populists in places like Poland can be anti-German, that's not an option for populists in Germany.

And both parts of Germany are historically sensitive of inflation. That would explain not wanting hardship on behalf of Ukraine, which is different from being pro-Russian.

Answer 3

Except already mentioned arguments concerning trauma from less than successful unification of Germany, I'd think about a few more factors:

• Different historical policy. In the link from the question was also mentioned that Western Germans have not that bad opinion about Russians. In whole region the interpretation of history is the following - "there were two genocidal regimes worth each other that jointly started the war", while Germans learn "let's describe in gruesome details how we were the bad ones, and mention as side note the rest of the war". If one takes those regimes as equals, then he is effectively seeing a former Gestapo member trying to rebuild Third Reich.

• Geographical distance. It's a bit easier to not be worried about Russian imperialism if that's some distant problem in contrast to let's say increasing prices at home.

• Recent history. Russia has been playing Germans against the whole region with their gas pipeline which was roughly counting twice expensive than land route and was making only sense to bypass some countries. So normies in Germany were taught for last 30 years by their own establishment that Russians are OK. In the same time normies in the rest of region were told that Russians seem to be plotting to cut off their gas supplies. As admitting being wrong would highly unpleasant for average German, thus it better to think for some explanation like the war being NATO fault.

Answer 4

East Germany used to be a "technology demonstrator" to show how much better it is to live under Socialism, in comparison to the West Germany. The living standards there were much much higher than somewhere in the depth of Russia. As a result, transition to "Western values" there probably did not make many things a lot better, at least in short terms, and Soviet nostalgia is expected.