How the Cold War continues to influence German identity

Addie Esposito ’25 was raised on tales about life in Germany.

“My mother was there for two years right after the Berlin Wall fell,” Esposito remarked. “She actually owns three tiny pieces of the Wall, one for me and each of my siblings.”

At Harvard, Esposito’s intrigue with German culture, alongside the complex legacy of its post-World War II division into East and West, intensified. A double concentrator in government and German, she could thoroughly engage in these passions while undertaking an internship in the German parliament last summer. Working at the Bundestag enabled Esposito to initiate an ambitious project exploring how the Cold War continues to influence German identity today.

“She conducted an extensive, thorough analysis of the enduring divide between East and West,” commented her thesis adviser, Daniel Ziblatt, the Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. “When Germany unified in 1990, the anticipation was that this divide would swiftly dissolve. What’s astonishing is that it has persisted for over a generation and become a lasting characteristic of German political culture. … In some respects, it’s similar to regional divides in the U.S. following the Civil War.”

Esposito first traveled to Germany with her mother at the age of 5. “I was utterly captivated by the language,” she recounted. “My mom said I began to utter German words in my sleep, just some basics like ‘blau,’ meaning blue, and ‘Brot,’ meaning bread.”

In middle school, German was the clear choice for Esposito’s foreign language elective. In high school, the Raleigh, North Carolina, native participated in a two-week exchange program in Frankfurt, Germany, and interned at a nonprofit run by her mother’s friend in a small town near the French border.

As a College first-year, Esposito signed up for Ziblatt’s course “Democracy: Breakthroughs and Breakdowns,” attracted by the professor’s knowledge in authoritarianism and democracy in the U.S. and in Europe — particularly Germany.

“I thought, ‘This individual is at the crossroads of all my interests,’” Esposito recalled. “I sort of latched onto him like a barnacle ever since.”

“I’d love to be the ambassador to Germany. I would be delighted to work for the State Department. I want to utilize my German skills no matter what.”

Ziblatt aided Esposito in securing her role with a member of the center-left Social Democrat Party representing part of Hamburg, Germany. This allowed her access to the entire chamber, which consisted of over 700 legislators at that time. “It meant I could navigate anywhere I desired in the Bundestag unaccompanied,” stated Esposito, whose internship was facilitated by the Center for European Studies.

One area, however, was strictly prohibited. Major German political parties have established what they refer to as “a firewall” against collaboration with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which enjoys significant popularity in the country’s eastern regions.

“For the parliamentarian I was assisting, that meant no interaction,” Esposito elaborated. “Consequently, the AfD was initially excluded from my interview candidates.”

Ultimately, the former Harvard International Review co-editor in chief interviewed 183 parliamentarians to gain insights into their backgrounds and the nuances of their identities. Esposito also conducted in-person interviews (in German) with 48 members, including 17 representatives from the former Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic (GDR). After her internship concluded, she endeavored to secure what Ziblatt termed “rare” research interviews with two AfD members.

“It’s quite common for students to depend on existing surveys for their theses,” he noted. “But in this instance, she utilized her own interviews to delve much deeper into how individuals perceive their lives — and how those lives connect to politics and history.”

Esposito’s methodology, with its distinct emphasis on political elites, revealed regional connections that were more pronounced than what pollsters identified in the general German populace. She found that over half of the parliamentarians from the former GDR still identify more as East German than anything else.

The significance of this identity was somewhat less prominent for parliamentarians raised after East Germany’s Peaceful Revolution of 1989. “But it was still remarkably high,” Esposito mentioned, with over 40 percent of Millennial and Gen Z members from the region identifying as East German primarily.

A different trend was noted among parliamentarians from the parts of the country once governed by the U.S., Great Britain, and France. Just 9 percent of those Esposito queried identified as primarily West German. Over half recognized themselves as broadly German. More than a quarter saw themselves as broadly European.

“West German identification simply isn’t a significant concept,” Esposito pointed out.

Esposito leveraged her interviews to develop what she…
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calls an “underdog” theory of East German identity. “It’s reinforced both by hardship and triumph,” she stated. “That renders the identity remarkably resilient.”

Outsiders can be overly hasty to associate the phenomenon with the East’s ongoing socioeconomic challenges, Esposito pointed out. “There’s also this notion of positive uniqueness rooted in feeling accountable for reunification. People expressed sentiments like, ‘We earned this liberty — we’re the reason the wall came down.’”

The dissertation also expands on earlier discoveries concerning the East/West split regarding 20th-century history. The East German regime, established in 1949, identified itself as an anti-fascist state and distanced itself from Nazi atrocities, she noted.

Indeed, politicians affiliated with the AfD (both from the former GDR) made remarks Esposito interpreted as downplaying the Holocaust — for instance, comparing it to COVID-19 restrictions.

This interaction aids in elucidating the subtleties Esposito documented in how East and West Germans convey national pride. “West Germans’ reactions typically adopted a pattern of ‘I am not proud to be German, but I am proud of Germany’s accomplishments,’” she articulates in her dissertation. “East Germans often omitted the qualifying language.”

Individuals from East Germany — constituting 16 to 26 percent of the total population, dependent on the definition of the region — also spoke of facing discrimination, a phenomenon Esposito validated during interviews with politicians from the West.

“She had this remarkable access to the highest echelons of politics in the nation,” Ziblatt remarked. “And she utilized it to engage policymakers in extensive discussions about what it means to be German.”

Next for Esposito is a master’s degree in public policy at the Hertie School in Berlin, where she’ll have the opportunity to undertake public policy internships while enhancing her German skills. “By the time I graduate from Hertie, I want to be fluent,” Esposito expressed.

In the longer term, she aspires to pursue a Ph.D. in political science. “Honestly, my dream role would be to do what Professor Ziblatt does now,” she mentioned. “But I’m also intrigued by the public policy aspect. I would love to be the ambassador to Germany. I would be elated to work for the State Department. I want to utilize my German regardless of the context.”