Germany, 65 Years After the Berlin Wall: AfD's Chrupalla Says Unite, Not Divide. Tear Down the Brandmauer

Berlin, Germany, MMN Correspondent: Sixty-five years after the Berlin Wall was built, Germany is once again talking about walls. This time the barrier is not made of concrete and barbed wire. It is called the Brandmauer, a political firewall that keeps the Alternative for Germany (AfD) out of governing coalitions. On the anniversary of August 13, Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the AfD, stood in Berlin and made a straightforward request with real political weight behind it: unite, not divide.

The original wall went up in 1961 and split families, friends, and a nation. Its fall in 1989 brought celebrations and, a year later, reunification. The full promise of that moment has yet to arrive for many people in the east. The numbers tell part of the story. Research from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) shows average incomes in the eastern states remain about 15 percent lower than in the west. Recovery from the pandemic and the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has also moved at a slower pace in the east.

Chrupalla used the anniversary to directly challenge Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the Christian Democratic Union's policy of refusing to cooperate with the AfD. In his view, the Brandmauer protects an outdated picture of Germany and ignores the real concerns of eastern citizens. He pointed to the AfD's recent electoral strength. The party took 15.9 percent of the national vote in the 2024 European Parliament elections. In the 2025 federal election, it became the second-largest force in the Bundestag. In parts of the east, support climbs past 30 percent.

What is driving that support? A mix of frustration with migration policy, economic stagnation, and a feeling that Berlin does not listen to the east. Chrupalla specifically mentions the AfD's opposition to illegal mass migration, its criticism of lockdowns, and its stance on the war in Europe, including military aid to Ukraine. Those positions resonate in a region where many people say their voices have been pushed aside. A 2025 survey by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that 58 percent of eastern Germans believe their region is treated as a second-class part of the country. Nearly half said they would back a party that challenges the status quo.

The response to Chrupalla's message is far from uniform. Critics describe the AfD's rhetoric as divisive and a departure from democratic norms. Michael Kretschmer, the CDU minister-president of Saxony, has publicly questioned the Brandmauer policy. He calls it unsustainable and says conservative parties need to find ways to engage with AfD voters without endorsing the party's extreme elements. His comments have opened a practical debate inside the CDU, where regional leaders are weighing cooperation against isolation.

The electoral map shows why this matters. In the 2025 federal election, the AfD won 18.9 percent of the vote in the eastern states. In the west, that number stood at 12.6 percent. The party became the strongest force in Thuringia in 2024 and won the most seats in the Saxony-Anhalt state parliament in 2025. Those results have not translated into government participation because every other party refuses to work with the AfD. Some analysts warn that this exclusion could increase alienation and reduce trust in the democratic process.

The anniversary of the Berlin Wall is a natural moment to reflect on what separates people and what brings them together. Chrupalla frames the AfD as the true defender of the peaceful revolution of 1989 and says the party wants to govern first in the east and eventually at the federal level. His call to unite rather than divide is not new. The political conditions around it have changed. German democracy is now in a phase where old certainties no longer hold.

What happens next depends on how Germany handles this tension. The Brandmauer may hold or it may evolve. The wall in Berlin eventually fell because people on both sides decided that separation was no longer workable. Whether the political equivalent will follow is a question for voters, leaders, and the eastern Germans who have waited three decades for full equality. The debate over Germany's future is far from settled, and the voices from the east are likely to play a decisive role.