“PRUSSIANI ROSSI”. LA TRADIZIONE PRUSSIANA E LA DDR

The European political framework has seen in recent years a progressive electoral growth in almost all countries of so-called “eurosceptic” parties and movements, advocates of a strengthening of national prerogatives and strongly critical of migratory reception policies, perceived as a threat to the identity and social stability of Europe. Particularly disruptive is the case of the party Alternative für Deutschland, which in the 2025 federal elections reached 20.8%, imposing itself as the second political force in Germany, close behind by the Christian Democrats. Analysts and critics have formulated various hypotheses on the reasons for this success, which is particularly evident in the eastern regions of the country, where AfD is by far the leading party. To prevail are mostly socio-economic considerations related to the modalities of reunification, as well as aspects of social psychology linked to the socialist past of the gdr. Alongside these, however, there is a further element related to self-consciousness and the relationship with history and national identity that followed very different paths in Western and Eastern Germany. At the centre are Prussia and its heritage, which, for various reasons, were paradoxically preserved in the in the gdr much more than in the Federal Republic. To the increased support from eastern citizens to issues related to sovereignty and a sense of national proud also contribute the different elaboration of the Prussian experience and the so-called “Prussian virtues”, even in their authoritarian aspects, in the gdr. A further aspect of the “German question” that continues to condition the fate of the continent.