On March 10th, 2026, German historian Dorothee Wierling presented a lecture entitled “The German Blues: A Historian’s Perspective on the Rise of Right-Wing Populism in Eastern Germany” in UC Berkeley’s Philosophy Hall to an audience of approximately thirty-eight attendees. Wierling previously served as the Deputy Director of the Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, Germany, and as a Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Hamburg until 2015. UC Berkeley History Professor Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann introduced Wierling. Isabel Richter, Deputy Director of the Pacific Office of the German Historical Institute (GHI) Washington, moderated a question and answer session, which followed the conclusion of the lecture. This lecture was sponsored by the GHI Washington Pacific Office, the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies, the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, and the UC Berkeley Departments of History and German.
Wierling, as an oral historian of everyday life of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, employed her past projects to explain the rise of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, or Alternative for Germany in English) right-wing party in Germany. She referenced her 1987-1990 project in the German Democratic Republic with participants in the 1929 birth cohort, the “war youth” or “Hitler Youth” generation, and those from the 1949 birth cohort. She also recalled recent interviews with young AfD voters. 
From her interviews with participants in the 1929 birth cohort, Wierling analyzed the role of the Cold War in deteriorating East German self-image. She argued that the Cold War was beneficial for the West and detrimental to the East. The East experienced the brunt of the post-war burdens, and thus that generation felt guilt, remorse, and gratitude for being forgiven by the West. Wierling argued that the unequal distribution of Cold War burdens falling onto the East contributed to the rise of the current AfD.
Across the interviews from the 1949 birth cohort, Wierling found that the short, exciting blip of the Berlin Wall falling on November 9th, 1989, changed East Germans' lives for the worse. The interviewees felt humiliated and were treated as second-class citizens for being East German. This maltreatment of East Germans compared to that of West Germans contributed to East German alienation and disillusionment.
Wierling used the context from the interviews with 1929 and 1949 birth cohort participants to inform her analysis of the AfD’s rise. The AfD party promotes “Germanness” in opposition to refugees in Germany. The AfD’s anti-migrant language presents all Germans as superior to migrants. This language is appealing to East Germans who had been previously treated as second-class citizens; migrants could now be the second-class citizens in place of the East Germans. AfD leaders promote having pride in being East German, even though the official party platform does not explicitly mention East Germans at all.
The AfD, in addition to being anti-immigration, has employed Nazi language and imagery to promote the party. Wierling argued that the pride generated by the AfD “means forgetting about concentration camps.” In the 2026 state elections in East Germany, the AfD dominated, doubling its numbers. The AfD has increased votes and seats in all parliaments, not just in East Germany. Wierling referenced how East Germans' past of falling for right-wing politics, their disillusionment in German society, and treatment as second-class citizens has been attributed to the AfD’s growing support.
Wierling attempted to make sense of the AfD rise by going back three generations to analyze how East Germans have become susceptible to and also supportive of right-wing politics. The title of the lecture, “German Blues,” became symbolic for Wierling as the official color of the AfD, the disillusionment in postwar German society about its commitment to democracy, and her personal sentiment about the unstoppable growth of the right in Germany and beyond.