HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

Migration nation. The legacy of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to admit a wave of migrants during Europe’s refugee crisis is playing out in complex ways. On the one hand, it’s leading to a surge in popularity for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in unlikely places, such as Germany’s historically leftist bastion of Thuringia. At the same time, the southern state of Baden-Württemberg has found that economics — not politics — is the way to integrate migrants while also beating back xenophobic nationalism. It is training migrants to fill holes in the state’s economy, helping keep overall unemployment low, and incomes high.

Green Germany. Few natural wonders are more iconically German than the Black Forest … and climate change may have signed its death warrant, with black beetles (which thrive in warmer temperatures) eating their way through Germany’s spruce trees. German foresters in Baden-Württemberg, though, are using the beetles to make way for other trees rather than trying to save the spruce. Meanwhile, Brandenburg, historically a coal-producing region, is increasingly turning to green energy.

More money, more problems. Once a bastion of postwar industrial supremacy, Bremen is today burdened with the highest level of income inequality of any German state — despite boasting the second-highest gross domestic product per capita. In the country’s east, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern lost its industry after reunification, and workers fled to the west. Now, Asian investment is helping to revive its shipping sector, bringing back jobs.

WHAT TO READ

For Millions of Germans, the Berlin Wall Never Really Came Down, by Lin Hierse on OZY
“My life was not going to be defined by the political reality of a divided country or the echoes of the Cold War. I was to learn about the GDR from history books and the older generation’s kitchen table anecdotes only — or at least so I thought.”

What Happened the Day the Berlin Wall Fell, by Albinko Hasic in Time
“Citizens flocked to the border en masse sometime around 9:00 pm and found that, after initial confusion, the border guards were indeed letting people cross.”

WHAT TO WATCH