Internally, however, economists continue to observe that despite federal spending to stimulate the states which once formed the GDR, the old ‘East Germany’ still lags behind the West. It was the implosion of the Soviet system which led to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Culturally, Germany today is a highly secularised society. Research over the last decade has revealed that the health of the churches continues to be far worse in the former East Germany than in the West. The East continues to exhibit far higher rates of those calling themselves Vollatheisten, “full” or “committed atheists”.

Source: The Local September 11, 2017 07:18 UTC