New states of Germany

The new states of Germany are the five re-established states of the former German Democratic Republic that unified with the Federal Republic of Germany with its 10 "old states" upon German reunification on 3 October 1990.
The new states, which were dissolved by the GDR government in 1952 and re-established in 1990, are Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The state of Berlin, the result of a merger between East and West Berlin, is usually not considered one of the new states although a number of its residents are former East Germans and some of its areas were in the former East Berlin. There have been 16 states in Germany since reunification.

Demographics

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former East German states experienced high rates of depopulation until around 2008. About 2,000 schools closed between 1989 and 2008, because of a demographic shift to a lower number of children. In 2006, the fertility rate in the new states approached those in the old states and in 2016 it was higher than in the old states. In 2019, the new states had exactly the same fertility rate as the old states.
More children are born out of wedlock in the new states than in the old states. In the new states, 61% of births were from unmarried women compared to 27% in the old states in 2009. Both states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had the highest rates of birth outside wedlock at 64% each, followed by Brandenburg with 62%, Bavaria and Hesse at 26%, while the state of Baden-Württemberg had the lowest rate at 22%.

Demographic evolution

had a population of 2,660,000 in 1989 and 2,531,071 in 2020. It has the second-lowest population density in Germany. In 1995, it was the only new state to experience population growth, aided by nearby Berlin.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had a population of 1,970,000 in 1989 and 1,610,774 in 2020, with the lowest population density in Germany. The local Landtag held several inquiries on population trends after the opposition requested an annual report on the topic.
Saxony had a population of 5,003,000 in 1989, which fell to 4,056,094 in 2020. It remains the most populated among the five new states. The proportion of the population under 20 years of age fell from 24.6% in 1988 to 19.7% in 1999. Dresden and Leipzig are among the fastest-growing cities in Germany, both raising their population to over half a million inhabitants again.
Saxony-Anhalt had a population of 2,960,000 in 1989, which fell to 2,180,684 in 2020. The state has a long history of demographic decline: its current territory had a population of 4,100,000 in 1945. The emigration had already begun during the GDR years.
Thuringia had a population of 2,680,000 in 1989, which fell to 2,120,237 in 2020.
, the new states have 12.5 million people, about 15% of Germany's population, and slightly less than that of Bavaria.

Migration

There are more migrants in former West Germany than in former East Germany. About 1.7 million people had left the new states. A disproportionately high number of them were women under the age of 35. About 500,000 women under the age of 30 left for western Germany between 1993 and 2008. In some rural regions, the number of women between the ages of 20 and 30 dropped by more than 30 percent. After 2008, the net migration rate decreased significantly. In 2017, for the first time since German reunification, more people emigrated from the old states to the new states than vice versa. All of the new states have populations where 90-95% of people do not have a migrant background.

Religion

is predominant in former East Germany. An exception is former West Berlin, which had a Christian plurality in 2016. It also has a higher share of Muslims at 8.5%, compared to former East Berlin with only 1.5% self-declared Muslims as of 2016.
Eurostat's Eurobarometer survey in 2015, found that 27.0% of the adult population declared themselves as agnostics or non believer, while 34.1% declared themselves as atheists. Christians comprised 37.2% of the total population; by denomination, members of the Protestant Churches were 19.2%, members of other Christian denominations were 8.8%, Catholics were 7.1%, the Christian Orthodox were 2.1%.
An explanation for the atheism in the new states, popular in other states, is the aggressive state atheist policies of the former GDR government. However, the enforcement of atheism existed only for the first few years. After that, the state allowed churches to have a relatively high level of autonomy.
Another explanation could be the secularizing trend dating back to the second half of the 19th century in Prussia and through the Weimar Republic which was strongest in the states of Thuringia and Saxony as well as the late arrival of Christianity to the region as opposed to southern Europe where it was the state religion from late antiquity.

Religion by state, 2016	Protestants	Catholics	Not religious	Muslims	Others
Brandenburg	24.9%	3.5%	69.9%	0.0%	1.5%
former East Berlin	14.3%	7.5%	74.3%	1.5%	2.4%
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	24.9%	3.9%	70.0%	0.3%	0.9%
Saxony	27.6%	4.0%	66.9%	0.3%	1.1%
Saxony-Anhalt	18.8%	5.1%	74.7%	0.3%	1.2%
Thuringia	27.8%	9.5%	61.2%	0.0%	1.5%
Total	24.3%	5.2%	68.8%	0.3%	1.4%

Major cities

	Federal capital
	State capital

Rank	City	Pop. 1950	Pop. 1960	Pop. 1970	Pop. 1980	Pop. 1990	Pop. 2000	Pop. 2010	Pop. 2022	Area	Density per km²	Growth	surpassed 100,000	State
1.	Berlin	3336026	3274016	3208719	3048759	3433695	3382169	3460725	3,570,750	887,70	3899	3.18	1747	Berlin
2.	Dresden	494187	493603	502432	516225	490571	477807	523058	585,446	328,31	1593	11.93	1852	Saxony
3.	Leipzig	617574	589632	583885	562480	511079	493208	522883	600,609	297,36	1758	14.86	1871	Saxony
4.	Chemnitz	293373	286329	299411	317644	294244	259246	243248	264,042	220,84	1101	8.55	1883	Saxony
5.	Halle	289119	277855	257261	232294	247736	247736	232963	251,358	135,02	1725	7.90	1890	Saxony-Anhalt
6.	Magdeburg	260305	261594	272237	289032	278807	231450	231549	249,597	200,99	1152	7.79	1882	Saxony-Anhalt
7.	Erfurt	188650	186448	196528	211575	208989		204994	227,342	269,14	762	10.9	1906	Thuringia
8.	Rostock	133109	158630	198636	232506	248088	200506	202735	216,466	181,26	1118	6.8	1935	Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
9.	Potsdam	118180	115004	111336	130900	139794	129324	156906	190,422	187,53	837	21.4	1939	Brandenburg
Total		5,730,523	5,643,111	5,630,445	5,541,415	5,853,003	5,622,010	5,779,061	6,156,052	2,708	2,134	2.79
Rank	City	Pop. 1950	Pop. 1960	Pop. 1970	Pop. 1980	Pop. 1990	Pop. 2000	Pop. 2010	Pop. 2022	Area	Density per km²	Growth	surpassed 100,000	State

Culture

Persisting differences in culture and mentality among older East Germans and West Germans are often referred to as the "wall in the head". Ossis are stereotyped as racist, poor and largely influenced by Russian culture, while Wessis are usually considered snobbish, dishonest, wealthy, and selfish. The terms can be considered to be disparaging.
In 2009, a poll found that 22% of former East Germans considered themselves "real citizens of the Federal Republic"; 62% felt they were no longer citizens of East Germany, but not fully integrated into the unified Germany; and around 11% would have liked to have re-established East Germany. An earlier poll in 2004 found that 25% of West Germans and 12% of East Germans wished reunification had not happened.
In 2023, a poll found that 40% of people in the eastern states still identify as East Germans rather than just German; the latter was chosen by the majority with 52%.
Some East German brands have been revived to appeal to former East Germans who are nostalgic for the goods they grew up with. Brands revived in this manner include Rotkäppchen, which holds about 40% of the German sparkling wine market, and Zeha, the sports shoe maker that supplied most of East Germany's sports teams as well as the Soviet Union national football team.