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Comments by the state premier of the former East German state of Thuringia on Thursday have re-inflamed an old sore point between the two former Germanys. Some three decades after the reunification, Bodo Ramelow argued at the end of an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper that many people from the former communist part of Germany did not sing along with the current anthem.
"I would prefer if we had a truly common national anthem," Ramelow, of the socialist Left party, said. "But up until now this wish has only called up outrage." At Friday's regular government press conference, Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert did not offer outrage, but calm dismissal, saying that the chancellor, who grew up in East Germany, "finds our national anthem very beautiful, both in music and text."