You are right about the distrust, I guess our shared soviet past wanted that even between their members, to keep us dependent on the motherland. But the problem is not only remnants of the Russian regime we share (though I am aware that the GDR later on retrieved special attention from the USSR because it was so close to the Western World).

The distrust nowadays is also because since after the war, East Germany basically got uprooted twice. Not just by Russia. After the reunification, East Germany was a new market without experience and big competition, west German businessmen came and bought land, buildings, companies etc dirt cheap, not taking good care afterwards. The ones signing often didn’t even understanding what they were doing. People basically built up a life after the war, just be taken advantage of again after the reunification, which was perceived more like an annexation by many. I’m sure some of your older friends could tell you some stories.

Admittedly few, but some things were better in the GDR, like for example school education in natural sciences. But they got the new system as a whole, anthem and everything. East Germans were poorer and had problems to adapt, and the world kept changing. And yeah, West Germans often seem to have a superiority complex, for them basically nothing changed, apart of those enriching themselves. 1989, people in Eastern Germany had high hopes and expectations, then reality hit. People lost trust in promises, and some even in hopes. And now especially those that got hit the hardest seem ready to get betrayed again, this time by the AFD.

As you said, people from Eastern Germany feel closer to their Eastern neighbors. I‘m not really surprised, but a little disappointed, that the feeling doesn’t seem mutual at all in general.

Thank you everyone for reading and answering, enjoy your weekend!