Keith Kennetz
German and German Political Disunity:
An Investigation into the Cognitive Patterns and
Perceptions of Language in Post-Unified Germany
1. Introduction
In the last months of 1989, the wall that divided West and East Germany
was gradually dismantled and the two countries were formally reunified on
October 3, 1990. However, once the physical and political barriers were
removed, social ones were quick to replace them (Barden & Grosskopf
1998: 36-42, Stevenson 2002: 115-186). After the initial exhilaration of
reunification, the harsh economic realities of bringing together two coun-
tries with very different political and economic systems began to set in.
Stevenson (2002: 172-185) in his study of German language and political ...