The evolution of the national varieties of Standard German described in Chapter 2 took centuries of political and cultural development, sometimes more divergent, sometimes more convergent.The post-war division of Germany covered a period of forty-five years – four years when Germany was split into occupation zones and the forty-one years when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were separate entities. The division occurred after standardization in the German language was complete. In this chapter, I will discuss how the language differed in the GDR and the Federal Republic and particularly to what extent it has converged again.

Situation prior to 1989

The two Germanies had vastly different social and political systems, opposing political and economic alignments, and in many ways underwent separate cultural developments. This was reflected in the language, which at the same time contributed to variations in people's consciousness. During the time of division, the German language gave unique contrastive insights into the ideologies and approaches of the Eastern and Western Blocs. In the case of the two German states specifically, the Federal Republic paid a great deal of attention to coming to terms with the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung) and to being seen to accept responsibility for the actions of the National Socialists. Nationalism was pushed from the ‘high’ culture to the ‘low’ culture of some groups, such as returned soldiers and refugees from the former German territories east of the Oder–Neiße Line. The GDR, on the other hand, declared itself an anti-fascist state because many of its leaders had been victims of National Socialism and this absolved all the GDR's inhabitants from their past actions.