Unifizierung

Unifizierung is a political concept introduced in Germany in 1994 by the CDU/CSU party as part of their electoral campaign. The term roughly translates to "unification" or "integration" and refers to the process of creating a unified German identity within a federal system of government. This concept was an attempt to counter the critique that the party was not addressing the concerns of former East Germany's citizens, who felt marginalized after German reunification in 1990.

The idea of Unifizierung was to establish a clear policy to integrate the institutions, social services, and cultural aspects of the two former German states. This concept also included a commitment to ensure that the economic and social differences between the West and the East were bridged. The concept mainly focused on redistributive policies such as tax reform, the fundamental commitment to ensure the reunification clause in the German constitution, and especially the distribution of the energy costs for reunified East Germany.

However, the concept of Unifizierung was perceived as an attempt to consolidate support from former East Germany voters for the CDU/CSU party. Social scientists have analyzed Unifizierung as a form of reactive regional policy, indicating that German federal government chose certain strategies to correct for experiences regarded as politically unequal and thus administered a set of social reforms which helped while redistributing resources in East Germany.