Preservation of Differences or Adaptation to Western Germany? Descriptive Representation, Career Patterns and Politicisation of Top Civil Servants in Eastern Germany

This paper investigates to what extent East Germans are represented in the German administrative elite. Based on an original dataset of 512 appointments of top civil servants (TCS) in the Eastern German Länder and Berlin between January 2000 and December 2019, it is investigated (1) whether the descriptive representation of East Germans increases over time and (2) how commonalities and differences between TCS with East or West German origin develop over time. The focus here is on their educational and career background as well as on party politicisation. Findings reveal a clear temporal effect: the descriptive representation of East Germans in top positions in the civil service increases over time. Still, East Germans remain highly under-represented in Eastern Germany’s administrative elite. Another important finding is that TCS increasingly converge over time in terms of their educational and career background. A similar converging trend is observable with regard to party politicisation. These findings indicate a trend towards ‘normalisation’, i.e. an increasing adaptation to West German standards. This adaptation process, however, is taking longer than expected as the after-effects of the West German ‘elite imports’ in the early 1990s are enduring and profound.