Another sign of the splintering political landscape comes from Sahra Wagenknecht — a well-known parliamentarian from the Left party — who last month announced her own plans to challenge the governing parties. The group known as BSW got support from 12% of voters in an early poll, reflecting dissatisfaction with the political status quo — even if some of that backing came from AfD voters."Fragmentation is a big danger,” said Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert, drawing parallels to the fraught atmosphere of the 1920s that preceded the Nazis’ rise to power. "It is a very real risk.”

When the former communist regions were brought into the Federal Republic in 1990, Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised that reunification would spread the affluence of the West. Instead, the recent votes in Bavaria and Hesse suggest that the long-simmering frustration in places like Saxony is gradually spreading from the East as inequality widens and the once-stable working class gets squeezed.

After years of stability, the country faces a string of structural issues from insufficient transport and data infrastructure to a shortage of skilled labor and an energy network still struggling with the end of deliveries from Russia, according to Deputy Economy Minister Franziska Brantner. "The situation is serious,” she told a conference with German employers. "When people suffer for years from declining social status and the feeling of being left behind, it creates a dangerous situation,” he said. "They’re ready to accept fascism with a shrug of the shoulders because the current system isn’t working for them.”