Valerie Höhne works for Spiegel online. She says: "German society is just beginning to deal with the disappointment and trauma eastern Germans experienced after the Fall of the Wall in the 1990s. Many people felt their experiences had been ignored for a long time – the AfD feeds off these feelings of neglect.”

  
Michaela Küfner is chief political editor for DW. She says: 'Most of all, these elections are about what options will be on the table when Angela Merkel's final coalition government leaves office.'

 

  
Alan Posener is an author and commentator for the daily “Die Welt”. He says: 'A generation after the end of Nazism, West Germany's youth staged an anti-authoritarian revolt. A generation after the end of Communism, East Germany is experiencing an authoritarian revolt led by angry old men."