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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS- Under the patronage of the President of Al-Hussein Bin Talal University ,and in the presence of members of the faculty and administrative bodies and a large gathering of students, - a lecture of the German professor of political science Prof. Dr. Torsten Oppelland from the Institute of Political Science, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena Germany on Wednesday, 10/31/2012, was held. The lecture was entitled "One Nation? Political Culture 22 Years after the Reunification of East and West Germany".

Professor Oppelland explained what constituted political culture in Germany during the separation of the two Germanys. The political culture of West Germany changed very much in this time unlike that of East Germany, which suffered throughout the Cold War period of dictatorship under Soviet control which prevented participation of citizens in any kind of political activities whether to stand for election or vote.

And Professor Oppelland mentioned that field studies to measure the political culture of reunited Germany in the time immediately after reunification in 1990 showed great differences between the populations in East and West. As an example he showed that West Germans when asked to decide which was the more important value, liberty or social justice and equality, chose liberty by a great majority whereas East Germans voted in favour of social justice, not liberty. In the eyes of East Germans it is the duty of the state and all its institutions is to achieve social justice.
Another example is a study asking Germans whether they think that they are masters of their own fate and can advance socially if they work hard or whether they think that the social cannot much be influenced by themselves. The majority West Germans tends to be optimistic that they have the ability to change their future for the better by working hard; again the picture in East Germany where a majority was pessimistic about their social possibilities. Also political participation in institutions such as parties and election was much smaller in East Germany as compared to the West. However, Prof. Oppelland's main point was that the differences have been decreasing recently as West Germans have come to appreciate social equality more under the impression of economic crisis and as many East Germans have come to prefer liberty over social justice after more than 20 years of living under a democracy.

The lecture was attended by a large number of guests, especially students from the Department of Media and Strategic Studies and faculty members as well as graduate students of the University .

It should be noted that Professor Oppelland is professor of political science and he is a partner d. Hassan Abdullah Al-Ayed in many research projects conducted by Al-Ayed in Germany and this visit comes as part of joint project funded by the German Foundation for support of scientific research DFG and the Supreme Council for Science and Technology and Al-Hussein Bin Talal University.

The lecture was translated and chaired by Dr. Hassan Al-Ayed, a member of the Department of Media and Strategic Studies. At the end of the seminar Professor Oppelland thanked the Department of Media and Strategic Studies and the President of the Al-Hussein Bin Talal University for the opportunity to speak and for the university's coat of arms.