History is Not Bunk. Tradition, Political Economy and Regional Identity in the GermanLänder

The question of regional identity in the German Lander has received only little attention so far. It is of great political importance, however, as a collective identity at the regional level is a favourable condition for binding decisions to be made on that level or for the delegation of competencies from the central to regional governments. Based on data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) 2016 we show that the vast majority of Germans identify with their respective Land. If the Lander have a longer historical tradition and are donors in the interstate fiscal equalisation system, this regional identity is even stronger. We also found the compatibility of national and regional identity to be somewhat lower in Lander with a long historical tradition. Our analyses indicate that even in a seemingly rather homogeneous federal state such as Germany, differences in the historical traditions of individual regions affect regional identity - in the international literature this argument has so far been used exclusively with reference to historic nations, such as Catalonia and Scotland.