The East German writer Christoph Hein considers the AfD's successes in the East to be a reaction of defiance towards the West.

"The AfD's strength is a defiant reaction from people who are disappointed for a variety of reasons," Hein told the "Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland" (Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland). East Germans feel like they are "leading a life without self-determination and then fighting back with the means at their disposal" – especially "through this fatal AfD vote," the 81-year-old said. There was no independent founder generation in East Germany in 1989/90, Hein criticized. "For that to happen, there has to be at least some control over the levers. But there were no East Germans there. If you have no say in all the key levers in business, universities, and politics, you can't set the course." The resulting feeling of inferiority and Western dominance gave rise to "a defiance in the East - and from this a kind of Eastern identity of its own, with which people in the East defend themselves against this experience of humiliation," explained the author of the current bestseller "The Ship of Fools."

This includes voting for the AfD. "I think the so-called Nazi share among voters is very small, and that the main reason is the rejection of this West German dominance," Hein said. "People believe they can cast their vote through such a strange party." In truth, however, the AfD is not fit to be the voice of the East: "Because if it comes to power—and that could happen—it will itself be dominated by West Germany, as it already is," Hein said. "It has simply sought out sufficiently suitable rank and file in East Germany."