It has always been a struggle and after reunification federal focus has shifted, naturally thethe rural/urban imbalance took the backseat to the easy/west imbal

It has always been a struggle and after reunification federal focus has shifted, naturally thethe rural/urban imbalance took the backseat to the easy/west imbalance, city or not. But a lot of anti-centralistic intertia has remained, and a lot of the political fight against rural/urban split was on state level anyways. The split is growing in Germany just like everywhere else, but it probably hasn't proceeded as far yet.