Germans Want The Wall Back

[HagiaSophia]

Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back – more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a new survey.

The results of the poll, published Saturday, reflected die-hard animosities over high reunification costs lowering western standards of living and economic turmoil in the east.

The survey of 2,000 Germans by Berlin’s Free University and pollsters Forsa found 24 percent of those living in western Germany want the Wall back – double the eastern level.

In Berlin itself, 11 percent of westerners and 8 percent of easterners said “yes” when asked: “Would it be better if the Wall between East and West were still standing?.”

The Berlin Wall was breached on Nov. 9, 1989, paving the way for the unification of Communist East Germany with the West on Oct. 3, 1990. But billions of euros (dollars) spent rebuilding the east have failed to prop up the depressed region, which is plagued by high unemployment and a shrinking population.

The poll also found that 47 percent of the easterners agree with the statement that the West “acquired the east like a colony,” while 58 percent of the westerners back the statement that “easterners tend to wallow in self-pity.”

reuters.myway.com/article/20050326/2005-03-26T132941Z_01_L26474730_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-GERMANY-WALL-DC.html

 

[DaveBj]

Sad.

Still, they can’t have my piece

DaveBj

 

[mjdonnelly]

There is a bit of animosity when former communists find out that they might have to actually work a whole 8 hrs per day, or more.

I priest I know is from Poland, he was saying his village had a terrible time with the transition.

 

[SweetPea]

Well that’s too bad; they can’t have it back.

 

[rastell]

HagiaSophia:

Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back – more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a new survey.

24% and 12% are really not that large considering that the East Germans were subjected to Communist propaganda for half a century and the West German capitalists have to dilute their country’s wealth with East German poverty.

 

[rwoehmke]

Friends from Germany have told me that it is their upinion that anyone in the East Sector over about 40 years of age would have a very difficult time learning to live and work in a democracy. Basically two generations will have to pass before the East and West become fully integrated into one country, one economy. The Russians basically raped East Germany after the war by removing almost everything of value to Russia.

 

[gilliam]

HagiaSophia:

Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back –

I would rephrase the headline to:

ONLY A SMALL MINORITY OF GERMANS WANT THE BERLIN WALL BACK

 

[Ahimsa]

At least they don’t want Alsace-Lorraine back.