Posted on 09/08/2004 7:50:22 AM PDT by Lukasz
BERLIN (Reuters) - Fourteen years and a trillion euros after reunification one in five Germans would like to see the barrier that split the country during the Cold War put back, a survey has found.
A poll by the Forsa institute released on Wednesday found a quarter of western Germans wishing the 15 million east Germans were cut off again by the Berlin Wall, living in a different state, while 12 percent of eastern Germans wanted out of the united Germany.
Many westerners said they were disgruntled because they have had to foot the bill for reunification -- 24 percent said they had suffered financially as a result.
In the formerly communist east, which has twice the unemployment as in the west and where wages are still below western levels, one-third said they were no better off financially because of unification and the end of communism.
The lingering divisions have erupted in recent months as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government attempts to reduce unemployment and welfare benefits, touching a nerve in the east.
Westerners are sometimes disparaged as arrogant know-it-all "Wessies" while easterners are at times referred to as 'Jammer Ossies' (whinging easterners) in the west.
The Forsa survey, based on interviews with 1,002 easterners and 1,005 westerners, highlighted a feeling in the west that easterners are ungrateful for the financial support they have received since 1990 and they should do more to help themselves.
Thirty-seven percent of west Germans said the 80 billion euros (54 billion pounds) the government pumps into the east each year was too much. But almost a third of east Germans thought it too little, Forsa said.
Two top diplomats recently said they were alarmed at the poisoned atmosphere. Former West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and former East German Foreign Minister Markus Meckel said they feared the east-west gap was growing.
I'd also like "The Jolson Story" to be re-released!
And we worry about what these people think of us?
The west germans footed the bill, and the east germans are "no better off financially". It all comes down to money, apparently.
I always thought the reunification of Germany was done way too quickly. The "Wall of the Mind" is going to exist for several generations, and is going to drag both sides of Germany down with it.
I agree,one in five is pretty good. The title is meant to make a drab but optimistic story colorfull and negative.
Only 25% and 13% of the west and east (respectively) hate each other?
Sounds pretty good to me, considering what a piece of junk East Germany was when they re-unified.
it will be interesting to see also statistics by age.
So?? This means that FOUR Germans to every one DON'T want the Berlin Wall back. The math isn't hard here. In fact, this is as much "news" as those stories about one American veteran of the war on terror supporting Kerry, out of millions of veterans, both present and retired, who don't.
I agree. From 10% to 20% of any given population is not satisfied. Either way.
I dunno...four out of five Germans don't want that wall back. Sounds like a success to me.
True! But it's funny that they don't take this to its logical conclusion and figure out why many in the US are fed up with paying for Germany.
And one in five dogs eat their own vomit and doodoo too.
Once upon a time Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Halle were great cities brimming with culture. Practically a who's who of German brilliance came from there.
Has it all been destroyed in 40 years ?
Wonderful idea for socialists generally, as a matter of fact ....
I wish we'd build a Berlin Wall on the Texas/N.Mexico/Arizona/California southern borders...
Mr Schroeder- Build Back this Wall!
(PS: Why don't the Germans just build a great big "Busch Gardens:post-Hitler Germany" for everyone who wants to live in la-la land?)
"Once upon a time Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, and Halle were great cities ....Has it all been destroyed in 40 years ?"
Actually, I think Allied fire-bombing pretty-much took care of Dresden in the 40s...
This story dovetails nicely with this one:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210089/posts
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