Survey finds 15 percent of Germans want Berlin Wall back

Survey finds that one in seven Germans are "pining for the Wall." Fifteen percent of Germans, according to the opinion poll, think they were "better off" prior to unification of the east and west.

Reuters reports that the Forsa Institute’s survey findings, released today in Stern magazine, indicate that “one in seven Germans want the Berlin Wall back because they were better off when the country was divided.” The Forsa Institute surveyed 1,002 Germans and found that, according to Reuters:

15 percent of the country’s 82 million long for the days when there were two Germanys. Some 16 percent pining for the Wall were westerners and 10 percent easterners.

Eastern Germans are displeased because their income levels are significantly lower than their western German counterparts. That number, reports Reuters, is “on average only 80 percent of western levels.” Moreover, eastern Germans are facing higher unemployment and a population decline of “about two million since 1990.” The opinion poll found that western Germans are upset by higher taxes used to pay for rebuilding the east. In terms of what could relieve east-west tensions, the survey found that abolishing the “solidarity tax” and increasing pensions for those in the east would help in the continuing unification effort. The survey findings come approximately two months in advance of the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1999.