BERLIN - TWENTY years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, nearly one out of five eastern Germans wish it had never come down and preferred living under a communist regime, a survey released on Monday showed.
According to the poll, by the Institute for Market Research in Leipzig for Super Illu magazine, 17 per cent of people in the ex-Communist east agreed with the statement: 'It would have been better if the Wall had never fallen.
'In hindsight, the GDR with its socialism was a better state,' these people said, referring to the former communist regime.
In addition, over half of easterners (52 per cent) said they felt like 'second-class German citizens' compared to 41 per cent who felt they were treated equally.
Despite this, 72 per cent of people said they were 'happy to live in the reunified Germany with its social market economy despite all problems there have been rebuilding the east'. The poll surveyed 1,001 people in the former East Germany as well as in East Berlin.
The Berlin Wall, a symbold of the Cold War divisions, was pulled down on Nov 9, 1989 in a peaceful revolution that prompted the reunification of the country.
However, despite massive public investment in the east, unemployment there is twice as high as in the west. -- AFP
According to the poll, by the Institute for Market Research in Leipzig for Super Illu magazine, 17 per cent of people in the ex-Communist east agreed with the statement: 'It would have been better if the Wall had never fallen.
'In hindsight, the GDR with its socialism was a better state,' these people said, referring to the former communist regime.
In addition, over half of easterners (52 per cent) said they felt like 'second-class German citizens' compared to 41 per cent who felt they were treated equally.
Despite this, 72 per cent of people said they were 'happy to live in the reunified Germany with its social market economy despite all problems there have been rebuilding the east'. The poll surveyed 1,001 people in the former East Germany as well as in East Berlin.
The Berlin Wall, a symbold of the Cold War divisions, was pulled down on Nov 9, 1989 in a peaceful revolution that prompted the reunification of the country.
However, despite massive public investment in the east, unemployment there is twice as high as in the west. -- AFP
