Every eighth German wants the Wall back

With celebrations underway across Germany to celebrate the opening of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Communist East German regime, a new survey says a surprising number of Germans wouldn’t mind seeing the barrier go back up.

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The survey found that 12 percent of Germans would like to see the once-feared border fortification be quickly rebuilt. There was almost no difference in responses between former East and West Germans, suggesting equal levels of disenchantment with a reunified Germany on both sides of the former Iron Curtain.

Those who want to see the Wall rebuilt are mostly unemployed, working class and vote for The Left party, successors to the East German Socialist Unity Party which ruled the country until 1990 before being voted out of power months before German reunification on October 3, 1990.

The poll’s respondents were generally happy that the Wall opened and that Germany reunited, with 79 percent describing the event as a godsend and again, almost no difference in perception between eastern and western Germans.

Inequality in the new Germany was the biggest complaint for those surveyed, with 35 percent saying that generous social protections in both parts of the once-divided country have fallen away since 1989. Eastern Germans were more concerned about inequality, with 49 percent describing it as a problem, compared to 32 percent of West Germans.

A quarter of the respondents said their standard of living has fallen since 1989 - though western Germans complained of this more than those from the East.

Performed by the Leipzig Institute for Market Research for the daily Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper, the pollsters conducted interviews with 1008 representative adults from across Germany in late October.