"Ve must have der wall back. I just love der way it oppress me in bondage with leather and made me feel so manly! Would you like to pet my monkey?"
Posted on 03/26/2005 10:58:24 AM PST by wagglebee
BERLIN (Reuters) - 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."
And 75% of Western- and 88% of Eastern Germans don't.
Naaah, no agenda to THIS story.
Reuters isn't even good at disguising its bias.
You are so correct. This is just one of the embryonic stages for a Fourth Reich.
"Ve must have der wall back. I just love der way it oppress me in bondage with leather and made me feel so manly! Would you like to pet my monkey?"
BINGO!
Actually, I don't think that Reuters actually wants the wall back, they would far prefer worldwide Marxist totalitarianism.
Self-pity is one of the mainstays of socialism.
Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie October 1961
Berlin, 1961. Berlin Wall at Zimmerstrasse/Markgrafenstrasse West Berliners watching over the Wall to the East
Berlin, Oberbaumbrücke 1962 Remembering on an unknown refugee who was killed by East German border guards
Ah,........the NEW 'NATO' wall?
To look at it another way, they were flooded with a bunch of people that they shared a common language with but few common values and they had to take care of them.
I can see the Westerners wanting the wall back. Or rather I can see the Westerners thinking that reunification wasn't all that great an idea and maybe they should have just left East Germany to become a independent state.
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
President Ronald Wilson Reagan, June 12, 1987
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Pre-unification west Germany was the world's envy for a national economy.
Low unemployment, high productivity. Products of quality that set world standards.
Enter the east. Less skilled, horrible work ethic.
Initially, the west embraced their long lost cousins, and started gladly paying, for what they expected would be a short term transition.
Now 16 years later, and still paying, the cousins are less welcome.
Less than two full generations (1945 to 1989) weakened the east German, as a citizen and worker.
A few years more (1989 to 2005) have taken all of Germany down, somewhat.
It is like having a indigent relative move in with you. At first you are sympathetic but after a few years you are yelling "Get a job, you bum!"
Is this the stupidest survey or what?
surveys that cite 12% and 23% want this or that FAIL TO SAY THAT THE VAST MAJORITY DON'T.
In other words, Germans overwhelmingly want the wall down.
But this time around, no problem. How far would you get invading Poland when half your soldiers are on strike?
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 high unemployment is caused by the billions of dollars stolen from productive West Germans and paid to East Germans. If the East Germans get a job then this money is taken away from them, thus the government is paying them not to work. Same thing happened in this country until (and still does to a lesser degree) welfare reform.
Still suffering the 'hang-over' from the greatest party the party the world's seen....
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