One in Seven Germans Want Berlin Wall back? »
Posted By WikiMap 3 months, 1 week ago in NewsOne in seven Germans want the Berlin Wall back because they were better off when the country was divided, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday ahead of the 20th anniversary of its collapse on November 9, 1989.
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Progressive3 months, 1 week ago
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Conversely, six in seven Germans don't want the Berlin wall back.
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FTA:
The survey found that many westerners are bitter about higher taxes to pay for rebuilding the formerly communist east, where some 1.2 trillion euros ($1,762 billion) worth of state funds has been transferred in the last 20 years.
Eastern Germans are unhappy about income levels that are on average only 80 percent of western levels and that due to higher unemployment depopulation is decimating parts of the east, where the population has declined by about two million since 1990.
The poll found 55 percent of Germans believe unification could be helped if a "solidarity tax" to help fund the costs of rebuilding were abolished while 50 percent believe higher pensions for easterners would help ease east-west tensions. -
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
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There was a huge gap between E & W, naturally, after decades of separation. These have not been eliminated and the Easterners feel deprived. Many of the old Communist factories are gone. Towns like Leipzig have had acute skinhead problems - I'm not current with the situation there now but 4 or 5 years ago it was dangerous.
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There was a marvellous film called Goodbye Lenin which had a very poignant take on the transition - very funny, highly recommended!!
- description here cribbed from Amazon:
"Good bye, Lenin! not simply entertaining but downright refreshing. The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive."
This involves showing old news tapes, using labels from old jars and cans and much, much more shenanigans. -
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gamahuche3 months, 1 week ago
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As a delegate to a conference on "Youth in East and West", held in W. Berlin in 1962, I had the honour of meeting Willi Brandt who was then Mayor of West Berlin. On noticing my ban-the-bomb badge he asked me which side of the wall I intended to sit down; I replied "Right in the Middle on the Top"..
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Well I didn't do that but I did cross into the east and saw Communist soldiers gosse-stepping back and forth in front of the "Monument to the Victims of Nazism and Fascism [!]and mingled with people there - all despite having ben warned by my family that if I set foot there they surely wouldn't let me back..I never did go back till long after the wall was down - though I'd have definitely have liked to be there right at that time!
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