Controversial Köhler Statement
Those polled diverge, however, when it comes to assessing the future development: among citizens who see mostly differences between East and West today, about half believe that this will still be the case in ten years. The other half expects that at least by then, commonalities will prevail.
Irrespective of which view predominates where, 68 percent of those polled support the federal president’s statement that Germans will have to live with different living conditions for quite some time; 29 percent did not agree.
But comments in response to Horst Kohler’s statement diverged in East and West: 25 percent in the West, but 46 percent in the East, did not want to accept that people would have to come to terms with different living conditions in the long run.
Differences of Opinion on the Economic Rebuilding of the East
The situation is different when it comes to wages and salaries: 61 percent of those polled – 86 percent in the East, but also 55 percent in the West – consider the existing disparities unjust, a total of 33 percent describe the differences in earnings as appropriate, whereby the number of those who speak of “just” differences is noticeably higher in the West (38 percent) than in the East (12 percent).
Considerable differences of opinion also exist on the subject of Aufbau Ost [the Economic Rebuilding of the East]: in assessing the volume of subsidies, 4 percent of East Germans, but no fewer than 50 percent of West Germans, note that the new federal states are receiving “too much” financial support from tax revenues.
All told, 41 percent of Germans believe that the tax-financed support goes too far, 38 percent classify it as appropriate, 11 percent criticize the contribution to Aufbau Ost as inadequate, and 11 percent are unable to judge.
Almost No One Sees Personal Profit in Unification
Finally, the assessment of who is most likely to have profited from unification depends substantially on where those polled live – but in any case reports of personal profit are rare: for in the western part of the Republic almost half (47 percent) identify East Germans as the chief beneficiaries of reunification, whereas in the East only one in seven says as much (15 percent).
Conversely, 35 percent of East Germans describe people in the western part of the Republic largely as profiteers, whereas only 10 percent in the West see themselves as winners. Admittedly, however, 37 percent of those polled in the East and 20 percent in the West do state that unification benefited both sides equally; 11 percent in the East and 19 percent in the West say that it benefited “neither of the two.”
From an all-German perspective, 41 percent of all citizens describe East Germans as having benefited more from unification, and 15 percent say that of West Germans. Twenty-four percent are under the impression that the benefit is distributed equally between both sides; 18 percent of all Germans see no winners of unification either here or there.
For the special issue of Politbarometer on German unification, the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen did a telephone poll of 1,683 randomly selected voters across the country between September 21 and September 23, 2001. (West: 999; East: 684).
Source: “Einigkeit mit Recht und Freiheit” [“Unity with Justice and Freedom”], Süddeutsche Zeitung (online edition), September 30, 2004.
Translation: Thomas Dunlap
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