The people in the new federal states are more optimistic about the process of German unity than the West Germans. 70 percent feel that they are the winners of reunification, while in the West they are only a slim majority of 53 percent. This is the conclusion of a representative survey by Kantar Public commissioned by the Körber Foundation, which SPIEGEL publishes in its special issue on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall ("Pretty good Germans - why it is so difficult for us to become a people") ,
However, the state of inner-German unity is viewed critically by many people. Although 71 percent of East Germans and 66 percent of West Germans say that their hopes for reunification have been fulfilled. But at the same time, 69 percent of West Germans and 74 percent of East Germans still see very large differences between East and West.
Thirty years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and fifteen years after the eastward expansion of the EU, the majority of Germans remain rooted in the West. 77 percent feel more Western than Eastern Europeans. But even with this question, there are clear differences between East and West. Only seven percent of the people in the old federal states feel that they belong to Eastern Europe, to the east there are at least 32 percent.
"East and West in Europe are still alien," says Körber Board Member Thomas Paulsen, "the results are a clear challenge to politics, business and civil society to seek more dialogue with our eastern neighbors and reaffirm our shared interests . "
West Germans assess the situation of democracy in countries such as Hungary or Poland much more critically than the East Germans. 65 percent of people in the old federal states are in favor of sanctions against these two countries because they violate the fundamental values of the EU. In the East it is just half (51 percent).