A majority of East Germans consider the term "new federal states" to be outdated 35 years after German reunification. This is the result of a representative survey conducted by the Erfurt-based opinion research institute Insa-Consulere on behalf of the magazine "Superillu". According to the survey, 65 percent of East Germans feel that the term is no longer in keeping with the times. A third of respondents (33 percent) think the term "eastern federal states" is better.
A majority (53 percent) also believe that November 9, rather than October 3, would be the appropriate national holiday for German reunification. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
In the debate about a national holiday for German reunification, however, the date was not chosen because of its historical connotations: the November pogroms took place on November 9, 1938, when synagogues, homes and businesses belonging to Jewish people were burned down and destroyed by the National Socialists. On October 3, 1990, the unification treaty for German reunification came into force.
According to "Superillu", 1,000 people from East Germany including Berlin were interviewed online for the survey between September 10 and 17.
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