Survey: Young generation more open-minded about Russia and Turkey

Published in: 14.02.2011

France, Great Britain and the United States are the favourite partners for most of the Germans. This is the result of a representative survey among 1,000 Germans voters which was conducted by the opinion research institute dimap in January 2011 on behalf of dimap communications, a consulting firm specialized in public diplomacy. According to the survey, 85 per cent of the respondents trust France as a partner and 77 per cent see Great Britain as a trustworthy partner. The United States were ranked third with 60 per cent.

While trust in the United States has declined since February 2009, when another survey conducted by Infratest dimap showed that 75 per cent trusted America, Russia and Israel improved their ratings in the same period of time. In 2011, 35 per cent of the respondents said that they trust Russia (2009: 27 per cent) and 32 per cent had confidence in Israel (2009: 29 per cent). Furthermore, the survey revealed that East Germans are more skeptical towards the United States and Israel than their West German counterparts. Only 46 per cent of East German respondents consider the United States as a trustworthy partner and 25 per cent did so when asked for Israel. Moreover, the survey pointed at the striking fact that younger Germans see Russia significantly more positive than older citizens: 48 per cent of the respondents aged between 18 and 29 regard Russia as a trustworthy partner.

This constellation also applies to Turkey: while 50 per cent of the Germans aged between 18 and 29 view Turkey as a trustworthy partner, this is only the case for 29 per cent of the population as a whole.

“What we are currently observing is a generational break”, says Ralf Welt, managing partner at dimap communications. “Traditional attitudes of the Cold War generation – support for the USA and distrust in Russia – do not completely vanish, but the young generation of the reunified Germany is more open towards 'emerging countries' like Russia or Turkey.”