Berlin -- Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, nearly one out of five eastern Germans wish it had never come down and preferred living under a communist regime, a survey released on Monday showed.

According to the poll, by the Institute for Market Research in Leipzig for Super Illu magazine, 17 percent of people in the ex-Communist east agreed with the statement: "It would have been better if the Wall had never fallen."

"In hindsight, the GDR with its socialism was a better state," these people said, referring to the former communist regime.

In addition, over half of easterners (52 percent) said they felt like "second-class German citizens" compared to 41 percent who felt they were treated equally.

Despite this, 72 percent of people said they were "happy to live in the reunified Germany with its social market economy despite all problems there have been rebuilding the east."

The poll surveyed 1,001 people in the former East Germany as well as in East Berlin.

The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War divisions, was pulled down on November 9, 1989 in a peaceful revolution that prompted the reunification of the country.

However, despite massive public investment in the east, unemployment there is twice as high as in the west.

AFP/Expatica