Almost a quarter of every four people in Germany do not feel treated with respect in society. This has been revealed by a survey of 1,323 eligible voters for the “Deutschlandtrend” of ARD from Monday to Wednesday of this week. Compared to April 2018, when this question was last asked by the institute, the proportion of those who feel disrespected has increased from 16 to currently 24 percent.
A small majority of respondents (56 percent) feel treated with respect. This is 10 percentage points less than in April 2018. One-seventh (14 percent) of the respondents feel treated with preference in German society, a decrease of 1 percentage point.
Almost unanimously, the respondents evaluate the togetherness in their circle of friends and acquaintances (94 percent) as well as in their own family (92 percent) positively. A clear majority of those in employment (86 percent) also describe the togetherness at the workplace as very good or rather good, with one in ten (10 percent) considering it as rather bad or very bad. Three out of four Germans (74 percent) perceive the togetherness in their city or community as positive, with one in five (20 percent) perceiving it as rather negative.
The Germans are divided in their opinion about the public togetherness of people, for example, when shopping or in traffic: almost half (48 percent) of the respondents consider it as very good or rather good, while almost as many (47 percent) consider it as rather bad or very bad. Many of those who see the public togetherness as bad give various reasons for this. For five out of six, economic worries are a reason. For four out of five, stress and time pressure as well as a negative mood due to wars and crises in the world are the cause of a bad public togetherness.
As a challenge for coexistence, the survey participants particularly recognize differences between the rich and the poor: more than three-quarters (77 percent) consider these as a very big or big problem for coexistence in Germany. Almost two-thirds (63 percent) say the same about cultural differences between people with different origins. Only a minority sees differences between city and country (37 percent) and between West and East Germans (32 percent) as a big problem for coexistence in Germany, with most seeing these as a small or no problem.