More than half of eastern Germans defend the dictatorship of the former East Germany, according to a poll reported on Germany’s Spiegel Online. The Communist East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (gdr) as the dictatorship was misnamed, ceased to exist after Germany’s reunification 20 years ago when the Berlin Wall fell.

Today, 57 percent of eastern Germans defend the gdr. Of those polled, 49 percent said “The gdr had more good sides than bad sides. There were some problems, but life was good there.” Eight percent agreed with the statement: “The gdr had, for the most part, good sides. Life there was happier and better than in reunified Germany today.”

It is typical to defend one’s history in the face of criticism, as people tend to see such criticism as a personal attack. Yet the response to this poll goes beyond the typical self-defense reaction. It reveals an eastern Germany that is comfortable with its former Communist dictatorship, so much so that over half of its people idealize the dictatorship as having been not all that bad.

“A new form of Ostalgie (nostalgia for the former gdr) has taken shape,” says historian Stefan Wolle. “The yearning for the ideal world of dictatorship goes well beyond former government officials.”

That so many eastern Germans are defending the gdr should be cause for concern. The dictatorship employed a vast secret police to put down dissidents, and nearly 200 Germans were killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Yet here are people “yearning for the ideal world of dictatorship”!

That mindset is the opposite of what one would expect from citizens in a democracy. It is, however, part of Germany’s national character to yearn for strong leadership. History has demonstrated the results of this kind of thinking. In just 30 years, Germany transformed from a democracy into a terrifying dictatorship bent on conquering Europe with one of the world’s greatest war machines in World War ii.

Hans Morgenthau, an international relations expert and former consultant to the U.S. departments of State and Defense, described the German philosophy as “authoritarianism, collectivism, and state worship,” which have their counterpart in a “tradition of autocratic government, in servile acceptance of any authority so long as it seems to have the will and force to prevail” (Politics Among Nations).

This mindset of state glorification and authoritarianism hasn’t changed; it’s just not out in the open. However, as Germans experience increased insecurity, especially economically, these characteristics will begin to emerge.

Polls such as this most recent one—in addition to the rise in popularity of right-wing nationalist movements in eastern Germany—indicate a change occurring in the German people in that region: first disowning their past, then accepting and liking it, and finally yearning for the old dictatorships.

Although this phenomenon is at present restricted to eastern Germany within the region previously under Soviet socialist rule, the mood could well spread west as German industry faces a shedding of mass labor in the global economic crisis. In times of crisis, Germany always looks for a strong leader, and follows that leader en masse.

It has happened before, and Bible prophecy reveals it will happen again.

For more information on Germany’s prophesied shift toward authoritarianism and what it holds for the world, read Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s article “The German Nightmare Has Returned!” and “Is a World Dictator About to Appear?”