Hitler Still Best-Known German in Russia and the U.S.

A study about Germany's image in Russia and the U.S. has found that 60 years after the end of the Nazi era, Adolf Hitler still remains the best-known German in those countries. He is followed by current Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and former chancellor Helmut Kohl in the U.S., while Russians named Johann Wolfgang Goethe as the next most well-known German after Hitler. The study, commissioned by Deutsche Welle and carried out by the Forsa polling institute, concluded that elites in both countries thought of Germans as friendly, open and above all, organized, disciplined and hardworking. But many Americans in politics and industry are of the opinion that Germans have been spoiled by their generous welfare system and were upset over what they perceived as German ungratefulness after Berlin refused to support the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Though Russians did not associate Germany with Nazism to the same extent as the Americans did, only 38 percent of them believed that Jews living in Germany have been "fully accepted."