Thirty years of German polls on Russia, and almost none about Russians

The Institut fuer Demoskopie Allensbach puts a simple question to Germans about other peoples: "Einmal ganz allgemein gefragt: Moegen Sie eigentlich die Franzosen/Polen/Griechen, oder moegen Sie sie nicht besonders?" It has been asked about the French since 1977. About Russians, one reading was found in the published documentation: in April 2008, 25% of Germans said they liked the Russians, 35% not particularly, and 40% were undecided (5-17 April 2008, n=1,820, IfD 10019). The Russian state has dated readings back to 1996, though not unbroken ones: the 1996 anchor is Allensbach's "Ist Russland heute noch eine Weltmacht?", with readings for 1996, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, April and September 2008, April 2014 and March 2015; Pew did not ask Germans its opinion-of-Russia item in 2008, 2016 or 2021; no DeutschlandTrend value was located for 2007, 2009-2012 or January-October 2013, which is not proof the item was unasked, and the institute itself indicates the item was not asked between September 2019 and December 2021.

Four long-running series carry those dated readings. Allensbach runs face-to-face quota samples of roughly 1,000-1,800 residents aged 16+, documented in its Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung monthly reports and, since 2011, in the annual Sicherheitsreport for the Centrum fuer Strategie und Hoehere Fuehrung. ARD-DeutschlandTrend (infratest dimap) polls about 1,000 eligible voters aged 18+ by telephone, and telephone plus online since 2021. Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Survey polls about 1,000 Germans a year by telephone. ZDF-Politbarometer (Forschungsgruppe Wahlen) asks event-driven Russia questions rather than one fixed item; more than 300 monthly releases 2004-2026 were checked.

Through 2010 the readings were warm. In May 2004, 65% of Germans expected Russia and Germany to have a good relationship in the long run, 12% did not and 23% were undecided (Allensbach, IfD 7056); by September 2008 the same question stood at 45%, 25% and 30% (IfD 10025). In March 2005, 7% named Russia among the countries posing the greatest threat to world peace; in 2010, 9%. In August 2008, 63% called German-Russian relations good and 25% bad (Politbarometer, 12-14 Aug 2008, n=1,263). In 2007, 45% named Russia a country Germany should cooperate with as closely as possible; in 2009, 55%. In April 2010, 50% of Germans held a favorable opinion of Russia against 44% unfavorable (Pew, 15-30 April 2010, n=750).

The fall was under way before 2014. The share naming Russia a desired cooperation partner stood at 35% in July 2011 (2-15 July 2011, IfD 10075, behind France 55%, the USA 52% and Britain 36%, and ahead of China 34%) and 38% in January 2013; opinion of Putin, good against not good, was 9/48 in 2011; Pew had 47% favorable against 48% unfavorable in 2011 and 33% favorable in 2012. In the Allensbach survey of 1-11 September 2014 (n=1,530, IfD 11029), 55% named Russia among the greatest threats to world peace; Iraq stood at 62%, Syria at 45%, Israel at 42% and the USA at 14%. The cooperation share went to 32% in April 2014 and 27% that September. In Allensbach's readings, Germans calling relations with Russia good went 55% in 2008, 15% in April 2014, 8% in March 2015; those calling them less good or not good went 33%, 76%, 88%. Pew recorded 19% favorable in 2014. Then the readings partly reversed: the Allensbach cooperation share came back to 50% in 2016, and its threat share fell to 28% in January 2018 (IfD 11081), standing at 36% in January 2020, 41% in December 2020 and 32% in January 2021 (10-20 January 2021, n=1,080), before rising again to 66% in January 2022. DeutschlandTrend trust in Russia as a partner ran 25% against 71% (4-5 April 2016, n=1,005), 21% against 74% (6-7 June 2017, n=1,000) and 35% (11-12 February 2019, n=1,003). Pew recorded 35% favorable in 2018.

Since 2022 the published figures are the lowest on record. In the DeutschlandTrend of 31 October-2 November 2022 (n=1,307), 10% called Russia a partner Germany can trust; in early October 2022, 86% had called Russia a threat to world security. On 4-5 March 2025 (n=1,325) 10% called Russia such a partner and 83% did not, with France at 85%, Britain at 78% and the USA at 16%. Allensbach's cooperation question, asked 27 January-9 February 2023 (n=1,088, IfD 12067), put Russia at 13%, against France 73%, the USA 66% and Turkey 14%; the institute's report of 2 March 2026 (fieldwork 6-19 February 2026, n=1,052, IfD 13014) reprints that series for 2000-2026 for France, Britain, Poland and the USA only and publishes no Russia value. The Sicherheitsreport press releases put the share naming Russia a threat to world peace at 82% in January 2023, 75% in January 2024, 79% in January 2025 and 81% in January 2026. Opinion of Putin, good against not good, went from 12/33 in 2000 to 43/10 in 2001 and 6/81 in February 2023. Pew's favorability figure has run between 10% and 16% in each year 2022-2026. The verdict is not uniform. In Allensbach's survey of May 2022 (n=1,118, IfD 12054, Tabelle A 9), 36% said Germany should try to rebuild good relations with Russia as quickly as possible (West 31%, East 57%), 44% said no (West 48%, East 26%) and 20% were undecided. Pew put confidence in Putin among AfD supporters at 51% in 2018 and, in 2024, at 45% against 10% among non-supporters. In Politbarometer, 21% rejected the existing sanctions outright after the Navalny poisoning (14-16 September 2020, n=1,241), 14% wanted to keep importing Russian gas and oil (5-7 April 2022, n=1,230), and 46% expected the war to stay limited to Ukraine (20-22 May 2025, n=1,328), 74% among AfD supporters and 72% among BSW supporters.

About Russians themselves there is almost nothing. None of the four series carries a long-run item on Russians as a people. The only Allensbach people-level readings found are that one April 2008 reading on liking the Russians, a March 2012 similarity question, in which 21% judged Russians "sehr/eher aehnlich" to Germans and 79% "eher/ganz anders", and two cards in its Russlandbild sort: "Die Leute sind sehr gastfreundlich", which 50% applied to Russia in 2008, 48% in April 2014 and 53% in March 2015, and "Die Leute sind fleissig", which 22% applied to Russia in 2008.

Pew did separate a people from its state for German respondents, but about a different country: in 2007 it reported that "in Germany, for instance, 63% say they have a positive opinion of Americans compared with just 30% who rate the U.S. positively" (German fieldwork 16-30 April 2007, n=1,000). No parallel item about Russians was asked. No Pew topline with German data from 2001 to 2026 asks Germans about Russians or "the Russian people"; no ARD-DeutschlandTrend item about Russians, Russian citizens, Russlanddeutsche or Russian-speakers living in Germany was found in any edition checked; none of the roughly 300 Politbarometer releases contains one, and neither does any Berlin Pulse edition.

The surveys that do concern Russian-speakers in Germany are surveys of Russian speakers, not of majority attitudes toward them. The Boris Nemtsov Foundation and Ipsos Germany polled 606 Russian-speaking Germans in August-September 2016 on identity, integration, media use and views of Russia and the West, with no item on majority attitudes toward them; ZOiS Report 5/2024 contains no discrimination measure. The one population-level item found is a DeZIM.panel quick survey of 28 February-6 March 2022, on confronting people from Russia living in Germany with Putin's politics, and DeZIM itself warns that the item is ambiguous and does not measure resentment.