Some 47 percent of Germans said they feared potential terrorist attacks and war, according to the annual New Year survey made by the Allensbach Institute.

People who were optimistic toward the next year was down from last year's 57 percent to 42 percent, said the poll conducted among 2,000 people aged 16 or older nationwide.

The number of people who feared world war has never been so high since 1950s, president of the institute Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann pointed out.

Some 41 percent German residents in the west and 50 percent in the east expressed their worries over a war that could involve Germany.

The most feared thing in recent years' New Year surveys by the institute was unemployment, the president added.

(eastday.com December 27, 2001)