1st Edition
Thirty Years After the Berlin Wall German Unification and Transformation Research
This book examines the increasing body of research dedicated to the lasting differences between the former separate states of the Federal German Republic (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it takes a broad view on German unification and transformation research.
Transformation and unification processes in East and West Germany are still ongoing, and they may serve as a model for social change and its political, economic, and psychological consequences. Using advanced statistical methods of analysis, this edited volume provides insights into the valuable contextualization of individual and social phenomena that current research on German unification and transformation is producing.
Following the open science mindset using code and data, the authors investigate temporal trends in (1) mental health, (2) political attitudes, and (3) work and family life. It explores changes in mental health and political attitudes, as well as continued differences in work and family arrangements, that may stem from heterogeneous experiences within the systems and during the transformation process. This book will appeal to scholars and students from the disciplines of sociology, political science, public health, social psychology, psychology, and communication science interested in postsocialist transition processes and temporal changes in individuals and societies.
1. Introduction
Ayline Heller and Peter Schmidt
Part 1: Indicators of mental health and distress: Did the “peaceful revolution” create a “peace of mind?”
2. Mental health in East and West Germany from reunification to the present
Theresa M. Entringer, Laura Buchinger, Lisa Güttschow, and Tillman Schenk
3. Exploring the burden of past trauma in East Germany
Laura Altweck, Stefanie Hahm, Miriam Metsch, Silke Schmidt, Christine Ulke, Toni Fleischer, Claudia Helmert, Sven Speerforck, Georg Schomerus, Hans J. Grabe, Johanna Klinger-König, Henry Völzke, Manfred E. Beutel, Elmar Brähler, and Holger Muehlan
4. Disentangling age, period, and cohort effects shaping suicidal ideation in East and West Germany: An analysis of representative survey data spanning 18 years
Daniëlle Otten, Elmar Brähler, Manfred E. Beutel, Andreas Hinz, and Mareike Ernst
Part 2: Political attitudes: Does the wall persist in thoughts and worldviews?
5. Influence of GDR identification before German reunification on political support 20 years later
Kristine Khachatryan, Manfred E. Beutel, Yve Stöbel-Richter, Markus Zenger, Hendrik Berth, and Elmar E. Brähler
6. Antisemitism in East and West Germany. Three decades after the wall: A comparative longitudinal study considering age-period-cohort effects
Werner Bergmann, Aribert Heyder, Pascal Kolkwitz-Anstötz, Oliver Platt, and Peter Schmidt
7. Religiosity, non-denominationalism, and their political consequences in East and West Germany after the upheaval of 1989
Gert Pickel and Susanne Pickel
8. Putting authoritarianism in context: A multilevel analysis of regional effects on individual expressions of right-wing authoritarianism, conspiracy mentality, and superstition
Marius Dilling, Ayline Heller, Johannes Kiess, and Elmar Brähler
Part 3: Work and family in and after the socialist reality
9. The (fe-)male breadwinner? Beliefs about gender roles in East Germany: An age-period-cohort analysis
Ayline Heller, Laura Altweck, Stefanie Hahm, and Niels Michalski
10. The development of wealth and its role in the “happiness gap” between East and West Germans: A comparison of affective and cognitive subjective well-being
Christoph Kasinger, Lisa Braunheim, Manfred E. Beutel, and Elmar Brähler
11. Effects of job loss in romantic relationships: A fixed-effects regression analysis
Lisa Braunheim and Laura Gapta
Biography
Ayline Heller is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher and consultant at GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim, Germany.
Peter Schmidt is professor emeritus at the Department of Political Science at the University of Giessen, Germany. Currently, he is a research fellow at the University Medical Center in Mainz, Germany.
