1st Edition

Thirty Years After the Berlin Wall German Unification and Transformation Research

Edited By Ayline Heller, Peter Schmidt Copyright 2024
292 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

292 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

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... Read more

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.