Ms. Gille, since the beginning of the 1990s you have regularly asked young people aged between 16 and 29 in eastern and western Germany about their life plans and their values. What are your findings?
We’ve found that what these teenagers and young adults want in life is very similar throughout the whole of Germany. There’s an increasing correspondence between eastern and western Germany, especially as far as values and life plans are concerned. For instance, in the five new federal states there’s been a change in attitudes towards education and the level of education has risen. Far more people are graduating from high school now than when the GDR existed. Young people used to have children at a very early age in the former GDR. But now many give priority to their education before founding a family.
What about developments in political attitudes?
Our studies have shown that political attitudes and assessments of the political system differ among 16 to 29 year olds in the old and the new federal states. Young people in the new federal states are more reserved towards the political system and more critical towards politics.
How do you explain this difference?
Children and teenagers are socialized by their parents, school and other social institutions. There are differences here between the old and the new federal states. For example, the general economic conditions. In the new federal states apprenticeships are scarcer and young people experience more often that their parents are unemployed. These experiences contribute towards the different assessments of the social system.
The fall of the Wall in 1989 was followed by reunification a year later. How does the younger generation view German unity?
The historical change is viewed positively. Above all young people in the new federal states see the freedom that has been gained as a huge benefit of German unity, particularly the freedom to travel without hindrance.
To what extent do young people in the eastern and western states identify themselves with reunited Germany?
We’ve discovered that identification with one’s own part of Germany is stronger in the new federal states than in the old ones. But in the final instance the sentiment for Germany as a whole predominates, and the country as a whole is seen as the common state. What’s more, I believe that nowadays many young people no longer think in categories of East German-West German.
Martina Gille is a sociologist and scientific researcher at the German Youth Institute (DJI), Munich
