This is not my country, my country is the GDR: East German punk and socio-economic processes after German reunification

After the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, a sudden, unexpected, and massive influx of East German migrants hit the entire West German labor market. The context is well suited for investigating whether immigration influences natives' wages and how the effects depend on product and labor market conditions. We propose direct measures of potential migration with exogenous variation, compare migrants to natives with similar capabilities, and segment the labor market along predetermined margins. We find that immigration can have negative effects on the wages of natives. These effects surface when product and labor markets are competitive but not under regulations that restrict the entry of firms and provide workers with a strong influence on firms' decision making.

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Salmon migration and fertility in East Germany – An analysis of birth dynamics around German reunification

Zeitschrift für Familienforschung ◽

10.3224/zff.v30i3.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (3-2018) ◽

pp. 247-268

Author(s):

Michaela Kreyenfeld ◽

Anja Vatterrott

Keyword(s):

East Germany ◽

Large Fraction ◽

West Germany ◽

German Population ◽

German Reunification ◽

Region Of Origin ◽

Regional Mobility ◽

Deutsche Rentenversicherung ◽

East German

This paper uses rich administrative data from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Fund) to describe changes in the timing and the spacing of births that occurred in the period following German reunification. We examine differences in the birth dynamics of East Germans, West Germans, and women who migrated between the two parts of Germany in these years. As the pension registers provide monthly records on whether a person is living in East or West Germany, they also allow us to examine the role of regional mobility in birth behaviour. In particular, we test the “salmon hypothesis”, which suggests that migrants are likely to postpone having a child until after or around the time they return to their region of origin. Our investigation shows that a large fraction of the cohorts born in 1965-74 migrated to West Germany after reunification, but that around 50% of these migrants returned to East Germany before reaching age 40. The first birth risks of those who returned were elevated, which suggests that the salmon hypothesis explains the behaviour of a significant fraction of the East German population in the period following German reunification.

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Celestina – a Spanish Novel on the East German Stage before and after German Reunification

Celestinesca ◽

10.7203/celestinesca.30.20060 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Gabriele Eckhart

Keyword(s):

Fernando De Rojas ◽

German Reunification ◽

Spanish Novel ◽

Before And After ◽

East German

Este estudio compara dos adaptaciones alemanas de Celestina —una escrita antes y otra después de la reunificación de Alemania en 1990. Las dos adaptaciones cambian el argumento de Fernando de Rojas de diferente forma. Mientras Karl Mickel introduce dos miembros de la Inquisición, los cuales planifican y dirigen la trama, Manfred Wekwerth introduce un cura hipócrita y, por otra parte, intensifica la codicia y las habilidades comerciales de Celestina, para lo cual añade diálogos entre ella y sus cómplices referentes al «dinero». En los dos casos, las razones de los diferentes cambios son socio-políticas. Mientras Mickel usa el texto de Fernando de Rojas para criticar la realidad de Alemania oriental antes de la caida del Muro con su policía secreta omnipresente, Wekwerth usa el mismo texto para expresar su descontento sobre la introducción del capitalismo en esta parte del mundo.

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East German Identity after German Reunification

History & the World ◽

10.17857/hw.2016.12.50.29 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 50 ◽

pp. 29

Author(s):

Dong-Ki Lee

Keyword(s):

German Reunification ◽

German Identity ◽

East German

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Fiscal interactions in the short and the long run: evidence from German reunification

Journal of Economic Geography ◽

10.1093/jeg/lby068 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 711-732 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thushyanthan Baskaran

Keyword(s):

Fiscal Policy ◽

Property Tax ◽

German Reunification ◽

Tax Rates ◽

Strategic Interactions ◽

Local Taxation ◽

Long Run ◽

East German ◽

Business Tax ◽

First Time

Abstract This paper uses the quasi-experiment of Germany’s reunification to test for strategic interactions in local taxation. After reunification, East-German municipalities were allowed to choose, for the first time in decades, local business and property tax rates. I explore whether the tax rates they chose were influenced by the tax rates in adjacent West-German municipalities. The results show that East-German municipalities mimicked the business tax rates of their western neighbors immediately after reunification, but not in later years. I find no evidence for interactions in property tax rates. These results are broadly consistent with models of social learning in fiscal policy.

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Cohort Changes in the Level and Dispersion of Gender Ideology after German Reunification: Results from a Natural Experiment

European Sociological Review ◽

10.1093/esr/jcaa015 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (5) ◽

pp. 814-828

Author(s):

Christian Ebner ◽

Michael Kühhirt ◽

Philipp Lersch

Keyword(s):

Natural Experiment ◽

Gender Ideology ◽

General Social Survey ◽

West Germany ◽

Female Employment ◽

German Reunification ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

East German ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

The Impact

Abstract Modernization theorists’ ‘rising tide hypothesis’ predicted the continuous spread of egalitarian gender ideologies across the globe. We revisit this assumption by studying reunified Germany, a country that did not follow a strict modernization pathway. The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) actively fostered female employment and systematically promoted egalitarian ideologies before reunification with West Germany and the resulting incorporation into a conservative welfare state and market economy. Based on nationally representative, pooled cross-sectional data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 1991 to 2016, we apply variance function regression to examine the impact of German reunification—akin to a natural experiment—on the average levels and dispersion of gender ideology. The results show: (i) East German cohorts socialized after reunification hold less egalitarian ideologies than cohorts socialized in the GDR, disrupting the rising tide. (ii) East German cohorts hold more egalitarian ideologies than West German cohorts, but the East-West gap is less pronounced for post-reunification cohorts. (iii) Cohorts in East Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than their counterparts in West Germany; yet conformity did not change after reunification. (iv) Younger cohorts in West Germany show higher conformity with gender ideology than older cohorts.

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Stalin's German Policy After Stalin

Slavic Review ◽

10.2307/2497604 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 259-267 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Victor Baras

Keyword(s):

Soviet Union ◽

East Germany ◽

West Germany ◽

Communist Regime ◽

Peace Treaty ◽

German Reunification ◽

German State ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

East German ◽

The Stability

Stalin's “last word” on German reunification was contained in the Soviet diplomatic note of March 10, 1952, which proposed a peace treaty with Germany. Until the middle of 1953, Stalin's heirs continued to press for reunification on the basis of the 1952 note. The East German uprising of June 17, 1953 (which is commemorated in West Germany, with unintended irony, as the “Day of German Unity“) marked the de facto termination of the Soviet reunification initiative. As a result of the uprising, the rulers of the Soviet Union and East Germany were forced to place greater emphasis on the consolidation of the Communist regime in the GDR—that is, the stability of East Germany required policies explicitly directed toward the development of a separate, socialist East German state. Thus, the uprising and the subsequent Soviet intervention further undermined the credibility of an already questionable Soviet reunification initiative.

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East German Goth and the Spectres of Marx

Popular Music ◽

10.1017/s0261143010000693 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 89-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Isabella van Elferen

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

Political Order ◽

German Reunification ◽

German Version ◽

Local Boundedness ◽

Internal Dynamics ◽

Post Cold War ◽

Critical Engagement ◽

East German ◽

New Type

AbstractThe East of Germany, the Bundesländer of the former GDR, is an important centre of Goth activity. The Goth scene is remarkably large in this part of Germany, and one of the most important yearly Goth festivals, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen, takes place in Leipzig. This article investigates the specific characteristics and internal dynamics of East German Goth subcultures after German reunification. Combining subcultural theory and Gothic criticism with Derrida's notions of spectrality and hauntology, the potentials of Gothic as a form of cultural criticism are explored in an investigation of the psycho-social wasteland of the undead GDR. It will be argued that post-Cold War unification has not only led to a new political order, but has also given rise to a new type of Gothicism, as East German Goth subculture is haunted by ‘spectres of Marx’ that provide a critical engagement with globalised capital and media. As a specifically German version of the worldwide Goth scene, moreover, it marks the local boundedness of globalised subcultures.

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The rural transition – Landwirstchaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften and landscape before and after German Reunification (1990).

SHS Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/shsconf/20196302004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 63 ◽

pp. 02004

Author(s):

Vittoria Capresi ◽

Emily Bereskin ◽

Christoph Muth

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Production ◽

Economic Transition ◽

German Reunification ◽

German State ◽

Before And After ◽

Technological Modernization ◽

East German ◽

Settlement Schemes ◽

Rural Transition

This paper presents the case study of the MODSCAPES Technische Universität Berlin team: the Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaften – LPGs (agricultural production collectives) of the former German Democratic Republic in the southern Oderbruch (Brandenburg). The paper is divided into two parts: The first discusses the planning and socio-economic theory of the LPGs developed by the East German state, and the ensuing spatial manifestations of these production—and eventually, settlement—schemes. Here, the major differences between the planned vision and the lived reality of these rural networks are highlighted. The second section analyses the post-Reunification development (after 1990), focusing on the former model LPG based in Golzow: we examine the legal procedures guiding the economic transition from socialism to capitalism, as part of the German Reunification (and inclusion in the European Community). We argue that in this period agricultural production has grown even larger in scale through new waves of modernization processes; and most significantly, that this subsequent wave of technological modernization capitalizes on the spatial legacy of the LPG.

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