Life in Eastern Germany 1994

Social change in Eastern Germany during political and economic transformation. Topics: Hopes and fears; importance of selected areas of life such as work, partnership, education, social security, health, residence, religion, environment, leisure time; general contentment with life; materialism and postmaterialism; current subjective classification of social class and approx. 10 years ago; extent to which informed about the system of social security, culture and leisure selection, problems with children, qualification and education opportunities, healthful way of life, work law, partner relations, work, environmental protection, establishment of wages and prices, housing market; attitude to foreigners (scale); views on structuring life; time horizons; building loan contract, life insurance or loans; satisfaction with selected sides of life (scale); change of satisfaction in individual areas of life (scale); assumed satisfaction of other groups; reasons for unemployment; fear of personal unemployment; acceptance of conditions to avoid of personal unemployment; reasons for unsuccessful search for work so far; preferred leisure activities (scale); party membership or party sympathies; membership in clubs, trade unions, citizen initiatives; willingness to participate in various organizations; understanding of democracy; interest in politics; expectations of family and friends of one's conduct; assessment of personal economic situation, of the state and of the Federal Republic; duration of income equalization East-West; status and extent of achievement of equivalent living conditions for East and West; German unification as gain or loss; attempt to change situation in various areas of life; expected social changes in the next few years; desire for children; change in desire for children since unification; temporal deferral of fulfillment of the desire for children; future development of birth rate in Eastern Germany; time worked each week; shift work or flextime; work on the weekend; limited work contract; changes of occupational demands in comparison to the time before the turning point; the route to work; desire for part-time work, "jobbing", not working at all; preferred arrangement of working hours; arrangement of working hours in Germany; protection of jobs and reduction in unemployment through reduction in working hours; reduction of working life, annual and weekly time worked; acceptance of new arrangements of working hours to protect one's own job; personal unemployment; future employment situation; religious community; sources of income (scale); number of children in household; financial possibility to satisfy needs; tenancy; desire to purchase residence; residential furnishings; self-assessment of condition of health; change of instinctive relations to various groups of persons since unity of Germany.