German responses to regime change: Culture, class, economy or context?

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Abstract
How have Germans, East and West, responded to dramatic changes in their political and economic regimes resulting from re‐unification? Since every German has lived under at least two regimes, evaluations of the present are made in the light of experience of their previous regime, the pre‐unification Federal Republic or the German Democratic Republic. This article analyses the 1993 German Re‐Unification Survey to test the extent to which Germans have shown a common response, as implied by theories of pan‐German culture or, in the case of the GDR, that Sovietisation matters. In both parts of Germany, people are divided. It then tests three competing hypotheses about the causes of differing evaluations of regime change. At first glance, economic costs and benefits appear most important. But a causal model shows that context ‐ evaluating regimes in the light of experience of the GDR or the Federal Republic ‐is most important, indirectly and directly. A follow up survey shows that positive responses are increasing in both parts of Germany.

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