«Почему восточные немцы любят русских»: причины большей симпатии к России в новых федеральных землях ФРГ

To examine the impact of rapidly changing environmental factors on the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). We compared the frequency of T1D in children before and after the reunification of Germany by means of the registries of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, 1960-1989) and of Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW, 1987-2006). The number of cases of diabetes onset in East Germany after the reunification was predicted by a mathematical model. The observed incidence rate in the Eastern part of Germany after the reunification was taken from the literature 1. In Germany, the incidence rate of T1D in children aged 0-14 was 7.2/100 000/year (95%-CI 6.9-7.5, GDR, 1980-1987), and 10.4/100 000/year (95%-CI 9.5-11.4, BW, 1987-1994). For the whole observation period (1960-2006), the observed incidence rates y could be described by the square of a linear function [GDR: y=(1.86 + 0.040 * (year - 1960))²; r²=0.85; BW: y=(3.03 + 0.085 * (year - 1987))², r²=0.89]. The mean rise in incidence before the reunification was less than half the mean rise after the reunification (mean slope: BW 0.085, 95%-CI 0.080-0.090 vs. GDR 0.040, 95% CI 0.036-0.044). The observed incidence for East Germany after 1989 was higher than the prediction on the basis of the GDR -registry (GDR 12.3/100 000/year vs. Saxony 15.7/100 000/year, 95%-CI 14.2-17.3, n=412; 1999-2003). We conclude that the basis for the disease progress is a genetic predisposition. Environmental factors may modify changes in incidence of type 1 diabetes but do not determine the overall risk.

Introduction

Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, mortality was considerably higher in the former East Germany than in West Germany. The gap narrowed rapidly after German reunification. The convergence was particularly strong for women, to the point that Eastern women aged 50–69 now have lower mortality despite lower incomes and worse overall living conditions. Prior research has shown that lower smoking rates among East German female cohorts born in the 1940s and 1950s were a major contributor to this crossover. However, after 1990, smoking behavior changed dramatically, with higher smoking intensity observed among women in the eastern part of Germany. We forecast the impact of this changing smoking behavior on East-West mortality differences and find that the higher smoking rates among younger East German cohorts will reverse their contemporary mortality advantage. Mortality forecasting methods that do not account for smoking would, perhaps misleadingly, forecast a growing mortality advantage for East German women. Experience from other countries shows that smoking can be effectively reduced by strict anti-smoking policies. Instead, East Germany is becoming an example warning of the consequences of weakening anti-smoking policies and changing behavioral norms.

NATO Enlargement—Was There a Promise?

Social scientists often claim that the needs of elder people are not well represented in German politics, especially in the eastern part of Germany. After reunification, most scholars therefore expected that a gap between the living conditions of elder people in the eastern and western part of Germany would continue to exist. The aim of the article is to confront this assumption with empirical information. The data presented show that in the field of pensions the elderly in East Germany happened to be the winners of reunification: In some cases pensioners living in the former GDR now get even higher pensions than elder people in the western part of the country in the field of labour market participation there has been a dramatic withdrawal of elder people in east Germany that exceeds that in West Germany in the field of social services for the elderly there has been a remarkable reduction of inequalities in the level of supply between east and west.

Narcissism scores are higher in individualistic cultures compared with more collectivistic cultures. However, the impact of sociocultural factors on narcissism and self-esteem has not been well described. Germany was formerly divided into two different social systems, each with distinct economic, political and national cultures, and was reunified in 1989/90. Between 1949 and 1989/90, West Germany had an individualistic culture, whereas East Germany had a more collectivistic culture. The German reunification provides an exceptional opportunity to investigate the impact of sociocultural and generational differences on narcissism and self-esteem. In this study, we used an anonymous online survey to assess grandiose narcissism with the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (PNI) to assess grandiose and vulnerable aspects of narcissism, and self-esteem with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) in 1,025 German individuals. Data were analyzed according to age and place of birth. Our results showed that grandiose narcissism was higher and self-esteem was lower in individuals who grew up in former West Germany compared with former East Germany. Further analyses indicated no significant differences in grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism or self-esteem in individuals that entered school after the German reunification (≤ 5 years of age in 1989). In the middle age cohort (6–18 years of age in 1989), significant differences in vulnerable narcissism, grandiose narcissism and self-esteem were observed. In the oldest age cohort (> 19 years of age in 1989), significant differences were only found in one of the two scales assessing grandiose narcissism (NPI). Our data provides empirical evidence that sociocultural factors are associated with differences in narcissism and self-esteem.

In Germany, mumps has been notifiable until 2013 only in the five Eastern federal states (EFS) of former East Germany. Due to different immunisation policies until 1990 and varying vaccination coverages thereafter, mumps incidences cannot be extrapolated to the 11 Western federal states (WFS). We studied mumps-related International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) code diagnoses claimed through statutory health insurances between 2007 and 2011 to estimate countrywide mumps incidences in the outpatient sector, and compared them with case numbers from ambulatory notification data. Overall, 32,330 outpatient mumps cases were claimed. Annual incidence ranged between 9.3/100,000 and 11.8/100,000 and showed a significant decreasing trend. Compared with EFS, mumps incidence in WFS was higher and indicated a shift towards older age groups. Notified outpatient case numbers in EFS were 13-fold lower and from voluntary surveillance during an outbreak in the WFS Bavaria 8-fold lower than from insurance data (n=316 versus n=4,217 and n=238 versus 1,995, respectively). Of all notified cases with available information, 75.4% (EFS) and 57.6% (Bavaria) were unvaccinated; 6.8% (EFS) and 19.3% (Bavaria) required hospitalisation. In Germany, mumps is still endemic despite decades of vaccination, with considerable underreporting in the established notification systems.

MLR, I03.2, 2oo8 603 German Memory Contests: The Quest for Identity inLiterature, Film, and Discourse since I990. Ed. byANNE FUCHS,MARY COSGROVE, and GEORG GROTE. (Studies inGerman Literature, Linguistics, and Culture) Rochester, NY: Camden House. 2006. viii+344pp. $75; ?45. ISBN 978-I-57I13-324-3. This volume presents a timely and comprehensive summary of the current interest (particularly inGerman Studies in theUK and theUSA) in post-unification dis courses ofmemory in relation toGermany's various 'pasts', above all theNazi past. A detailed and engaging exploration of theoretical discussions of 'culturalmemory', generation, and 'postmemory' isofferedbyAnne Fuchs andMary Cosgrove in their introduction, providing the unifying context within which the subsequent fourteen essays on diverse topics, ranging from literary reflectionson theGDR past toAfro German women writers' fiction,are tobe read.The quality of the essays isuniformly high, although some stand out as exceptional, and the degree of rigour and consis tency achieved within thevolume by its three editors is impressive throughout. The volume isdivided into four sections (the distinctions occasionally appear fairly arbitrary): 'Positions'; 'Mediations'; 'Ethnicity/'Hybridity' and 'Memory Politics'. The concern throughout iswith what the editors have termed 'memory contests', that is,with themanner inwhich any shared memory of the past in the Federal Republic is repeatedly challenged and negotiated from a variety of subject positions, including east and west German, Jewish or other ethnic-minority perspectives, per spectives informedby gender, or perspectives informedby (self-)exile fromGermany. Peter Fritzsche's essay on 'coming-to-terms with thepast' in the I950S provides a welcome re-examination of narratives dealing with theNazi era and itsconsequences in the immediate post-war period. Arguing that it isnecessary toview such narratives within their own context rather than judging them by today's standards, Fritzsche presents a convincing case thatmany post-war texts actually reflect on their own inadequacy and on their inability to depict what had just occurred and particularly German culpability. Fritzsche's essay is followed, appropriately, by two furtheressays which examine how far literaryreflectionson thepast tellus asmuch about theperiod inwhich theywere written as about the period which theypurport to narrate. Anne Fuchs's examination of post-iggo Vdterliteratur begins with Christoph Meckel's Suchbild: Uber meinen Vater (I983) in order to demonstrate just how different re cent literaryengagements with familymembers complicit inNazism arewithin the changed context of post-unification Germany (Fuchs also analyses Uwe Timm's Am Beispiel meines Bruders, Ulla Hahn's Unscharfe Bilder, and Dagmar Leupold's Nach denKriegen). Elizabeth Boa, on theother hand, looks at narratives concerned with the formerGDR and the extent towhich theycreate, after thedemise of theCommunist state, a sense of an 'East German' Heimat within unified Germany. In 'Mediations', StefanWiller's essay on 'multilingualism' inG. -A.Goldschmidt andW G. Sebald is the firstof three essays in the volume which deal with Sebald, reflecting the recent explosion of interest inAnglo-American German Studies in that author. Chloe Paver's essay on the Fotofeldpost exhibition, the next in the volume, is one of itshighlights, offering a contextualized analysis of how photographs have become central to the current debate on the extent towhich 'ordinary Germans' involved inwar crimes are tobe 'condemned' or 'understood'. Her essay is thought ful,detailed, and above all suitably cautious. It is followed by twomore chapters in which the significance of images within contemporary cultural memory is explored. Matthias Fiedler's examination of popular filmic representations of theNazi period (including Stalingrad, Das Wunder vonBern, Aimee und Jaguar, and RosenstraJ3e) is informative and interesting, but a little disappointing on account of its lack of en gagement with the growing body of secondary literature on the filmshe mentions. Jonathan Long's analysis ofMonika Maron's Pawels Briefe, drawing onMarianne 604 Reviews Hirsch's concept of postmemory, offers a fineexample of how theoretical approaches may be combined with detailed close readings, in this case of thephotographs which occur throughoutMaron's text. The three essays which appear under the title 'Ethnicity/Hybridity' provide some of themost fascinating reading in the volume. Dagmar Lorenz's presentation of the literary fiction by the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors assesses differentphases in the re-emergence of a literary Jewish culture after I945 but fo cuses on the contemporary period with surveys of...

It is hypothesized in the fields of political education and citizenship studies that a discrepancy exists between the rhetoric of political education as expressed in official policy documents, guidelines, and curricula, on the one hand, and the reality of what happens in the classroom, on the other. This study tests this hypothesis in relation to the five new states created in 1990 in the eastern part of Germany on the territory of the former German Democratic Republic. Following German reunification, reform of political education in eastern German schools was considered necessary in this region and legislative changes introduced relating to the aims, content, teaching methodologies, and assessment criteria associated with this subject. This study investigates the extent to which these changes were actually implemented in the classroom. In addition, some conclusions are drawn regarding the management of change in political education in times of transition from dictatorship to democracy.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe underwent substantial social and economic changes that had a major impact on health. The situation of the former German Democratic Republic was unique in that its existing institutions were replaced rapidly and it was quickly integrated economically with the West. This study describes recent trends in morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases in East and West Germany before and after unification using routine data from 1980 onwards. Substantial differences in morbidity and mortality resulting from infectious diseases were observed between East and West Germany. These seem to be the complex result of societal and health system differences in both parts of Germany before unification, differing population dynamics and health behaviours, and an increasing westernisation in the eastern part of Germany during recent years.

The rising incidence of hip fractures is of world wide concern. In addition to the demographically aging populations world wide a secular trend of hip fracture incidence has been reported for various populations. The objective of the current study was to reassess hip fracture incidence ten years following German reunification and compare incidence rates in former East and West Germany. Data from the German hospital discharge diagnosis registry were used to compare rates in former East and West Germany. A reassessment of a secular trend was done with directly age-standardized rates of the population 60 years old and over. Significant differences were found between incidence rates in the East and West German states with higher rates in the West. Compared to earlier studies for East Germany, rate in East Germany have increased by on average annually 6% since reunification. This is a steep increase compared to the annual rise by about 3% between 1974 and 1989. Hip fracture incidence in East Germany thereby has doubled during the 25-year period from 1971 to 1996. Although the observed acceleration of a secular trend in East Germany probably has multiple causes, evidence suggests a significant influence of Western life style on hip fracture incidence.

Objective: To document the effects of sudden economic change on death rates for occupants of cars in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany).Design: Ecological time series study of East...

The reunification of Germany confronted citizens in East and West Germany with many changes in their lives. These changes may be considered as critical life events. Especially for those in East Germany, life circumstances drastically changed, and individuals were increasingly required to adopt and develop coping capabilities. In addition to new opportunities and freedom, there was threatening uncertainty about the future. Theories of life events and stress postulate that threat events have an impact on human well-being. It was expected that there would be an increased rate of psychiatric morbidity after unification, especially in the eastern part of Germany. An international study by the WHO on psychiatric disorders in general health care was carried out in 1990, 1 year after the opening of the Berlin Wall, in both parts of Berlin and in Mainz, West Germany. This allowed for a comparison of the prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders among general health care patients in the East and West, after the euphoria immediately following unification had subsided. The prevalence rates of current ICD-10 diagnoses and of subthreshold disorders in East Berlin were similar to the rates in West Berlin and Mainz. The recognition rate of psychiatric disorders by physicians did not differ in East Berlin as compared to West Berlin and Mainz. Contrary to the prediction expected from the literature on individual negative life events, major changes in life circumstances and stressful life events on a societal level within 1 year did not have a major impact on psychological function.

BOOK REVIEWS Embarking for New Shores: Intellectual Developments in (Former) East Germany Since November 9, 1989 Heinz-Uwe Haus Berlin Actor, director, drama critic, German Studies scholar, andforemost authority on Brecht and Shakespeare, Heinz-Uwe Haus has directed stage productions in Berlin's prestigious Deutsches Theatre, in Cyprus, and in Greece. In addition to his post as Artistic Director of the International Classical Theatre, Haus has held guest professorships and directed dramatic performances at several Canadian and American universities. In 1990, Haus began a threeyear guest professorship in stage production at the University of Delaware's Professional Theatre Training Program. A resident of Berlin (East), Haus has worked primarily outside of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) since 1982. Except for a few opportunities to guest-direct stage performances in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), he was not given a work permit until the fall of 1989. An active political advocate of the unification of Germany, Haus was a member ofthe steering committee oftheparty "Democratic Awakening" (Demokratischer Aufbruch). Since this party's fusion with the Christian Democratic Union in the fall of 1990, he has chaired the group Europapolitik and founded the German-American Coalition "The Praxis Group. " Haus speaks here from an insider's perspective about the effects of the "peaceful revolution" on intellectual and cultural life. THE GENERAL INTELLECTUAL SITUATION We must look at today's intellectual scene in light of the nature of the revolution and ongoing democratization in the eastern part of Germany. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall indeed seemed to symbolize that everything dividing the Germans would soon be overcome. Yet last year's mutual and unreserved understanding has grown into a stubborn need for self-justification. Germans from the East, subjugated for decades, now stand in helpless intimidation. Their low self-confidence contrasts sharply with the assuredness ofthe established West Germans. Even long after political unification, earning power and adaptability to democracy will signal social differences. The media in the new Federal States, still more or less managed by the 237 238Rocky Mountain Review cadres ofthe past, have used these discrepancies to spread a fear and insecurity suppressing any chance for a reconciliation with the past. The peaceful course of shattering the regime thus has a hidden cost: the communist old boy network was never really abolished. It was only recycled as we "changed direction." Shapeless strategies did indeed immobilize the dinosaur of oppression, yet the revolutionaries, "whose virtue was political and [who] dreamed of peace, . . . justice and the preservation of nature" (Neubert 69), were unable to fill the vacuum of power left in December 1989. Instead of taking over the government—by force, ifneed be—the leadership, ignorant ofits own political strength, chose to sit down at the round table with representatives of the old regime. They even allowed themselves to be chaperoned during the transitional Modrow government until the first free elections on March 18, 1990. Meanwhile, the Socialist Unity Party/Party of Democratic Socialism (SED/PDS) clique had converted the old structures into "legitimate" ones, translated ill-gotten influence and property into legal claims, and assured the continued existence ofthe Party in the post-communist era. (The SED was not dissolved, but first transformed into the SED/PDS and ultimately the PDS, securing for the old apparatus a fortune in West German marks, a vast majority of which had likely been stolen from the people.) The persistent effort to characterize the Fall Revolution as a mere change in direction (Wende) eloquently reflects the counter-revolutionary attempt to legitimize the old regime. The tolerance of the citizens' movement deserves much credit here. The tendency of the newly formed democratic movement to accommodate is primarily motivated by Christian principles. Deeper causes stem from allencompassing socio-critical reflections among intellectuals who wish to see a connection between the immediate and future tasks (see Bahro or Neubert). The fall of 1989 saw a need for theories which, freed from the East-West conflict, would question the origin ofthe identity crisis, search for criteria for new social ethics, and demand viable political ideas. While these intellectual ambitions are of only limited use to the actual tasks of restructuring, they are important conceptualizing tools. They help...

Mumps is an acute viral infectious disease characterized by fever and swelling and tenderness of one or more salivary glands, usually the parotid gland. Since 1976, the German Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) has recommended a mumps vaccination as part of the routine immunization schedule in former West Germany. In East Germany, the vaccination was only introduced in 1991 after reunification. In the preceding decades, no comprehensive surveillance system existed in Germany. However, for East Germany and the successional federal states of former East Germany, data on mumps incidence are available from different Eastern surveillance systems for the time period 1968-2012. According to these data, the incidence of mumps has dropped from > 200 cases/100,000 annually in the pre-vaccine era to currently <1/100,000. Recently, an age shift has been noted predominantly in the Western federal states. Based on data from school entry examinations and seroprevalence studies, the age shift is likely due to insufficient vaccination coverage and secondary vaccine failure ("waning immunity"). In view of the changes in mumps epidemiology and the increase of outbreaks among adolescents and young adults, the implementation of a nationwide mandatory notification was initiated and came into effect in March 2013. Mandatory notification enables the early detection of outbreaks and obtainment of comprehensive data for evaluation of the immunization program in place. Regarding the long-term prevention of mumps in Germany, it is hoped that--as part of the measles and rubella elimination effort--coverage rates for the second MMR dose among children will increase nationwide above 95% and existing vaccination gaps among adults will be closed.