East – West Comparison

For the population of the new Bundeslaender (New Federal States of Germany) the German-German reunification is connected with serious changes in their living conditions. One social group dramatically affected by this is the collective farmers of the former GDR. For East German farmers this clearly illustrates – in addition to the reorganization process affecting the entire population – that they were confronted with specific problems of West German farmers and are currently going through a process of “catch-up marginalization.” The occasionally expressed theses, in this context, related to substantial differences in the social situation between East German collective farmers and West German farmers up to reunification was the subject of a work which examined similarities and differences in the agrarian way of life between East and West German farmers using the example of selected indicators (family/household, working hours, income).

Wirth, H., 1994: Ostdeutsche Genossenschaftsbauern - Westdeutsche Landwirte. Agrarische Lebensweisen im Vergleich. Gegenwartskunde 43 (1): 27-40.