THE IMPLOSION OF A MORALE DECREED BY THE STATE - MORALITY IN EAST ANDWEST-GERMANY 1990-1994

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) enforced on its population a secu larisation of religion and an ideology of equality. In combination, th ese two elements of the social constitution of the GDR should have had the effect that morality, i.e. moral strictness and moral conformity. is higher in East than in West Germany,in 1990,yet approach the West German level until 1994. Moral strictness has been surveyed in 1990 an d 1994 by means of evaluations of 24 forms of misconduct which, accord ing to the assumed form of their justification, can be categorized bet ween the pole of ''value'' and of ''reciprocity''. Moral conformity is measured by the frequencies of the respective forms of misconduct acc ording to the police criminality registrar (Polizeiliche Kriminalitats statistik). As expected, moral strictness and moral-conformity are hig her in East than in West Germany in 1990, yet decrease approximately t o the West German level until 1994/5. The developments of moral strict ness and of moral conformity cross-validate each other, and may be exp lained as an after-effect of the social constitution of the GDR. Howev er, the decrease of moral strictness in East Germany is at odds with d evelopments of other value attitudes: In particular, achievement, the family and a conventional education are constantly more highly valued in the East between 1990 and 1994/5. While the latter value attitudes attain new meaning components during the transformation process; the h igh moral strictness which was necessary in a repressive and equalizin g social constitution is:no longer useful in a pluralistic society req uiring an individualistic stance.