The "learned GDR-citizen": biographical modernization lag as transformation obstacle?

Inherent to the basic transformation concept of assimilating the former GDR into West German society by radical replacement of the institution system is the problem of a fit between "new" institutions and "old" individuals. I ndeed, the fitting problem emerged within the course of transformation. Dec reasing acceptance of the transferred Western institutions and a growing te ndency for cultural and political dissociation in East Germany are regarded as a crucial problem for Germany's "inner unity" today. Due to the transfo rmation concept this problem arises from biographical deficits within the E ast Germans as a result of their socialization in the totalitarian GDR: the y could not develop the biographical competence that fits the requirements of living in a modern individualistic society. This argument about biograph ical (in)competence rests on structural assumptions about the GDR-society t hat rely on the ideological semantics of the GDR itself. With regard to sta tus passages in education and employment, the article first describes the c ommand-economy semantics according to which institutional arrangements guid e passive individuals through the respective passages. The desciption is th en contrasted with an empirical analysis of how individuals really cope wit h such passages, namely as individuals who carefully plan and actively pers ue their own biographical goals. The officially maintained institutional gu idance turns out to be a rather normative construction instead of actually determining individuals' life courses. There is no empirical evidence to re proach the East Germans for biographical deficits. In relying on the GDR's ideological semantics, the respective argument of the transformation concep t proceeds from false structural assumptions.