ECONOMIC CRISES, STRUCTURAL CHANGE 111
ceptions of such phases. In the FRG, for example, the 1970s and 1980s
were seen primarily as a time of intense structural transformation. In the
GDR, on the other hand, structural conservatism took the lead in politics
as well as economics following the abandonment of forced structural pol-
icies in the late 1960s. At the same time, however, the SED leadership
had to come to terms with the challenges of the “scientifi c-technological
revolution” and develop corresponding economic structures.^35
The three-sector model that is often used to analyze structural change
in the economy, which breaks the national economy down into the three
sectors of agriculture, industry, and service, has received much scholarly
criticism since the 1970s; recently, it has also been historicized as a con-
cept in and of itself.^36 If, for lack of a better alternative, employment trends
in the primary, secondary, and tertiary sector are taken as an indicator
of structural change, the FRG and the GDR followed a very similar path
at the beginning of the 1970s.^37 In the early 1950s, approximately the
same percentage of the work force—and the largest portion thereof—was
employed in the industrial sector in both German states. The percent-
age employed in agriculture in the GDR—in keeping with the histori-
cally more agricultural-based economic structure in the eastern part of
Germany—was higher than in the FRG, while a smaller percentage was
employed in the service sector. The percentage employed in industry in-
creased signifi cantly in East and West Germany in the 1950s. This growth
began to slow down in the 1960s, but the highest percentages employed
in industry were reached in the FRG in 1965 and in the GDR in 1970.
The service sector grew relatively quickly in the GDR in the 1950s, which
was primarily a result of the expansion of the state bureaucracy and its
economic management apparatus. During this period, the tertiary sector
expanded more slowly in the FRG, but its signifi cance increased much
more quickly than in the GDR in the 1960s. That said, however, it did not
grow as quickly as during the reconstruction phase after the war. In con-
trast, the importance of the primary sector shrank just as quickly in both
systems in the 1950s and 1960s, although agricultural employment was
somewhat higher in East Germany due to long-term factors. By and large,
deagriculturalization was completed during the phase of rapid growth
in the 1950s and 1960s in both Germanys, which meant that one of the
major sources of productivity dropped away.
The share of industry in total employment in West Germany receded
quite quickly in the 1970s, but this process slowed down noticeably in
the 1980s. The service sector percentage grew rather constantly in com-
parison, primarily as a result of the boost in part-time employment in this
sector.^38 As of 1973/74, more people were employed in the service sector
than in industry; quantitatively, therefore, the West was indeed a “ser-