240 RÜDIGER HACHTMANN
German employees also claimed that work had been less stressful in the
1970s and 1980s. Not only in the East, but also in the West, the work-
place was changing rapidly in the 1990s thanks to technological innova-
tions, deregulation, and fl exibilization. But whereas increases in social
pressure were seen as a consequence of reunifi cation in the East, they
tended to be attributed to globalization in the West.
Until 1989, both the East and West German worlds of work were
bound by similar frameworks, and they faced similar challenges, which
can be summed up under the rubrics of “rationalization,” “automation,”
and “digitalization.” Yet, thanks to the diff erent natures of their respec-
tive systems , they followed separate trajectories prior to 1989. In terms of
the organization of work and production technology, which were decisive
factors for the individual workplace, both Germanys looked westward.
The FRG closely tracked the developments in the United States, while
the GDR was particularly interested in what was happening in West Ger-
many. Why was the SED unable to achieve comparable results when it
came to industrial rationalization? Why did the world of work seem to
be so strangely static in East Germany, especially during the Honecker
era, while rationalization was accelerating dynamically in the West at the
same time? How did rationalization and globalization shape the struc-
tures of gainful employment in the “old” Federal Republic? Did older
trends continue seamlessly in the whole of the Federal Republic (includ-
ing the new East German states) after the Wende in 1989/90? Did some
processes accelerate or perhaps take a new direction?
According to basic statistic indicators, most of the secular trends re-
lated to these questions seem to have continued unchanged. The per-
centage of Germans employed in the agricultural sector dwindled from
8.4 percent in 1970 (West Germany) to just 1.6 percent in 2010. Like-
wise, the percentage of industrial workers among the entire employed
population sank considerably from 46.5 percent (West Germany) to 24.5
percent.^3 Based on rough fi gures, reunifi cation seems to have had little
or no eff ect on the shift toward a “service society” within the Federal
Republic. For the wider service sector, the assessment that little changed
in the world of work in the GDR appears to be overly hasty when the
aggregate data is analyzed from a bird’s eye point of view. It is therefore
not only worthwhile to discuss the comparability of the constellations in
the East and West on this level, but also in terms of all the elements that
structured gainful employment. This chapter thus examines these simi-
larities and diff erences while pointing out key trends that can be detected
in post-reunifi cation Germany.
The fi rst section outlines the political and legal frameworks that were
in place while casting light on broader trends. The second part looks