314 CHRISTOPHER NEUMAIER AND ANDREAS LUDWIG
a childless married couple, and a married couple with an adopted child.
Likewise, the magazine discussed the increasing prevalence of domes-
tic partnerships, singles, and “one-parent families” (i.e., single parents).
Based on examples, the article traced the appearance of entirely diff er-
ent familial and nonfamilial lifestyles alongside the traditional model of
a nuclear family (a married couple with children). Despite divergent cir-
cumstances and desires, one thing united all these models: couples or
individuals now seemed to be able to decide for themselves how they
wished to live their lives, and if or how many children they wanted to
have. Of course, better contraceptive methods, such as the birth control
pill, which had become available in West Germany in 1961, aided this
shift. But, more than anything else, it was also the result of a changed
attitude toward personal lifestyle choices, which had become more dif-
ferentiated and pluralized.^104
The article in Für Sie summarized perceived changes in private life-
styles that had already begun to appear at the end of the 1960s, but
gained a stronger foothold by the early 1980s at the latest. Research stud-
ies conducted at the time analyzed the scope of these trends on the basis
of statistics about the number of marriages, births, and divorces. Their
results indicated that both the birth rate and the inclination to marry were
declining in East and West Germany. Parallel to this, the divorce rate was
clearly on the rise. Although the decline in marriage was more gradual in
the GDR than it was in West Germany, the divorce rate in East Germany
was rising faster. Sociopolitical measures, such as fi nancial support for
mothers, actually helped to increase the birth rate for a short time in the
second half of the 1970s.^105 In the 1980s, both Germanys entered into
a phase of relative stability in which these sociostructural indicators no
longer shifted fundamentally.
After reunifi cation, on the other hand, another major shift occurred in
the states of the former East Germany, refl ected in particular by a notice-
able decline in marriages and births. This trend resulted from the new so-
cial, political, and economic circumstances. The transition from a planned
economy to a market-based system, for example, brought uncertainties
into people ́s private lives, leading to a temporary slide in the birth rate,
which contemporaries called “birth shock.” Moreover, the fall of the Wall
prompted many better-educated East German women to head to West
Germany to look for jobs. This clearly had a detrimental eff ect on the num-
ber of marriages and births in the old GDR. Likewise, it also needs to be
kept in mind that the decrease in the number of divorces at the beginning
of the 1990s also refl ected the legal changes associated with the adoption
of the West German Civil Code (BGB) in the new federal states and not
necessarily a short-term shift in attitudes about marriage.^106