416 EMMANUEL DROIT AND WILFRIED RUDLOFF
can be read as a political response against the regime itself. Indeed, the
great diffi culty that a political youth organization such as the FDJ had in
trying to mobilize young people for the socialist cause in the 1970s and
1980s resulted from an irrevocable loss of trust in the offi cial institutions
of the regime. Ideological cohesion disappeared in the 1970s, regardless
of all the ways in which the youth still had to concede to the expectations
of the SED regime, for example by participating in the ritualized fl ag-rais-
ing ceremonies commemorating anti-fascism or celebrating labor day on
the fi rst of May. In strongly politicized institutions such as the schools
and the universities, it was basically necessary to pretend to play along.
School children as well as university students had to get used to playing
a certain social role and to do what was expected of them. Yet young peo-
ple in the GDR also learned to test the limits of political expression, but
without crossing the line. As time went on, they also sought more oppor-
tunities for individual and collective experiences outside offi cial frame-
works. Sociologists and psychologists in the GDR also realized in the
1970s that peer groups could function as a positive secondary instance
of socialization.^105 In West Germany at the time, by contrast, sociologists
stressed the signifi cance of peer groups for the personal development of
the individual.^106
Asymmetric Turning Points, Cotransformation,
and Europeanization (1989–2002)
Without a doubt, the events of 1989/90 marked a clear turning point for
the entire educational system in the GDR.^107 West German education
hardly changed at all, however, so that this was very much an asymmet-
rical caesura. The “peaceful school revolution” in the GDR was a very de-
cisive experience for East German educators in schools and universities
because it marked a twist in the careers of many, as well as an important
break in the role of the educational system as a whole.^108 Despite all the
criticism directed against the Erziehungsdiktatur, newly established in-
dependent interest groups, such as the one called Democratic Education
and Schooling, wanted to preserve some of the structural elements of
the GDR school system, including the idea of a uniform comprehensive
school.^109 As the transformation process progressed, however, little re-
mained of what had been discussed (equal opportunity, reform of ped-
agogy, Einheitsschule) around the country and even at the round tables
in Berlin, Erfurt, Leipzig, and Rostock. Nonetheless, reunifi cation did
pave the way for a mutual cotransformation process over the next fi fteen
years.^110 To a large extent, this process was spurred on by international