300 CHRISTOPHER NEUMAIER AND ANDREAS LUDWIG
In the second half of the 1970s and during the 1980s, the image of a
“postmodern” consumer emerged who could no longer be defi ned by
“class,” “social status,” or “profession.” Postmodern consumers, there-
fore, consciously construct their identities with those consumer goods
that they deem suitable and “therefore refl ect the emotional and symbolic
side of products in particular.”^32 Consumers, according to scholars, can
thus be seen as active users who weigh options. This theory thus miti-
gates the direct infl uence of the media and advertising on consumers.^33
Market researchers also identifi ed new consumer groups such as “yup-
pies” (young urban professionals), “ultras” (ultraconsumers), and “din-
kies” (double income, no kids). In the 1980s, the SINUS market research
institute developed the idea of what they called “sinus-milieus” as part
of a sociologically based structural analysis of society that primarily sees
citizens as potential consumers.
West German companies, as well as social scientists, adapted this way
of diff erentiating society according to consumer roles for their own social
analyses in the 1980s. After 1990, this model was then applied to East
Germany, revealing signifi cant diff erences in comparison to the West.
According to West German market researchers, a trend toward a retreat
into private life, combined with increased “self-awareness,” appeared
across all levels of East German society, and was tied to a preference for
“enjoyment” and “consumption” that was branded as Western in style.
Likewise, these studies claimed that the middle-class milieus, especially
those individualized by “‘new’ values” and focused on climbing the social
ladder, were much less prevalent in the East.^34 Whereas they could iden-
tify a clearly postmaterialist population segment in 1980s West Germany,
the studies apostrophized a “postsocialist” attitude in East Germany in
1997 that was evidenced by terms such as (enjoying) “life” and “trying
out.” It thus appeared that there was an image of society that had been
introduced by a market research institute. Interestingly, however, this
interpretation of society in very economic terms was only seldom ques-
tioned by social science research.^35
These theoretical models were based on the theory of a “change in
values” (Wertewandel), and they sought to understand the parallel pro-
cesses of individualization and pluralization.^36 Yet these theories and
models were themselves contemporary self-perceptions that need to be
analyzed as part of a specifi c historical context; the selective model of
society upon which they were built, for example, ignored other parame-
ters such as work, age, and gender. They were “refl exive descriptions of
an experienced process of transformation.”^37 Therefore, by looking at the
way in which consumer goods were used in everyday life, the malleability