The Lübeck University of Applied Sciences’ learning platform, mooin.oncampus.de, is currently offering an online course on the topic “25 Years of German Reunification.” Five renowned scholars, including health scientist Prof. Dr. Yve Stöbel-Richter from our university, explore the following questions: Why do TV and newspapers always show the same images from 1989 and 1990? Why are we interested in the past at all? Do we suffer from “reunification fatigue,” or are we happy?
In her contribution, Prof. Stöbel-Richter will take an in-depth look at the question of happiness.
The course is open to anyone interested: from high school students to teachers to senior citizens. Participants in the online course can interact with one another and with the five instructors via discussion forums and web talks. The free course concludes in December 2015 with an in-person event in Berlin
You can register for this free course at the following link:
mooin.oncampus.de/mod/page/view.php
Publication “Faces of the East German Transformation”
“Faces
of
theEast
GermanTransformation”
is the title of a book published by psychologists from Leipzig, Görlitz, and Dresden on October 3, 2015, to mark the 25th anniversary of German reunification. In it, 15 participants in the Saxon Longitudinal Study—which began in 1987—share, in a very personal way, how they, as former GDR citizens, have now found their place in reunified Germany.
“In addition to current perspectives, we are also publishing opinions and statements from past decades of the study’s history,” says psychologist Prof. Dr. Elmar Brähler, professor emeritus at the University of Leipzig.
He edited the book together with Prof. Dr. Yve Stöbel-Richter and Dr. Markus Zenger from the University of Leipzig, as well as Prof. Dr. Hendrik Berth from Dresden University Hospital.The book is the fifth publication in the history of the longitudinal study, which has empirically tracked a total of 328 East Germans over the past 28 years as they transitioned from being citizens of the GDR to citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
“We are breaking new ground here, because this time the focus is not on the scientific data, but on the faces and personal views of the participants. In the fall of 2014, we encouraged all study participants to take part in this book project,” reports Brähler.
As part of the longitudinal study, the same individuals—who have been participating in the study since 1987—have been interviewed year after year. The 15 main subjects of this volume, who agreed to participate, had already made themselves available for media inquiries in the past. Each is briefly introduced in the book. This is followed by statements from earlier waves of the study and, finally, a recent text—deliberately left unedited by the editors—that was written specifically for this book project. In addition, the protagonists provided an old photo of themselves from the 1980s and 1990s as well as a recent photo for publication.
“This gives the ‘Faces of East German Transformation’ actual faces,” says sociologist Yve Stöbel-Richter.
Contact:
Faculty of Managerial and Cultural Studies
Prof. Dr. Yve Stöbel-Richter
Email: yve.stoebel-richter@hszg.de