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How do individuals make sense of events that are associated with major socialsystemic changes? This paper explores the relationship between the social transformative event 'German reunification', and processes of meaning making, and identity formation by East Germans. Analyzing 16 narrative interviews of East Germans born in 1971 I propose that this particular cohort uses a "coming of age" narrative to embed the experience of the German reunification into their lives in order to maintain a stable sense of self. Drawing from theories of identity formation, and narrativity the following analysis shows that a "successful" application of this narrative to large parts depends on the ways in which individuals have been able to maintain self-efficacy throughout the transition between the two social systems. By analyzing the mechanisms through which meaning is attached to the event German reunification this paper suggests to assume a reverse temporal logic of causali ty for biographic narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the content and structure of individual and collective representations of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and the role of institutions and social groups as enablers as well as preventers of memory. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German re-unification in 1990, Germany was an atypical case of transitional state. (West-)Germany was - and still is - one of the key players within Europe, and globally occupies a leading economic position. Germany, from this perspective, has not changed much. Soon after the reunification we could observe the creation of GDR history in the form of museums, memorials, and commemorations. At the same time we are faced with the autobiographical memories of about 16 million former GDR citizens whose lives in the GDR were considerably different from life in the Federal Republic. The paper analyzes multiple narratives of Germany's divided past utilizing the theories of Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, and Michel Foucault. In-depth interviews will be used to show the multiplicity of narratives concerning life in the GDR and the German reunification. Content analysis will be used to analyze newspapers, and speeches held at GDR commemorations, to address Halbwachs's and Nora's claim that the collective representation of the past needs to be understood as contested space, and that the act of remembering is a reconstruction of the past in the light of the present. Newspaper articles will also be used to assess the different types of public narratives and the audiences they address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]