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A number of studies suggest that mortality rates among East German men increased in the wake of reunification, in particular between 1989 and 1991, in some age groups by up to thirty percent. This study first examines the developments of mortality and cause of death statistics based on detailed regional data. The results indicate that there was indeed an increase in mortality rates which cannot be dismissed as a statistical artefact. Next, the paper discusses various theories explaining mortality crises and their relevance for the case of East Germany. Based on individual-level panel data the relationship between exposure to stress and overall health is shown. Apparently, the increase in mortality can be explained by the increase in individual stress levels after the economic, cultural and political consequences of reunification.

E. Honecker's regime, which came to power eight years ago, introduced a new cultural policy based on the principle that there would be mutual trust between the Party & writers, who would henceforth have wide liberties to police themselves instead of being disciplined by censors. The relationship collapsed with the crisis involving W. Biermann, whose explusion was publicly criticized by over one hundred East German wirters & artists in an unusual display of independence. The regime's problems with writers stem from the fact that a new generation has emerged which has lived its entire adult life in the socialist society & which has become aware of conflicts & inequities which, according to the official view, do not exist. Consequently, the new tendencies in East German literature have been realism & greater inwardness; both have been viewed with suspicion by the government. The ambiguities inherent in the government's new policy of introducing greater controls where relaxation was promised has left East German writers confused & demoralized. S. Karganovic.

Despite the large-scale implementation of the West German political order, & more than ten years after unification, the East German party system still shows several peculiarities. These are the composition of the party systems in the East German Lander, voting patterns, but also processes of regionalization in East Germany. Analyzing the parties' different success stories in the East German Lander on the different electoral levels helps us to understand the quality of, & reasons for, their success & to answer questions about the importance of traditional voting patterns against possible new bases for the loyalties in a postsocialist environment. 7 Tables. Adapted from the source document.