Educational systems considerably influence educational opportunities and the resulting social inequalities. Contrasting institutional regulations of both structures and contents, the authors present a typology of educational system types in Germany to analyze their effects on social inequality in eastern Germany after unification. After 1990, the…

The new Youth Act passed by the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1974 assumes that the interests of young people concur with the interests of their socialist society and state, for it reforms the rights and conditions for the further development of young people and defines their duties and responsibilities in terms of…

Analyzes the application of the principle of unity in different historical phases of the East German educational system. Argues that East German successes in reducing the number of socially underprivileged were always accompanied by a sharpening of the trade-off between educational equality and excellence, for which no solution was found. (DSK)