Accelerated Youth
Adolescence in East Germany and Lithuania
Herwig Reiter, Christine Steiner
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The course of post-socialist transformation in East Germany as opposed to Lithuania differed significantly. East Germany represents a sponsored transition to capitalism. In Lithuania, the transition to a market democracy was abrupt and radical. The biographies of two youths on the threshold of vocational training and professional life show the effects of altered social realities on their prospects for life and social relations. The lack of reliable rules and routines, the social acceleration, and all the accompanying uncertainties shaped their visions of the future and their values to varying degrees.
(Osteuropa 11-12/2013, pp. 105–120)