Study title

The Politbarometer has been conducted since 1977 on an almost monthly basis by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen on behalf of the Second German Television (ZDF). Since 1990, this database has also been available for the new German states. The survey focuses on the opinions and attitudes of the voting-age population in the Federal Republic on current political issues, parties, politicians, and voting behavior. From 1990 to 1995 and from 1999 onward, the Politbarometer surveys were conducted separately both in the newly formed eastern and in the western German states (Politbarometer East and Politbarometer West). The separate monthly surveys of a year are integrated into a cumulative data set that includes all surveys of a year and all variables of the respective year. Starting in 2003, the Politbarometer short surveys, collected with varying frequency throughout the year, are integrated into the annual cumulation.Most important problems of the GDR; satisfaction with democracy; party preference (Sunday question and rank order procedure); behavior at the polls in the last election; preferred party for the election to an all-German parliament; sympathy scale for parties and politicians; satisfaction with achievements of the GDR government, the Federal Government and the opposition parties; preferred government coalition; time of personal voting decision; satisfaction with election result; judgement on the grand coalition in the GDR; preference for federal chancellor; Kohl or Lafontaine or the discussion about the coming unity as most important issue of the election campaign; estimated changes in the election results with other top candidates for the SPD and the CDU/CSU; attitude to unification of the two German states; judgement on unification progress; desired name for united Germany; judgement on personal consequences of reunification; advantages and disadvantages for the GDR population through unification; understanding for emigrants; feeling oneself as citizen of the...