the GDR era takes many forms. The decision to change the signals at pedestrian crosswalks, for instance, prompted a tongue-in-cheek protest campaign throughout the east not long ago. Rather than words, pedestrian signals in Germany rely on silhouette figures, one standing and one striding, to indicate when it is safe to cross the street. The squat little man who had long presided over eastern street corners briefly became a hero after authorities announced he was to be replaced with his leaner, more angular western rival. A more serious and more telling survival from the GDR is the Jugendweihe ceremony. The Jugendweihe was established by the government of the GDR in the 1950s as a secular coming-of-age ritual to take the place of confirmation in the Christian churches. After briefly falling out of fashion immediately after unification, the Jugendweihe has rebounded in popularity among eastern teenagers and their parents. Reporting in 1998 on the survival of the Jugendweihe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung suggested the institution provides a measure of continuity and stability as well as a uniting tie between the generations during a time of great uncertainty. Both eastern and western German public figures have encouraged the continuation of the annual Jugendweihe ceremonies, arguing that in their post-unification form they provide an opportunity to remind young people of the responsibilities they will be taking on as citizens in a democratic society. Seen from this perspective, the Jugendweihe is at once a uniquely eastern institution as well as a means of transmitting the civic values upheld in the pre-unification west and that continue to define the Federal Republic. As with discussions of Germany's economic situation since 1990, assessments of the progress of social unification are usually cast in terms of how far eastern Germany h...
