Education and growing up
School, vocational training and university offer distinct paths.
COUNTRY LIFE / DEU
Life in Germany: choices across division and reunification
School, vocational training, university, work and home do not follow one fixed route in Germany. Choose a birth year to see how historical institutions, prices and wages set the scene for decisions.
01 / QUESTION
What changes around reunification?
East and West cannot be collapsed into one average life. Historical context appears only where it fits the character’s conditions.
Germany / 1950–2025
Training or university?
Education choices connect to later work, housing budgets and family care.
02 / START
Set your birth
Population statistics describe the era, not the outcome of one person’s life.
03 / GENERATIONS
A country across generations
Population statistics describe the era, not the outcome of one person’s life.
2000Sources and scope
Destatis / Bundesbank · national series
CPI uses 2020 = 100. Pay is average full-time monthly gross earnings; pre-euro cash values are EUR equivalents and the earnings survey changes in 2022.
04 / EVERYDAY LIFE
Choices along the way
Work and careers
Work conditions differ across division, reunification and the years after it.
Family and everyday life
Housing budgets and family care interact with work choices.
Life across generations
Life before and after reunification is more than a change of date labels.
05 / SOURCES
Sources and scope
Population statistics describe the era, not the outcome of one person’s life.
Verbraucherpreisindex · annual series
Original source ↗Average gross monthly earnings of full-time employees
Original source ↗35 Jahre Deutsche Einheit
Original source ↗Das Schulsystem in der DDR
Original source ↗06 / LIFE ARCHIVE
Lives that began here
Only completed simulation records voluntarily made public by players appear here.
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07 / NEXT COUNTRY
Choose a birthplace. Discover a different life.
JapanFranceVietnamThailandCanadaIndiaSouth KoreaPhilippinesSpainItalyChinaTaiwanHong Kong SAR ChinaUnited States
Statistics for 172 places ↗