Changes in Educational Careers in the Federal Republic of Germany

The main thesis of this article is that the educational system of the Federal Republic of Germany has led to and less vulnerable phases in the educational careers of various birth cohorts, who are affected differently by the same historical developments. These phases include the brief transition to secondary schools within the general educational system, from the general educational system to the vocational training system, or within different types of vocational training. This thesis was examined using a large life-history data set on the full educational-career trajectories of German respondents from the birth cohorts 1929-31, 1939-41, and 1949-51. The empirical analysis shows that the structure of the West German educational system produced educational careers that had their own laws; lives were not arbitrarily changeable and educational decisions were hard to revise or to postpone.