Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Mannheim, Germany metro area from 1950 to 2025.

The attitude of the German population to current political questions as well as to fundamental problems of democracy and its ability to function.

Topics: most important problems of the FRG; judgement on the importance of political goals; attitude to selected topics of domestic and foreign policy, such as e.g. the comprehensive school, ecology and competitive ability, foreign aid, EC sovereignty, government supervision of primary industry and banks, reduction of social services, ban on employment of radicals as teachers and civil servants, co-determination and private radio stations; judgement on policies to reduce tension and Soviet foreign policy; attitude to nuclear energy; political interest; party preference; sympathy scale for the CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and the Greens; self-assessment on a left-right continuum; preferred government coalition.

Scales: understanding of democracy; dogmatism; postmaterialism.

Demography: age; sex; marital status; religious denomination; frequency of church attendance; occupation; employment; income; household income; household size; household composition; respondent is head of household; characteristics of head of household; person managing household.

Also encoded was: weekday of interview; size of municipality class, politically and after Boustedt; administrative districts.

Sampling Procedure Comment: Multi-stage stratified random sample

Attitudes and moral concepts of the German population in the public, occupational and private area. Questions on socialization.

Topics: importance of areas of life and educational goals; interest in university activities and college studies; attitude to academics and image of academics (scales); comparison of academics and non-academics; self-image (scale); satisfaction with personal education and occupational training (scale); attitude to work and work satisfaction; most important aspects of work; perceived work demands; work during leisure time; actual and ideal criteria of upward social mobility; perceived change of prospects of promotion in the FRG; identification of privileged population groups; perception of group differences as well as of social classes; class model; attitude to social differences (scale) as well as judgement on the level and development of inequality in the FRG; self-assessment of social class on a scale and satisfaction with personal social position; self-assessment of personal social standing based on income, occupation as well as influence in society; image of society and achievement orientation (scale); understanding of sex roles as well as assessment of the suitability of men and women for certain occupations; political interest and political participation (scale); importance of political goals; satisfaction with income.

Demography: age; marital status; religious denomination; school education; further education; occupational position; company size; sources of income; respondent is head of household; residential status; membership in a union, party or an organization; party preference.

Interviewer rating: type of building; residence and business building; type of city; presence of other persons and their intervention in interview; willingness to cooperate and reliability of respondent; length of interview; number and time of contact attempts; city size; district code.

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is a long-term study at the University of Mannheim. The GIP examines individual attitudes and preferences that are relevant in political and economic decision-making processes. To this end, more than 3,500 people throughout Germany have been regularly surveyed online every two months since 2012 on a wide range of topics. The GIP is based on a random sample of the general population in Germany between the ages of 16 and 75. The study started in 2012 and was supplemented by new participants in 2014 and 2018. The panel participants were recruited offline. The GIP questionnaires cover a variety of topics that deal with current events.

This study consists of a data pool of ten separate "Politbarometer" surveys that were conducted monthly by MARPLAN and organized by the Forschungsgruppe Wahlen (Mannheim) as project leaders. The dataset integrates the separate surveys by coding the same question from each of the surveys under one variable. To also assure the continuity of this 1980 study with the German Electoral Data (GED) Project series, the studies for June, September and October were expanded to include questions relevant to the series, especially in eliciting information on party preference, the evaluation of leading politicians, and opinions about important political and social issues. Of particular note is the measurement of attitudes toward the political parties: several different measures were used to tap the various dimensions of party preference. Respondents were asked to separately evaluate each party and leading politicians, including the candidates for the position of Chancellor, Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt, and to place the political parties on several versions of the left-right ideological dimension. Another component of the election study dealt with the respondents' opinions toward important problems, including the salience of economic issues for the German population. Open-ended questions were asked concerning the respondents' views of the economic situation, the election campaigns, a new political party, the German democratic process, improved relations between East and West Germany, relations between Germany and the United States, and the reunification of Germany. Respondents were also asked about the most important tasks facing Germany and the party that could best deal with these tasks, the reasons for the electoral outcome for each party, and respondents' political participation and voting decisions during the election campaign. Also probed were respondents' views of their financial situation, the efficacy of old-age pensions, nuclear power plants, church and politics, and labor unions, and their feelings about Germany's participation in the Olympic Games, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the potential for a superpower war, the Iran hostage crisis, and the proposed economic boycott against Iran. Additional items queried respondents about their general political activities and voting behavior and intentions. Also explored were respondents' views of divorce, tolerance of opposing views, leisure time activities, and experience of stress situations. Demographic items specify age, sex, education, marital status, occupation, military status, income, union membership, political party affiliation, and religious preference. See also the related collection, GERMAN ELECTION PANEL STUDY, 1976 (ICPSR 7513). (Source: downloaded from ICPSR 7/13/10)

The GESIS Panel provides a probability-based mixed-mode access panel infrastructure located at GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim, Germany. The project offers the social science community an opportunity to collect survey data from a representative sample of the German population. Submitted study proposals are evaluated based on a scientific review process.

Panel members were initially recruited in 2013 in face-to-face interviews followed by a self-administered profile survey. The mode was chosen by the participants. All participants of the profile survey are considered as members of the panel and invited to the bi-monthly regular waves. The starting cohort encompassed 4900 panelists at the beginning of 2014.

In order to compensate for panel attrition, a refreshment sample was drawn in 2016, using the General Social Survey (ALLBUS) interview as vehicle. The initial cohort encompasses German speaking respondents aged between 18 and 70 years (at the time of recruitment) and permanently residing in Germany, whereas the second cohort includes respondents from the age of 18 without upper restriction.

In 2018 a third recruitment sample was drawn, which was integrated with the wave ge. The third cohort also includes respondents aged 18 and over without an upper limit. Retroactively, cases up to and including wave fc (third wave from 2018) were added to the data. The Data Manual (ZA5664-65_sd_data-manual) has been reissued and there is a corresponding recruitment report (ZA5664-65_mb_recruitment2018).

The ALLBUS Sample is based on a disproportional sampling of respondents from the western and eastern part of Germany. A design weight that enables integration of the two recruitment cohorts is included into the dataset. For more details, please see the methods reports of the recruitment processes and die GESIS Panel reference paper (Bosnjak et al., 2017).

In March 2020, a special GESIS panel survey was conducted on the SARS-CoV-2 resp. COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in Germany.

In 2021, the fourth recruitment sample was drawn using the German International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which was integrated with wave ja. The fourth cohort also includes respondents aged 18 and older with no upper limit. For more information, see the corresponding recruitment report (ZA5664-65_r_i12.pdf).

In 2023, the fifth recruitment sample was drawn using the German European Social Survey (ESS Round 11), which was integrated with the wave la. The fifth cohort includes respondents aged 18 and over with no upper limit. For more information, see the corresponding recruitment report (ZA5664-65_r_k12.pdf).

GESIS Panel Demographic Dataset Starting with version 43-0-0 the longitudinal demographic dataset became part of the dissemination package. The dataset is a longitudinal dataset (long format), with harmonized measurements on demographic variables: Respondent ID; timepoint of survey; corresponding wave; survey year; recruitment cohort; sex of respondent; year of birth; month of birth; highest level of education; personal net income; household net income; marital status; AAPOR disposition code; mode of invitation; mode of participation.

The German Internet Panel (GIP) is a longitudinal panel survey of the Collaborative Research Center SFB 884 “Political Economy of Reforms” based on a random probability sample of the general population in Germany aged 16 to 75. The study started in 2012. As an infrastructure project of the SFB 884, the GIP collects data on individual attitudes and preferences relevant in political and economic decision-making processes. The data obtained provide the empirical basis for the scientific research of the SFB projects. All GIP survey data are made available to the scientific community as scientific use files. The topics covered in the GIP are divers and include attitudes towards reform policies, the welfare state, German and EU politics, health, social inequality, education, employment and key socio-demographic information. Questionnaire modules on these topics are developed by SFB 884 researchers in collaboration with the GIP team. GIP online questionnaires of 20-25 minutes are implemented bi-monthly. The present dataset comprises the 2018 recruiting survey. The second panel refreshment sample (i.e., the third recruitment survey) was recruited via postal mail with a two-stage probability sample drawn from local community population registers. In contrast to the previous GIP recruitment surveys, the second refreshment was a sample of persons. At the first stage, a random probability sample of 180 municipalities was drawn from all municipalities in Germany. The list of municipalities was stratified in advance according to federal state and population density. At the second stage, all the municipalities were contacted and asked to draw a random probability sample of persons aged 16–75 from their local population registers. The number of persons drawn per municipality was proportionate to the total number of persons registered in the municipality as their primary home. A total of 50,214 persons were drawn, from which the head office randomly sub-selected 13,050 persons for the GIP gross sample. Subsequently, all persons randomly selected in this way were invited to the online panel by postal mail. Six different procedures were tested experimentally. These procedures are called “paper-first”, “concurrent”, “push-to-web”, “online-only”, “early-bird-incentive 20” and “early-bird-incentive 50”. At the end of the survey, the participants were asked whether they could be invited to the second part of the survey (online only) by e-mail or SMS. The central purpose of the second part was to obtain panel participation consent. In 2018, the recruitment process yielded approx. 3,000 registered online panelists with a cumulative AAPOR response rate of 24.1%.