Members of Generation II, born between approximately 1940 and 1955, were the intended targets of the most significant postwar legislation affecting the lifecourse of citizens in the two German states, the prima materia out of which, the topos on which, the future nation(s) were to be fashioned. East and West German statesmen and policymakers knew that the future, the long-term legitimacy of their states, depended on ultimately securing the approval of their youths and children. Yet the two states went about obtaining this agreement with oppositional strategies and substantially different means to implement them.

As we have seen in the last section, the GDR, motivated by a Utopian, future-oriented narrative, encountered substantial resistance from the generation of adults it inherited from the Weimar and Nazi eras. Aimed at radically changing gender significations at home and in the workplace, taking away vested male privileges, redistributing property for the benefit of the working class, and reducing parental control over children, its policies were met with considerable skepticism by members of Generation I. Their children, however, did not initially share this skepticism, and for good reason: the state placed their interests at the center of policy, often ignoring or opposing the wishes of their parents. Later, when these children became adults, their relation to the state, and this state's relation to them, again changed, becoming more antagonistic.