Members of the government and top officials in the ministries shape policy and hold an
influential position in the state. This study offers the first comprehensive collective
biographical analysis of political and administrative elites in Germany since the German
Empire. It shows how elite characteristics - such as social background professional biography
or politicization - differ over time and in a comparison of systems. It also examines the
extent to which traditional patterns of elite recruitment were used in the Federal Republic and
the GDR after the Nazi regime. Particularly in the case of the administrative elites
pronounced personnel continuities can be seen after system breaks.
