More people are also turning away from the 'me' culture of the Eighties, in which success was synonymous with income, towards an 'I' society, in which people define themselves by what they do and how they live — rather than what they earn.

The study, The I Society, aims to reveal how far the nation has progressed from the self-advancing "Me" society of the late 1980s to the "I" society of today which, the foundation maintains, covets independence and fulfilment.

At present, it's still wispy and diffuse, but the search for a separate identity is now in full swing," said Hans-Joachim Maaz, chief physician at a Protestant Church-funded psychotherapeutic clinic in the eastern industrial city of Halle and author of books on East-West differences. "It's driven by the insecurity and disappointment that is visible throughout eastern Germany now. There is a rejection of the competitive nature of the West, the 'I society' and the envy that's linked to it.