The German General Social Survey (ALLBUS/GGSS - Die Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften) is a national data generation program in Germany, which is similar to the American General Social Survey (GSS). Its mission is to collect and disseminate high quality statistical surveys on attitudes, behavior, and social structure in Germany.
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With the foundation of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (formerly: "German Social Sciences Infrastructure Services" (Gesellschaft sozialwissenschaftlicher Infrastruktureinrichtungen)) in 1986, ALLBUS/GGSS has been included into the state-federal funding of this grouping. It is institutionalized as a joint-venture of GESIS at Mannheim (formerly: Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA - Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen)) and GESIS at Cologne (formerly: Central Archive for Empirical Social Research (ZA - Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung)).
Standardly, the representative cross-sectional studies are conducted biennially since 1980. A large part of the items included consists of replications, while others are specifically varied according to particular topics.
Until 1990, the individual surveys were conducted using a random sample of ca. 3000 German citizens from the old Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin who were residing in private households and were at least 18 years old at the time of the interview. As of 1991, the universe sampled has been extended to cover the former East Germany, and the foreign residents have been included into the samples.
Since 1986, the German part of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is regularly conducted as part of the ALLBUS/GGSS survey. As in GSS both national surveys can be analysed in a common data set.
The cumulative ALLBUS/GGSS 1980-2006 (German and English version available) comprises opinion poll data from all of the 16 currently available ALLBUS/GGSS surveys, with a total of 47,947 respondents. It comprises all items that have been surveyed at least two times within the regular ALLBUS/GGSS program (replications).
(cf. Terwey and Baumann 2008: 9 - 11).
Besides, there is another major German data generation program for the collection of panel data called the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). This is similar to the American Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
Richard Alba, Peter Schmidt, and Martina Wasmer (eds.): Germans or Foreigners? Attitudes Towards Ethnic Minorities in Post-Reunification Germany. Palgrave Macmillan, New York and Houndmills 2003. ISBN 1-4039-6378-9
James Allen Davis, Peter Ph. Mohler, and Tom W. Smith: Nationwide General Social Surveys. In: Ingwer Borg and Peter Ph. Mohler (eds.): Trends and Perspectives in Empirical Social Research. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1994: 17-25. ISBN 3-11-014311-9
Tom W. Smith, Jibum Kim, Achim Koch and Alison Park: Social-Science Research and the General Social Surveys. In: ZUMA-Nachrichten. Nr. 56, 2005: 68-77. ISSN 0941-1670
Michael Terwey: ALLBUS: A German General Social Survey. In: Schmollers Jahrbuch. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften. Journal of Applied Social Science Studies. Nr. 120, 2000: 151-158. ISSN 0342-1783
Michael Terwey and Horst Baumann: German General Social Survey. ALLBUS / GGSS Cumulation 1980 - 2006 (ZA-Study-No 4243), Electronic Codebook, integrated Data File, and Survey Description, Cologne and Mannheim: GESIS 2008. ISSN 1865-3596