Examined how those political events in 1989–1990, that finally led to German reunification, were depicted in East and West German mass media. The basis of the analysis was a sample from the Wendekorpus. The Wendekorpus, of the Institute for German Language Mannheim, is the largest available computerized collection of written texts from this period. Using 2 standardized computer-assisted content analytical techniques 261 newspaper articles were analyzed for changes and differences in frequencies of indicators for anxiety and cognitive closure. In contrast to articles taken from the West German newspaper, East German newspaper articles have been found to show higher values on both dimensions considered. Concrete events of this period are reflected in the temporal progression of the content analytical indicators. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)