Summary: Since the 1980 s lifestyles have been seen as a new dimension of social inequality in Germany. Despite many years of debate, however, no cumulative research program has been established in German lifestyle research. Typically, empirical lifestyle typologies face four problems: they are scarcely comparable and replicable; questionable in the substance of their reality; complicated to administer in surveys; and theoretically not well-founded. The main reason for these deficits is to be found in empiricist methods based on cluster and correspondence analysis. In order to solve these problems, the usual procedure is turned around by developing a conceptual typology of nine differential lifestyles first and operationalizing it accordingly. This is done by drawing on a meta-analysis of numerous empirical studies of lifestyle and values research. The analysis shows contemporary lifestyles in Germany to be structured primarily along three dimensions: material level, modernity/biographical perspective, and scope for action. The first two are used for the index-based and methodically efficient construction of an integrative lifestyle-typology. On the basis of three population surveys the typology is validated with respect to its temporal stability and its congruence with the results of conventional methods.