The benefits of and barriers to lifelong learning were examined in two studies of the relationship between social milieu and interest in, access to, and participation in adult education. The first study was conducted in Freiburg, Germany, in 1995-1998, and the second study was conducted in Munich, Germany, in 2000-2002. The Freiburg study focused on women from two milieus of the upper class and two of the lower class. All social groups interviewed largely accepted the conviction that lifelong learning is indispensable. Because of the demands of the labor market, most of those interviewed across the milieus viewed education first and foremost as a means and not an end in itself. Attitude regarding the indispensability of further education was strongly influenced by milieu, with the traditional blue-collar milieu and consumer milieu appearing to feel the greatest pressure to participate in further education. The traditional bourgeois milieu understood education mainly as a widening of one's horizon and also as acquiring knowledge about cultural traditions. The Munich study, which was a survey of approximately 4,000 randomly selected individuals that elicited a response of 1,050, also confirmed that adult education is a broadly accepted topic. (Descriptions of the traditional bourgeois, postmodern, adaptive, status-oriented, and modern bourgeois milieus are appended.) (MN)