Two Germanies Becoming One: Restructuring the Educational System
| Published date | 01 April 1991 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000002473 |
| Date | 01 April 1991 |
| Author | Hartmut Schweitzer |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Two Germanies
Becoming One
39
Two Germanies Becoming One:
Restructuring the Educational
System
Hartmut Schweitzer
Rheinische-Friedrich Wilhelms Universität, Bonn, Germany
As in most other areas, for the time being the unification of Germany created
more problems in education and science than it solved. Nobody had foreseen
the developments of
9
November
1989,
when the
wall was
opened and all "GDR-
watchers" were surprised by the breathtaking speed of the breakdown of the
SED regime
[1].
The old political structures have vanished almost completely,
although much of
the
fabric of personal relationships of
its
representatives still
remains intact. And, what is more, the old attitudes have survived and will
survive a long time.
One can hardly say that the developments since 1989 have ever been under
the control of anyone, even the politicians. The present situation does not allow
a reliable prognosis of
how
the new structures will
develop,
as they are slowly
emerging in many areas including the field of education. A great number of
problems have to be solved on the structural as well as on the individual level
in
the process of integrating the East (GDR) and
West
(FRG) German systems.
It is impossible to tackle them all. Therefore I will touch on only the most
important, e.g. neglecting the different kinds of specialised education.
The reasoning presented here is a mixture of facts and assumptions about
the social, economic and political developments. Most conclusions can be
speculative only. One thing, however, can be taken as certain: the old GDR
structures will have to adjust to the FRG structure and not vice versa. The
stress will be mainly on the former GDR system.
The Educational Policy in the GDR
Under the cover of a strong emphasis on the ideal of social equality, in the
GDR social origins always played an important role in the admission to higher
education. In the period of the transformation of the "bourgeois" into the
socialist education system after World War II, children of "bourgeois" and/or
"counter-revolutionary" parents were excluded systematically from higher
education. On the other
side,
children of peasants, manual or industrial workers
and of cadres of the Communist Party (SED) were preferred, even if their
performance was considerably inferior
to
that of the "bourgeois" children. Later
this policy
was
reversed and the children of cadres, of intellectuals and the higher
ranks of society formed the overwhelming majority in the high schools, colleges
and universities, while the children of workers and peasants were reduced to
a small minority[2].
Having parents with an influential social position rapidly became more
Journal of Educational
Administration. Vol. 29 No. 4, 1991.
pp.
39-50. © MCB University
Press.
0957-8234
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