Německé univerzity 1945/46 a 1989/90: těžká a neochotná cesta k akademické autonomii.

Authors

  • Jiří Pešek Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

Abstract

German Universities in 1945/46 and 1989/90: Hard and Unwilling Road to the Academic Autonomy.

This article deals with the renewals of German universities in 1945/1946 and 1989/1990. The article focuses mainly on the autonomy of universities in the post-war and post Communist period. It shows that after 1945 the traditional form of German universities, as it had been established in the second half of the 19th century, was renewed and despite all political cleansing in the East as well as in the West most of the Nazi-professors remained employed as the university staff. The allies did not succeed in their attempt to modernize and re-educate German universities. All those efforts failed, at the latest, in 1949. The process of denazification and modernization in the Soviet occupied zone had already been redesigned in favour of Sovietization by 1946. The situation of the GDR after 1989 was someone similar. The obligation to have successfully implemented reforms and political cleansing at the end of 1990 the time of the unification of Germany, i.e. until the end of 1990 allowed only for marginal and superficial change within the administration for East German Universities. Instead of decommunisation only a change of tapestry was achieved.

Keywords: Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic, university, autonomy

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Published

2012-02-29

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Articles