The same philosophy which had been applied to industry was also applied to higher education. The intensification and rationalisation of industry had been achieved through the vertical integration of firms into fewer productive units called Kombinate (combines). This allowed a much greater degree of centralised control which was supposed to ease the difficulties inherent in trying to coordinate the supply chain, disruption of which was a persistent cause of production bottlenecks. It was also intended to revitalise industrial performance, stimulate technological innovation and increase export performance. Far from doing this, however, the monopolies on production created by the restructure militated against incentives to innovate or modernise, and East German goods became progressively less competitive on the international market, even in the machine-building sector which had traditionally been strong.63
Applied to higher education and research, intensification was defined thus:
By the intensification of the processes of scientific work, we usually mean an increase in productivity and effectiveness, i.e. the improvement of the connection between the resources of society for the execution of the processes of scientific work and their productiveness in the form of scientific results and their
transformation into scientific, technical, economic and social effectiveness 64
Translated, this meant the achievement of a substantial increase in fundamentally new scientific discoveries in the main priority areas of the economy for a relatively much smaller outlay. Consequently, a number of steps were undertaken. A review of academic research projects took place and the planners trimmed 532 months from 58 different research projects while scientists were compelled to abandon anything which might be considered “hobby” research and were forced into an even narrower concentration on
63
Kopstein, The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, pp 96 - 100
64 Günter Kröber, ‘Intensivierung der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit und subjektiver Faktor’, address to the
international symposium Intensivierung der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit of the Berlin regional centre of the World Federation of Scientists in Varna, 12 – 13 June 1983, pp 1 – 2, SAPMO DY 53/1167
planned foci.65 Applied research projects were to be completed within a mandatory three years and basic research within four. 66 Efforts were made to encourage the policy of intensification by the implementation of ‘the performance principle’ and “moral and material stimulation” through a system of bonus payments instituted in 1978. For example, in 1984 higher education teachers could earn an extra 1,000 – 1,500 marks for excellence in the presentation of lectures. Excellence in leading seminars could earn them between 600 and 1,000 marks and the designation of ‘excellent educator’ could lead to a similar amount.67 Similar arrangements were in place for the achievement of scientific results both in the Hochschulen and the Akademie der Wissenschaften. However, having instituted the system in 1978, the Party had apparently never provided the Hochschulen with any extra funding to pay for it with the result that, as a policy it “lost its effectiveness over the course of the years”.68
Intensification and rationalisation was also the rationale behind several other developments in the Hochschulen. These included increased collaboration between FDJ student
collectives, FDJ brigades and the brigades of socialist work in industry, with the aim of creating strong links between FDJ seminar groups and work collectives so that academic research was even more firmly focused on the needs of the firm. Another involved changing the focus of teaching from a concentration on improving the performance of weaker students to the identification and support of the brightest.69 In a 1980 article for
Die Pädagogik, the Director of the Institute for Theory, History and Organisation of
Science argued the need to design education and training to recognise the existence of and encourage a “greater density” of particularly intelligent youngsters in science and
production because “Our society cannot afford to neglect a single talent and leave it to atrophy”.70 The Hochschulen were mandated to single out particularly gifted youngsters who could form a reserve of cadres with the potential to become leading academics or scientists.71 These high achievers were encouraged by means of specially designed individual study plans, exchange visits to other Hochschulen, spending part of their study
65 ‘Information über das gewerkschaftliche Mitgliederleben in den Monaten Januar und Februar 1982’,
SAPMO DY/1069
66 ‘Maßnahme des ZVs der Gewerkschaft Wissenschaft zur Führung der Plandiskussion 1984’, SAPMO
DY/1167; Irmer H. and Wilms B., ‘New Forms of Co-operation for Research in the German Democratic Republic between Higher Education Institutions and Industry’, in Higher Education in Europe, Vol.9, No.4, 1984
67 Vorlage Nr. 6/84, ‘Erfahrungen und Ergebnisse bei der Durchsetzung des Leistungsprinzips’, 23.1.84,
SAPMO DY 53/1148
68 Letter from Menicke, Sekretär des ZVs to AGC Vorsitzender Wegener, Zentrum für wissenschaftlichen
Gerätenbau, Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, 2.12.88, SAPMO DY 53/922
69 Horst Weber, Protokoll des IX. Parteitages der Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, Vol. 2, p 112 70 G. Kröber, cited in Oskar Anweiler, ‘Bildungssyteme in Osteuropa – Reform oder Krise?’ p 14
time in other socialist countries (usually Russia) for which they received special political- ideological and language training, as well as by collaborating with Young Researcher Collectives in the industrial combines.72 However, the policy, inevitably, was restricted to those students who demonstrated sound ideological convictions, thus arguably excluding many fine academic brains. Moreover, the principle of the differentiated treatment of students did not correspond to the socialist concept of equality of opportunity and this became a significant source of societal dissatisfaction. It was seen as economically expedient pragmatism and a betrayal of proletarianism: the reproduction of social
differences with, coincidentally or otherwise, the social advantage being largely restricted to the offspring of an aristocracy of the Party faithful.73
Other methods employed included the institution of performance comparisons
(Leistungsvergleiche) between the institutions of higher education, over and above the existing ‘socialist competition’ in higher education, in the face of “considerable
reservations on the part of rectors and the directors of the sections, institutes and clinics”.74
Leistungsvergleiche were based on criteria such as the planned placing of graduates into
specific branches and areas of the economy; teaching loads; high numbers of graduates or those continuing to postgraduate study; the supervisory load of individual professors; the punctual completion of doctorates; the number of manuscripts of textbooks, monographs, research reports and studies submitted; the assessment of the number of patents and inventions per cadre; early or timely achievement of the goals in science and technology mandated by the state and numerous others including the more intensive use of machinery and instruments. For example, certificates were awarded to institutions for being
designated “energiewirtschaftlich vorbildlich” (exemplary in energy saving).75 The idea was that these criteria should be a guide to the “consequent enforcement of the socialist performance principle” and that best practice (as demonstrated by the competition ‘winners’) would then be adopted on a mass scale.76
72 ‘Direktive für das Studienjahr 1983/84 an den Universitäten und Hochschulen der Deutschen
Demokratischen Republik’, 15.6.83, p 4, SAPMO DY 53/1086; ‘Vorlage für das Sekretariat Nr 27/86’, Berlin 6.3.86, p 3, SAPMO DY 53/1140
73 Anweiler, ‘Bildungssyteme in Osteuropa – Reform oder Krise?’, pp 15 – 16 74 Letter from Rinke to Böhme, 19.5.83, SAPMO DY 53/1086
75 ‘Information über das gewerkschaftliche Mitgliederleben im Zeitraum Mitte Februar bis Mitte März
21.3.88’, SAPMO DY 53/1101
76 ‘Gemeinsame Orientierung des ZVs der Gewerkschaftwissenschaft und des Ministeriums für Hoch- und
Fachschulwesen zur Führung von Leistungsvergleichen an den Universitäten und Hochschulen’, 1983, SAPMO DY 53/1086; letter from Rinke to Böhme, 222.5.84, SAPMO DY 53/1085