EDITH KURZWEIL
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former West were pushed to deal with this past, however inadequately,
their counterparts in the former GDR never came to terms with it.
Now, they are expected to do so while, simultaneously, facing their
considerable compromises with the totalitarian aspects of Communism.
How this will be done, in what for them is central to their "political
correctness," remains an open and much-debated question. Since it ap–
parently had been almost impossible to escape cooperating with the im–
mense net of the secret police (Stasi), citizens - and university professors
among them - have to confront the consequences of their former collu–
sion before they can become productive, democratic individuals. The re–
cent firebombings and other terrorist behavior by the far right, which
obviously needs
to
be fought on
all
levels, have induced fear and para–
noia, denunciations of the government and its leaders. This new type of
terrorism does indeed require urgent attention and legislation. Although
all Germans are quick to blame the government in Bonn for not stop–
ping these frightening incidents, university professors as well are expected
to help eradicate them.
The universities themselves, as the
Spiegel
study demonstrates, are as
much the problem as the solution . Already in a previous survey, in 1989,
German universities' rankings were exceedingly differentiated by both
students and professors, and it had been considered imperative by all that
classes nearly everywhere - become smaller and students receive more
attention. Instead, the reverse has happened. Once again, it seems,
younger universities fare better than older ones, and smaller ones better
than larger ones; the natural sciences and technical subjects are in better
shape than the humanities and social sciences; and most students study for
too many years and under anomic conditions. Among them, students in
the former GDR rank lowest. The most pessimistic of the
Spiegel
experts
maintain that German universities cannot ever be reformed.
What is
to
be done in view of the fact that German society must
rely upon these universities to teach citizens from both sides of the for–
mer Wall the necessary tolerance for cooperation, as well as the skills for
evolving technocratic jobs?
In
what way can change be brought about
without having it come from administrators who themselves are from the
former West and thus will be attacked as enforcing democracy by au–
thoritarian methods? How will it be possible, as Professor Strasser asks,
to
build upon the
/lation
as "the mightiest moving force in all of history,"
to forge the necessary social bonds, interpersonal warmth and cultural
roots that make for cooperation, while at the same time nurturing tol–
erance of the other in the multicultural society Germany - however un–
consciously - already has been for some time?
Inevitably, to be politically correct in Germany means to integrate
