Higher education and civil liberties in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the German Democratic Republic

The universities in the Federal Republic of Germany are expanding more or l ess continuously since the 1950s; the expansion of chose in the German Demo cratic Republic, by contrast, stagnated since 1971. The two patterns of edu cational development are due to different normative concepts of the social order. Educational policy in socialist East Germany gave institutional expr ession co the belief in objective laws of social development and hence in a n objective demand for highly qualified manpower. In this normative context higher education took on a particular meaning and functions, provoked seri ous social conflicts and was finally reduced by political decree. In the Fe deral Republic, by contrast, freedom of educational and occupational choice prevailed, and the former elitist academic education was popularized. At t he same time the culture of professionalism expanded in the world of work. In this process higher education turned into a matter of universal social i nterest.