APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
agriculture, construction, and transportation, and about 10% for research under the AW and the Ministry for Education.
C. Scientific education, manpower, and facilities (S)
Public expenditures on education are high. All education is under state control and is free up to and including the university level for all who can obtain admittance. Admission to a university depends to some extent on social background, with preference given to students from politically reliable families and to the children of workers and peasants, although this emphasis appears to be lessening. East Germany has placed high priority on educating qualified students and engineers, and plans for expanding scientific education have been implicit in the objective of increasing general enrollments by 6% to 7%. Plans formulated in 1968 set a goal to meet the need for 1.2 million advanced and technical school graduates by 1960. However, since about 1971 the Honecker regime has shown considerable distrust of the scientific community and has indicated a desire to limit its potential influence by measures which include a reduction of enrollments in scientific fields in the higher schools.
East Germany has seven universities and a number of institutions of higher education (Hochschulen), including technical, agricultural, and engineering schools. The universities offer high-quality education in the sciences. During 1969-70 the total enrollment in the universities, including the Technical University of Dresden, was about 67,000 students. In 1968 approximately 141,000 students were studying scientific and technical subjects in all of the higher schools. Of this number, 59% were full-time students. Approximately 37,000 were studying mechanical and electrical engineering; 10,000 natural sciences; 10,000, medical sciences; 7,200, agricultural and forestry subjects; and 1,400, metallurgy. Among the technical schools, the Technical School for Chemistry, Merseburg, which has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, is important in training chemists and chemical engineers; and the Freiberg Mining Academy, with an enrollment of 3,500, specializes in mining and metallurgy. Several other technical schools emphasize various fields of engineering.
The influence of the U.S.S.R. is strong in educational activities. The Ministry for Education has urged professors to consider the Soviet Union and not the West as the leader in science. Allotments provided by the ministry for the purchase of Soviet textbooks far outweigh the amount allowed for the acquisition of scientific and technical publications from other countries. Because few East German scientists and engineers can read the Soviet textbooks, the Central Institute for Information and Documentation has undertaken translation and dissemination of the scientific publications. Restrictions have been placed on the purchase of laboratory equipment in the West, partly to conserve currency but probably also as a means of directing attention to the Soviet Union. A substantial number of East German science and engineering students have been trained in the U.S.S.R., and many of them hold responsible positions in government and industry.
Serious shortages of scientific and technical manpower developed between 1948 and 1961 when more than 2 million persons defected to West Germany. About 10% of these were skilled workers and craftsmen, a large proportion of whom were under 45 years of age. About 20,000 highly trained technical personnel and about 1,700 scientists with postgraduate degrees had defected by 1964. Approximately 1,400 of the latter group came from the AW and the faculties of universities and higher schools. Additionally, hundreds of physicians, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers, judges, and other professionals defected. Losses sustained by faculties of higher schools retarded attempts to train personnel to replace those who defected, and by 1958/59 some teachers were holding two professorships at higher technical schools to accommodate the increased enrollments. In an effort to halt the exodus, special concessions such as relief from party activities and political pressure, a moratorium on military duty, and an increase in material comforts were made for professionals. But defections continued at a high rate until erection of the Berlin Wall. East German research scientists are well paid, however; their average salary amounts to the equivalent of US$10,000 a year. Among teaching personnel, professors with lengthy tenure receive approximately $24,000. Younger teachers receive considerably less, about $4,000 a year.
The government recognizes that economic progress depends on increased productivity and the use of modern technology under the supervision of highly trained personnel, and it has attempted to channel students into priority fields in higher education. The prevailing emphasis on applied science has provided the impetus for university-level training at factory institutes, where some diploma and doctoral theses are written while the candidates work as salaried employees. For most candidates the theses are not assigned by professors but by industry, which provides
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9
