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FIGURE 28. Regime exploitation of higher education. Officially approved demonstrations and meetings, such as this in behalf of Angela Davis in late 1971, jointly sponsored by the FDJ and Humboldt University in East Berlin, are an accepted part of the student's life.

politically reliable but with questionable educational qualifications were assigned to teach under the supervision of the few professional teachers. Crash teacher-training programs producing teachers of dubious quality, distaste among many teachers for teaching Marxism, the lure of higher salaries in industry, and the ease of defection to West Germany resulted in a continuing teacher crisis until the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. It is estimated that until 1961 the rate of teacher loss from all causes was 12% per year.

Denied the opportunity to flee to the West, the teaching force, stabilized after 1961, and teacher-training requirements, long ignored, became more strictly enforced. Nursery school and kindergarten teachers are now required to quality at pedagogic schools (Paedagogischee Schulen) in 2-year courses. Teachers for the first four grades of the comprehensive polytechnical school must complete a 3-year course at a teacher training institute (Institut fuer Lehrerbildung). Teachers in the 5th to the 10th grades must pass 4-year courses at one of the universities, at the Potsdam Pedagogic College, at the German College of Physical Culture, at the Weimar Music College, or at one of several pedagogic institutes. In order to attract workers into teaching the technical courses, the pedagogic institutes also offer a 1-year preliminary course and a 2-year degree course, followed by a 3-year correspondence course for well-qualified workers. Teachers in the extended comprehensive polytechnical school must pass 4-year courses at Potsdam Pedagogic College, at the Physical Culture College, or at a university.

I. Artistic and cultural expression

East German cultural and artistic life, although modified by Communist influences, remains rooted in the German tradition. The molding of the German intellectual and artistic heritage was influenced by the nation's late development of political cohesiveness and by important foreign influences, particularly Italian, French, and English. Since 1945 West Germany has claimed the role of sole trustee of these traditions. For its part East Germany claims that it is the only legitimate continuator of German cultural heritage. Contemporary East German cultural expression reflects with only slight modifications and some delay the trends set in the West in architectural design (Figure 29), city planning, and dress, and to a lesser extent music, art, and literature. However, the continuing insistence by the regime that artistic and intellectual activities conform to ideological guidelines set by the party has limited creative innovation.

The reverse side of the coin is that the East German regime has striven to preserve the artistic and cultural heritage handed down from pre-Communist times. Thus the great museums in Berlin—among them the Pergamon Museum and the National Gallery—founded under Prussian royal and German imperial auspices, and in Dresden—notably the Saxon kings' jewellike Zwinger—as well as the various royal and ducal palaces (e.g., Potsdam, Weimar), numerous late medieval cathedrals, and homes of great men (e.g., Goethe, Schiller) have been faithfully restored and maintained for the stream of visitors passing through their halls. The preservationist instinct extends to the

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110024-7