No. 116/2024

32 FOCUS ON GERMANY UNITY AND INEQUALITY Is the fact that East Germans are underrepresented in the leadership of German universities a case of inner-German colonialism? Guest article by ASTRID LORENZ When the Berlin Wall falls on 9 November 1989, more than four decades of the involun- tary division of Germany into two states comes to an end, triggered by a peaceful revolution in the GDR. On 3 October 1990, the GDR officially joined the FRG. What followed, according to the East German writer Jana Hensel, was “the adoption of the political, economic and legal system of the Federal Republic, its edu- cation system and the expansion of its entire institutional architecture as well as its value system”. The West German perspective be- came the norm. The East was supposed to fall in line. An “exchange of elites” took place whereby most East German biographies proved disadvantageous. This also happened in academia where two different systems, each with its own academic culture, had to merge into one research landscape. This appropriation has given rise to a dis- course on whether reunification was essen- tially an act of colonialism. “Having become East Germany as a result of reunification, the GDR was history’s loser and was moved from its own centre to the periphery politically, economically, historically, culturally and mentally,” Hensel writes. The sociologist San- dra Matthäus believes the debate about “in- ner-German colonialism” is productive when it comes to elucidating mechanisms “with which inferiority is produced and asym- metries can be reproduced over and over again.” Meanwhile, critics warn against trivialising the concept of colonialism. Supporters, on the other hand, claim it is less about inadmis- sible comparisons and more about applying post-colonial thinking – and understanding the impact of hierarchical disparity on East German society as well as on the relations between East and West Germans. Text MARLENE HALSER BACKGROUND The German reunification I n 2018, only 1.6 percent of top positions in German academic life are held by East Germans although they account for approximately 19 percent of the population. Not one single East German woman is at the helm of a university or non-university institution. More than 30 years after reunification, East Germans are thus seriously underrepresented in leadership positions as was revealed by our Elite Monitor, which examines the representation of East Germans in leadership positions. But it would be wrong to suggest there is conscious colonisation. In 1990, the last GDR government decided to join the existing West German science system in the Federal Republic. Since then, the procedures for making HR decisions at universities are regulated by the länder parliaments. And back in the 1990s, the latter very often brought West German know-how to the East. West German bosses became the norm. PERSISTENT IMBALANCE What is striking, however, is that for a long time, hardly anything changed. Studies have shown that this has a lot to do with the way leaders are socialised. When filling positions it strongly influences how quality criteria are interpreted, what expertise is considered relevant, for example, how the way someone presents themselves or their career stage are assessed, whether there is a consensus on what they would need to achieve under which conditions in order to be deemed suitable. As selection committees have largely been composed of West Germans since the 1990s, and still are, their socialisation profile is dominant. East Germans in the age group(s) that have so far been considered for top jobs all tend to display characteristics that also disadvantage certain segments of the West