Joint education commission

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In 1990 the Kohl government and the de Maizière government pursued the political goal of merging the two educational systems of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic . For this purpose, a joint education commission was formed at ministerial level. Its constituent meeting took place on May 16, 1990 in Bonn , followed by further meetings on June 21, 1990 in Berlin and again on September 26, 1990 in Bonn . The results of the work were recommendations, the cornerstones of which were also incorporated into the Unification Treaty and otherwise politically and practically implemented.

Constituent meeting on May 16, 1990 in Bonn

The political goal of the Joint Education Commission was to promote the cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the field of education and science and to prepare a merger of the two education systems on the way to German unity.

The delegation of the Federal Republic was led by the Federal Minister of Education and Science Jürgen W. Möllemann and the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education , Minister Eva Rühmkorf . The GDR delegation was headed by the Minister for Education and Science, Hans Joachim Meyer .


I. Delegation of the GDR

1. Minister Hans Joachim Meyer

2. State Secretary Dieter Reiher

3. Eberhard Kallenbach , Acting Deputy Minister for Universities

4. Horst Danzmann, Acting Deputy Minister for Technical Schools

5. Frank Eveslage , Head of Economics

6. Rainer Weidmann, Head of the Faculty

7. Dagmar Klimpel, Personal Assistant to the Minister

8. Petra Münch, employee of the international department

9. Manfred Weißfinger, press officer

10. Horst Neubauer , Ambassador of the GDR and Head of the Permanent Mission in Bonn


II. BMBW / state representatives in the education commission

1. Federal Minister Jürgen W. Möllemann

2. Parliamentary State Secretary Norbert Lammert

3. State Secretary Fritz Schaumann

4. State Secretary Walter Priesnitz , BMBW

5. Minister Eva Rühmkorf , President of the Conference of Ministers of Education

6. Minister of State Georg Gölter

7. Senator Barbara Riedmüller-Seel i. V. by Diether Breitenbach

8. Minister of State Hans Zehetmair


III. Other participants

Countries / KMK

1. MinDirig Knauss, Chairman of the School Committee of the KMK, Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture

2. MinDirig Joachim Schulz-Hardt, General Secretary of the KMK

3. SenDirig Hermann Hildebrand, permanent representative of the GS of the KMK

BMBW

4. MinDirig Ewald Giese, Head of General Education Policy Affairs

5. MinDirig Alfred Hardenacke, Head of Vocational Education and Training

6. Min Dirig Peter Dallinger, Department Head Universities / Science Policy

7. MinDirig Karsten Brenner, Head of Department, International Affairs, Internal German Relations, DV, Statistics

8. MinR Hans Rainer Friedrich, Head of the Ministerial Office

9. Jürgen Böckling, Head of Press and Public Relations

10. RD Uta Paffhausen V. da Cruz, Head of Unit, Internal German Relations

11. Günter Haas, Department for Internal German Relations.


The task of the education commission was defined to be to discuss and coordinate the cooperation until the establishment of German unity. Agreement was reached on the structure and functioning of their sub-committees. According to this, the commission consisted of eight representatives from each country. On the part of the Federal Republic, there were four representatives each from the Federation and the Länder. It was agreed that the GDR will also send country representatives to the commission after the re-establishment of the regional structure.

The priorities of education and science policy should be dealt with in four sub-commissions :

  • General school education
  • school and company vocational training
  • University / science
  • Further education.

Experts were assigned to the sub-commissions as representatives of the social partners, universities and scientific organizations as well as associations and churches. In addition, groups of experts were formed on overarching areas: training funding, education statistics and libraries.

The following tasks were worked out for the education commission and its subgroups :

  • Mutual information about the respective education system (inventory, data exchange) as well as about initiated or planned reforms
  • Discussion of educational policy and educational planning perspectives and tasks including social aspects
  • Guidelines for the gradual merging of the education systems, taking into account the EC framework conditions as well as European and international cooperation
  • Structural issues including social aspects and issues of legal approximation
  • Discussion of questions relating to mobility, training funding and the recognition of educational achievements and educational qualifications as well as access to educational institutions and training courses
  • Discussion of targeted support measures for the renewal of the education system in the GDR
  • Discussion of cooperation and exchange programs.

Second meeting on June 21, 1990 in Berlin

The delegation of the Federal Republic was led by the Federal Minister of Education and Science Jürgen W. Möllemann and the Deputy President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education of the Federal States, Senator Sybille Volkholz . The GDR delegation was headed by the Minister for Education and Science, Hans Joachim Meyer .

Minister Meyer provided information on the latest developments in the education system in the GDR, in particular on the far-reaching process of democratization that had begun . Here, too, the future education system will be largely federally structured - as in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Federal Minister Möllemann and Senator Volkholz underscored the willingness of the Federation and the Länder to support the GDR in its reform efforts . They referred to the ongoing projects and initiatives of the federal and state governments as well as the collaboration between educational and research institutions.

The education commission dealt with the difficult financial situation of the Ministry of Education and Science of the GDR, as presented by Minister Meyer. The Commission reaffirmed its view that in the future in the GDR everyone will have access to training and further training opportunities based on their inclination, aptitude and performance, and that the necessary funds must be made available for this. For the promotion of training, the Education Commission has commissioned its expert group to work out proposals for a new legal regulation of training support in the GDR, which, taking into account existing peculiarities, largely corresponds to the Federal Training Promotion Act (Bafög) and should come into force on April 1, 1991.

The Education Commission reached agreement on the need to provide young people of working age in the GDR with adequate vocational training and further education opportunities that meet the new demands of the labor market under market conditions.

Furthermore, the commission pointed out that the rapid changes in the political, social and technical field will make general further training a major educational policy challenge for the next few years. In the short term, this will make the GDR necessary to open up alternative opportunities for further training to citizens of working age. From this follows the necessary safeguarding of sufficient and qualified capacities for further training, in particular the transitional financing for the transfer of capacities for further training that are worth preserving into new sponsorships through conversion and re-establishment as well as qualification of employees in further training.

The Education Commission instructed its sub-commissions and expert groups to continue the work that had already started and to develop specific proposals in order to enable the two education and science systems to be merged as harmoniously as possible. The ministers reaffirmed their intention to take part in meetings of important bodies and to invite representatives of the GDR to all bodies of the KMK .

Third and final meeting on September 26, 1990 in Bonn

The delegation of the Federal Republic was led by State Secretary Fritz Schaumann on behalf of the Federal Minister for Education and Science and by the President of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education of the Federal States, Minister Marianne Tidick . The GDR delegation was again headed by the Minister for Education and Science, Hans Joachim Meyer .

The Education Commission agreed that the education system must make a significant contribution to the political, economic and social renewal process in the five acceding countries as well as to the German unification process as a whole. She agreed that significant steps had already been taken along this path and that it was the task of the newly emerging countries to continue this process consistently. The reform efforts of the GDR received technical and financial support from the federal and state governments, and private aid from the Federal Republic was added.

For general education , the commission has passed recommendations on the reorganization of general education in the new federal states. It stated that the principle of the cultural sovereignty of the federal states is of fundamental importance when the two education systems grow together. The development of a comparable basic structure for the school system creates essential prerequisites for freedom of movement in the education system. According to Article 37 of the Unification Treaty, the basis for this is the Hamburg Agreement of the Laender for the unification of the school system and other agreements of the Conference of Ministers of Education .

In vocational training, the Education Commission supported the fastest possible introduction of the Federal Republic's regulatory framework for vocational training (Vocational Training Act, Crafts Code, Vocational School Act, training regulations and framework curricula). It was introduced on September 1, 1990, creating the basis for the reform process in vocational training. With the support of the federal and state governments, extensive qualification measures for staff in vocational training (trainers, vocational school teachers, advanced trainers) have been initiated. The federal government has ensured the supply of information material, training regulations and framework curricula and has taken measures to accommodate young people who either did not receive a training place in autumn 1990 or whose apprenticeship contracts were terminated.

In order to create an all-German science and research landscape, an agreement was reached in the university and science sector to entrust the Science Council with a comprehensive inventory of the science and research landscape in the GDR, in which all training and research institutions are included. It is intended to be the basis for recommendations by the Science Council on the structure of the science and research landscape in the GDR, on the classification of facilities and institutions in this structure and on the expansion of facilities.

The universities in the newly joining states will continue to open up within the framework of the existing capacities - also for applicants from the Federal Republic - whereby the capacity measurement should no longer be made dependent on parameters such as dormitories and canteen spaces.

The scope of the University Building Funding Act is to be expanded to include the newly added federal states and the areas of responsibility of institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany are to be expanded (including the Science Council, German Research Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service, HIS-GmbH, gifted funding organizations, etc.). The Education Commission sees the rapid continuation of the work in the existing bodies as urgent, given the structural substance and the equipment of the universities in the new federal states. Sometimes far-reaching improvements are required. A number of important disciplines have to be redesigned in terms of content or developed further in large areas.

In the opinion of the Commission, further training has to make a significant contribution to promoting professional qualifications and an understanding of democracy. In view of the great needs of the citizens of the new federal states, the Commission considers sufficient further training capacities to be necessary and has therefore dealt in particular with the transfer of institutions that are worth preserving into new carrier structures and with the conversion and establishment of new carriers of further training.

Proposals have been drawn up for a new legal regulation of training subsidies in the GDR. On the basis of these proposals, Annexes I and II of the Unification Treaty regulate with which modifications the BAföG will come into force on January 1, 1991 in the newly formed states and which regulations of the scholarship law of the former GDR will continue to apply until then.

With its proposals for the Unification Treaty , the Commission has achieved important perspectives for the individual areas of the education system in the new Länder :

  • In the school system , the regulations required for the redesign are to be made independently by the five new federal states. The necessary regulations for the recognition of school-related qualifications are agreed in the Standing Conference. In both cases, the “Hamburg Agreement” and the other relevant agreements of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs are to be regarded as the basis.
  • In the field of vocational training , qualified training must be guaranteed for all young people and thus also their competitiveness on the labor market. For the professional development of young adults who have completed an apprenticeship according to the system of skilled workers of the GDR and who also want to acquire a qualification in a related recognized training occupation according to the Vocational Training Act or the Crafts Code, companies, responsible bodies and providers of other educational institutions should appropriate Develop and offer measures.
  • In the higher education sector, it is particularly about the freedom and plurality of teaching and research. The most important prerequisites for this are university autonomy, the further opening of access to studies and scientific work, as well as greater independence and personal responsibility for university lecturers, researchers and students. University research must be strengthened overall.
  • Democracy and the social market economy make further training in an expanded dimension necessary in the acceding countries . The educational content, as it is necessary for an active shaping of the new social and economic order, must be conveyed as soon as possible to many citizens and encourage mutual acquaintance and enable the common shaping of the future in a united Germany.
  • In accordance with the recommendation of the commission, the unification agreement provides for the inclusion of the five new federal states in the joint educational planning and research funding of the federal and state governments . The federal government and the federal states of the Federal Republic will support the new federal states in their reform of education and science and in setting up the new federal state administrations and in administrative implementation.

In conclusion , the Joint Education Commission stated that in the short period of its work it had developed important recommendations as a prerequisite and orientation aid for the merging of the two educational systems, thus making a contribution to German reunification . The results of the Commission have also been incorporated into the Unification Treaty , Article 37 (Education) and Article 38 (Science and Research). The “Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs” and the “Federal-State Commission for Educational Planning and Research Funding” as future joint bodies were called upon to continue their work for a joint education system.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Böckling (Ed.): Joint education commission with the GDR in Bonn constituted. Press INFO BMBW. The Federal Minister for Education and Science. No. 70/1990, Bonn, May 16, 1990
  2. ↑ Gabriele Köhler, Georg Knauss, Peter Zedler (eds.): The educational unification process 1990 - course and results of the German-German negotiations on the education system. Verlag Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2000, pp. 62-63, ISBN 978-3-8100-2918-8 .
  3. ^ Communication on the second meeting of the Joint Education Commission on June 21, 1990 in Berlin. Ministry of Education and Science, Press Unit and Federal Ministry of Education and Science, Press Unit and Public Relations. Berlin, June 21, 1990.
  4. ↑ Joint Education Commission: Results of the third and final meeting on September 26, 1990. BMBW press information, No. 143/90, September 26, 1990, pp. 220–225.
  5. ↑ Wissenschaftsrat : Recommendations on the future structure of the university landscape in the new federal states and in the eastern part of Berlin. Part I to IV. Cologne 1992.
  6. ↑ https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/einigvtr/BJNR208890990.html Unification Agreement