EDUCATIONAL RIVALRIES 419
perts from West German universities accepted visiting professor appoint-
ments at East German universities as part of a concerted eff ort to ensure
the restructuring of course off erings in the East. Despite all the issues
that arose with changing course requirements, the students at East Ger-
man universities were still able to fi nish their degrees. This necessitated
a major eff ort on the part of all those involved, especially since the local
infrastructures of the East German universities left much to be desired.
The state of the universities in the East was even worse than that of the
West German universities suff ering from major underfunding.
At a relatively early point, the East German universities began an inter-
nal evaluation and selection process. In order to work through these struc-
tural and personnel changes, Structure and Appointment Commissions
(Struktur- und Berufungskomissionen, or SBK) were founded, as had been
recommended by the Wissenschaftsrat. Renowned and experienced West
German professors chaired these commissions. In many disciplines—es-
pecially the humanities and social sciences—these evaluations led to a
liquidation process. These personnel changes were a particular painful
dimension of the overhaul of the East German universities because it
spelled the end of many academic careers. Only a select few of those
who were already older than forty were able to catch up with the state
of international research and publish their own fi ndings in the relevant
academic forums.^118 This liquidation process therefore led to a radical
exchange of elites: most of the East German professorships were given
to young West German academics as the universities were reconstructed;
East Germans did not really have much chance of being appointed until
the next hiring generation.^119 As a result, the majority of East German
university professors and instructors faced a rather abrupt end to their
academic careers. Most of the East Germans who were permitted to stay
as mid-level assistant professors and lecturers in their respective depart-
ments were given only temporary contracts. At the Humboldt University
in Berlin, for example, only about 10 percent of mid-level academics who
had been employed as of 1993 still had a position when the fi rst round of
temporary contracts expired in 1998.^120 In light of this situation, many of
the younger mid-career academics chose to leave the university and seek
jobs in the private sector.
The Cotransformation of the School System
in the Old Federal States
When the new federal states opted for a two-tiered school system rather
than just copying the West German schools system, they turned out to