Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 08:21:30 -0500 From: H-GERMAN EDITOR Dan Rogers Reply to: H-NET List on German History To: Multiple recipients of list H-GERMAN Subject: "Radikalenerlass" illegal Submitted by: Mitchell Ash Here is a brief response to Thomas Schmitz's excellent summary of recent rulings on the Radikalenerlass and efforts to extend the principle behind it to hiring - or rather firing - decisions in the new German states since unification. I think it is appropriate to note, for the sake of precision, that East German academics, when they have been dismissed for political reasons at all, have, generally speaking, not received such treatment because they have been classified as Verfassungsfeinde IN THE PRESENT--though some people may wish to label them as such--but rather due to specific actions engaged in or allegiances voiced IN THE PAST - that is to say, for not being Verfassungsfreinde at all, but rather for being all too true (!) to the previous "constitution." I note in passing, also for the sake of precision, that in fact the vast majority of academics dismissed since unification have not been let go for political reasons, but rather due either to assessed inadequacy for a given advertised position or, far more frequently, to "lack of need" for their work. The Gummiterminus, "Bedarfskuendigungen", refers, first, to the vast reduction in the number of positions in Eastern German institutions, and second, to the restructuring of the remaining positions according to the "reverse pyramid" model standard in West Germany. This leaves little or no room for the large numbers of permanent middle-level staff characteristic of the East German system. One can, of course, call the dismissals of these people "political," since they are due to policy decisions, but it would be far too simple to put them in the same box with dismissals for Stasi cooperation or too-prominent SED activity. Focusing exclusively on these more obviously political firings distracts our attention from the far larger numbers of otherwise qualified and positively evaluated academics to whom, as Rector Cornelius Weiss of Leipzig University--no apologist for the PDS--has said, "a great injustice has been done." One final remark. Thomas Schmitz expresses the hope at the end of his statement that the time will finally come when political dismissals, or at least the rhetorical manipulation of terms like Verfassungsfeind, will end and academic careers in Germany will be decided by merit. To risk an American East Coast idiom: Fat chance, or, in I think still-current street talk, you wish. .