ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Humboldt University, as one example of how East German universities have reacted to the social, political, and economic changes after the collapse of the East German state and the subsequent German unification. It distinguishes between three phases of renewal, which are treated as processes of adaptation, integration, and innovation. Communist domination and suppression of academic freedom at Humboldt University led to mounting tensions and conflicts and a rising potential for student protest. That took place right under the eyes of the Western powers, which controlled the three Western sectors of the city and the free mass media in these sectors. In the year between the collapse of the regime and unification, the main actors in East German higher education were those inside the institutions. But the activities they developed were responses or reactions to what happened outside: the radical political changes brought about by the “peaceful revolution” affected higher education institutions in many ways.
