The post-war British ‘re-education’ policy for German universities and its application at the universities of Göttingen and Cologne (1945–1947)

Abstract

The crux of British aims for Germany following the Second World War focused on ‘re-education’ and democratisation. Well aware that the victors’ policies following World War One had failed to prevent Germany from pursuing an expansionist path once again, the plan was to help Germany learn from her problematic past. These aims extended to higher education – British reformers believed fascist ideology had perverted the universities, and that they too needed to be made democratic again. This article offers a fresh academic angle compared with other studies on the British ‘re-education’ policy. Some of these works refer to several, wide-ranging facets of the policy – such as in the German press or in schools – or compare aspects of British policy with that of the other occupying powers. This study focuses specifically on the successes and failures of Britain’s ‘re-education’ policy at two of the six universities in the British Zone: one in the relatively undamaged town of Göttingen, the other in the heavily bombed city of Cologne. The article aims to show that, despite several policy failures at both institutions, the ‘Re-education’ policy was more successful in Cologne on the whole. This was due to factors such as a more imposing location, denazification successes and heightened Anglo-German relations. The main primary sources used are Foreign Office files from The National Archives at Kew, England. The study also refers to the 1945–1947 publications of the British Zone Review, as well as a source from the London School of Economics archives.