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East Germany The Creative Intelligentsia
The creative intelligentsia is broadly defined as those
involved in artistic creativity, artistic expression, or teaching
and research in the humanities. Since its inception, the East
German regime has attempted to form an intelligentsia imbued with
socialist values and responsive to regime needs. In return for
service to the state, the regime has granted members of the
creative intelligentsia many privileges, including the right to
travel to the West and access to excellent housing facilities. As
a result of these privileges, the creative intelligentsia has
become increasingly isolated from the rest of the population.
The East German government does not publish data on the
creative intelligentsia. However, it is possible to gauge the
growth of this stratum by using statistics that depict increases
in the kinds of institutions where these individuals work. For
example, in 1951 there were twenty-one universities in East
Germany; in 1984 there were fifty-four. In 1951 there were 77
theaters in the country; by 1984 that figure had risen to 188.
The number of music teachers increased from 1,427 in 1966 to
2,153 in 1984. Museums devoted to art, literature, the theater,
and music rose from 34 in 1965 to 122 in the mid-1980s. These
figures suggest that the regime has devoted significant resources
to the expansion of the kind of forums where the new "socialist"
culture may be seen, heard, or taught. Of necessity the regime
has had to staff these new institutions with individuals it has
attempted to inculcate with "socialist" values.
Data as of July 1987
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