The Eighties and early Nineties
Before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain
By Heike Jöns
Dieser Artikel auf Deutsch
In 1980 - 1981 application figures for Humboldt Fellowships reached an initial peak which was only surpassed in 1988. This indicates that, in the world political situation at the time, the application potential had been exhausted.
However, during this period the focal points for sponsorship shifted from Asia to Eastern Europe. Between 1980 and 1989 the number of applications from India decreased for the first time and dropped by almost half. There were also a third fewer applications from Japan since Japanese researchers, like those from India, orientated themselves more towards the U.S.A. By contrast, applications from Poland had doubled in the period 1980 - 1989. And a lot of fellows also came from Hungary which had already embarked on a comprehensive process of reform in the 1980s. A boom in applications came about in France, too, which therefore became the EU country with the highest number of applicants and fellows.
Humboldt Fellows by Home Country, 1984-1993. Click here for a larger image (Graphics: Jöns).
 | In foreign policy, the Eighties were characterized by East-West German special relations. These meant closer dialogue, agreements on bilateral economic and cultural relations, and new and easier travel regulations. When at the end of the Eighties Mikhail Gorbatchov, who had become President of the Soviet Union in 1988, introduced a new era of reforms in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact with his demands for Glasnost (transparency) and Perestroika (reshaping), the way was opened for largely peaceful political change in the Eastern Bloc states and the unification of Germany, which came about on 3rd October 1990.
The global political and internal German upheaval which followed, sealed the end of the Cold War. It led to enormous changes in the network of international academic relations, meant a shift in priorities in German scientific policy towards the rebuilding of the East, and also presented foreign cultural policy with new challenges. In the Humboldt Research Fellowship Programme, the end of the Cold War heralded a flood of applications from the Soviet Union's successor states and the transformation states of Central and South Eastern Europe. This meant that the number of applications in 1990 - 1992 reached its maximum to date even though the boom in applications in the diverse countries of origin varied with regard to period of time, extent, and duration (e.g., Hungary, 1987 - 1992; Poland, 1988 - 1989).
|
