SUMMARY:

The article compares parallel efforts of the Soviet and American occupation administrations in Germany to reform the university system in the wake of World War II. After formation of the German Democratic Republic and Federal Republic of Germany, both superpowers strove to impose their academic institutions and standards over universities in their client German states and indoctrinate professors and students. The article claims that Americanization and Sovietization were structurally analogous attempts at “cultural colonialism,” and both strategies failed due to the stubborn resistance to change staged by German academic circles