Academic Exchange as a Bridge Builder Between East and West

After just a few years, the DAAD is able to expand its work step by step. From the second half of the 1950s, the number of annual scholarships for foreign students increases significantly - 333 in 1956 and 740 in 1961. The number of scholarships available for German students is significantly lower: 176 scholarships are awarded in 1956 and 247 in 1961. The vast majority of students goes to Western Europe and the USA. Scholarships to the Soviet Union, China or the socialist countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe - with the exception of Yugoslavia - are not offered in the early years of the ‘Cold War’.

On the other hand, completely new initiatives such as the Lectureship Programme are created: in 1954 it begins with nine lecturers teaching German abroad, by 1961 there are already 145. At the same time, the range of programmes on offer is also greatly expanded: From 1956, for example, there are new scholarships from the German government for American students (in thanks for Marshall Plan aid), ‘special scholarships for students from the so-called developing countries’ from 1957, the implementation of the Hungary Programme donated by the Ford Foundation to support Hungarian university members who have to leave their home country after the invasion of Soviet troops in 1956, as well as a student and academic exchange with the Soviet Union from 1959.

These programmes are now coordinated by the second generation at the top of the DAAD. The long-standing Director General (Secretary General from 1964) Hubertus Scheibe (1955 to 1979) and President Werner Richter (1954 to 1959) oversee this dynamic development. This management team also experiences the expansion of education in Germany during these years, with numerous new universities and rising student numbers. In the course of this development, the organisation of the DAAD is modernised: Full members are no longer individuals as before, but the universities affiliated to the West German Rectors' Conference.

By the end of the decade, the cautious initiative for exchange has become a genuine institution of academic self-administration. In 1960, the organisation, which now has 65 employees, celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Engagement in the Global South

In the 1960s, what was then known as ‘development aid’ becomes an increasingly important part of the DAAD's work. The expansion of its network of international offices takes place against the backdrop of the East-West conflict and German-German rivalry: the Federal Government is increasingly endeavouring to exert influence in the Global South, and the DAAD's activities are therefore part of Germany's external image.

In 1960, the DAAD opens a branch office for the entire Arab region in Cairo, and in the same year a branch office is founded in New Delhi. It is also a reaction to a sharp increase in scholarship holders from the countries of the Global South. In order to better respond to their needs, new programmes are developed, some of which do not only include academic exchange: since 1963/64, the DAAD has been offering so-called Sur-Place scholarships for African students with funds from the young Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). As part of this programme, the scholarship holders complete their studies at selected universities in their home countries.

Expansion of the Global Network

The DAAD's worldwide network of international offices is expanded again in 1963: The Paris office is re-opened, headed by former lecturer and Romance philologist Hansgerd Schulte. He is to succeed Gerhard Kielwein (1968 to 1972) as President of the DAAD in 1972. Expansion continues over the next few years, including a branch office in New York and a coordination centre in Rio de Janeiro (both in 1971).

Meanwhile, the DAAD, represented since 1960 by President Emil Lehnartz (1960 to 1968), also continues to develop at home. The move to Kennedyallee 50 in Bonn in 1962 is a real milestone: the new building ends a long period of lack of space. The DAAD leaves its founding and development period behind.

In 1964, the DAAD finally sets up an office on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm - returning to Berlin nineteen years after the end of the war. The most important task of the Berlin office is to supervise the Ford Foundation's ‘Artists in Residence’ programme, which the DAAD continues to run as the Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme from 1966 until today. The office also organises information seminars for outgoing German scholarship holders.

With its contacts to old and new partner countries, the DAAD is always a pioneer in these years - even ahead of official West German diplomacy. Even while diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Egypt are interrupted from 1965 to 1972, for example, the DAAD continues its work here and continues to focus on dialogue. And long before the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Eastern European states, the DAAD intensifies its contacts with these countries: in 1964 it concludes agreements on academic exchange with Yugoslavian universities, and in 1965 and 1970 with the Czechoslovakian and Polish Academies of Sciences.

The DAAD as a Pioneer of Foreign Cultural Policy

At the same time, the Federal Republic enteres a new phase of foreign cultural policy: in 1966, Foreign Minister Willy Brandt describes it as the ‘third pillar of foreign policy’, alongside diplomacy and foreign trade. As Federal Chancellor, Brandt then developes a concept for foreign cultural policy for the first time: instead of national self-presentation, cultural exchange is now strongly emphasised. For the DAAD, this meas an appreciation of its work.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Sur-Place Programme is expanded. And for the first time, university partnerships between German universities and institutions in Africa and Asia are established with funding from the BMZ. To facilitate the establishment of contacts, a coordination centre is set up in Nairobi in 1973. ‘Development aid’ has finally arrived at the DAAD.

With Brandt's new Ostpolitik and the dictum of ‘change through rapprochement’, the focus increasingly shifts to Eastern European countries. From 1974, the DAAD implements a new programme for partnerships with Eastern Europe - a strong sign of the role as a bridge-builder that the DAAD has developed over the past 25 years.