Egged on by spade-bearded Party Boss Walter Ulbricht, East German Communists have recently been tightening the screws on intellectuals and the professions. In the universities, stooge students were assigned to classes and lectures to make certain that teachers spouted the party line. Doctors and dentists were exhorted to become "medical activists," warned that all private practice would be destroyed so that they could devote full time to serving "people's medical establishments." The result: in eight months 813 doctors, 2,393 teachers and about 200 professors—including the rector of the University of Jena (TIME, Sept. 1)—fled to the West. At Leipzig's...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
