[Socialistic university policy between demand and reality--the example of Hans Heygster at the Rostock University Hospital of Psychiatry and Neurology].

The extent and boundaries of political influence are a central issue in the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). After 1945 socialist leaders attempted to exert political influence on education in the Soviet occupied zone and the later GDR. The Second University Reform in 1951/52 introduced a fundamental break with established university structures. One major aim was the establishment of a "new socialist intelligentsia" that was to spread the Marxist-Leninist theories at universities. Due to a lack of qualified personnel in the medical faculties, this aim was far from being reached until the end of the 1950s. The example of the university lecturer Hans Heygster (1905-1961), who worked at the East-German University Hospital of Psychiatry and Neurology in Rostock between 1946 and 1953, shows how the GDR rulers sought to influence university education. It illustrates the opportunities and restrictions that University lecturers in East Germany faced during this time. Heygster soon found himself in real conflict, namely between political aims and demands set and reality. Based on of archival sources the study elaborates the background, the course of events and the consequences of these conflicts.