CHAPTER XXII
[1] One of the first acts of the reign of Frederick the Great was to recall Wolff from banishment. In doing so he said: "A man that seeks truth, and loves it, must be reckoned precious in any human society."
[2] "It was a bold declaration, but one which exactly described the great change which had taken place. The older university instruction was everywhere based upon the assumption that the truth had already been given, that instruction had to do with its transmission only, and that it was the duty of the controlling authorities to see to it that no false doctrines were taught. The new university instruction began with the assumption that the truth must be discovered, and that it was the duty of instruction to qualify and guide the student in this task. By assuming this attitude the university was the first to accept the consequences of the conditions which the Reformation had created." (Paulsen, Fr., The German Universities, p. 46.)
[3] "He who reads the works of the ancients will enjoy the acquaintance of the greatest men and the noblest souls who ever lived, and will get in this way, as it happens in all refined conversation, beautiful thoughts and expressive words.
"We thus receive, in early childhood, doctrines and philosophy and wisdom of life from the wisest and best educated men of all ages; we thus learn to recognize and understand clearness, dignity, charm, ingenuity, delicacy, and elegance in language and action, and gradually accustom ourselves to them." (Gesner, Johann Matthias.)
[4] The sacristan or custodian of the church was frequently also the teacher of the elementary school, the two offices being combined in one person. Out of this combination the elementary teacher was later evolved. (See p. 446.)
[5] "When the schoolmaster had to pass an examination before the clergyman of the place by order of the inspector, the local authorities, owing to the lamentable life of a schoolmaster, were glad to find persons at all who were willing to accept an engagement for such a position. In consequence an otherwise intolerable indulgence in examining and employing teachers took place, especially in districts where large landholders had patriarchal sway." (Schmid, K. A., Encydopädie, vol. VI, p. 287.)
[6] Austria at that time included not only the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1914, but extended further into the German Empire and Italy, and included Belgium and Luxemburg as well.
[7] Bassewitz, M. Fr. von, Die Kurmark Brandenburg, p. 342. (Leipzig, 1847.)
[8] These lectures were listened to by Napoleon's police and passed to print by his censor, not being regarded as containing anything seditious or dangerous.
[9] "He set all his hopes for Germany on a new national system of education. One German State was to lead the way in establishing it, making use of the same right of coercion to which it resorted in compelling its subjects to serve in the army, and for the exercise of which certainly no better justification could be found than the common good aimed at in national education." (Paulsen, Fr., German Education, Past and Present, p. 240.)
[10] "Never have the souls of men been so deeply stirred by the idea of raising the whole existence of mankind to a higher level. Something like the enthusiasm which had taken hold of the minds at the outbreak of the French Revolution was again at work, the only difference being that the strong current of national feeling directed it toward an aim which, if more limited, was, for that very reason, more practicable and more defined." (Paulsen, Fr., German Education, Past and Present, p. 183.)
[11] As a result of the overthrow of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna restored to Prussia and France substantially the boundaries they had at the opening of the Napoleonic Wars. Still more important for the future was the consolidation of some four hundred States and petty German kingdoms into thirty-eight States.
[12] Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm Diesterweg became a pupil in one of the earliest normal schools in Prussia, that at Frankfort; then a teacher; and in 1820 became a director of a Teachers' Seminary at Moers. From 1833 to 1849 he was head of the normal school at Berlin. He has often been called "der deutsche Pestalozzi."
[13] Made in a letter to Baron von Altenstein, Prussian Minister for Education.
[14] "Herbart's seminar at the university of Königsberg was officially recognized, in 1810; Gedike's seminar in Berlin was formally taken over by the university, in 1812; the seminar in Stettin, founded in 1804, was reorganized in 1816; Breslau began pedagogical work, in 1813; and in 1817 it was stated that the purpose of the reorganized seminar in Halle was 'the training of skilled teachers for the Gymnasien.'" (Russell, James E., German Higher Schools, p. 97.)
[15] Gesner at Göttingen and Wolff at Halle laid down the lines for these in the middle eighteenth century. The early nineteenth-century foundations were at Königsberg, 1810; Berlin, 1812; Breslau, 1812; Bonn, 1819; Griefswald, 1820; and Münster, 1825.
[16] All prospective gymnasial teachers, whether graduates of the universities or not, were now required to take examinations in philosophy, pedagogy, theology, and the main gymnasial subjects, showing marked proficiency in one of the following groups, and a reasonable knowledge of the other two: namely, (1) Greek, Latin, German; (2) Mathematics and the Natural Sciences; (3) History and Geography.
[17] See Russell, Jas. E., German Higher Schools, p. 101, for the detailed "Gymnasial Program" promulgated in 1837.
[18] In 1840 there were six Prussian universities; by 1900 the number had increased to eleven, and three technical universities in addition. In the other German States eleven additional universities and six technical universities were in existence, in 1900.
[19] Benjamin Franklin visited Göttingen, as early as 1766, but the first American student to take a degree at a German university was Benjamin S. Barton, of Philadelphia, who took his doctor's degree at Göttingen, in 1799. By 1825 ten American students had studied one or more semesters at Göttingen. That year the first American student registered at Berlin, and in 1827 the first at Leipzig. (See Hinsdale, B. A., in Report, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1897-98, vol. 1, pp. 603-16.)
[20] The remark attributed to Bismarck is interesting in this connection. "Of the students who attend the German universities," he said, "one-third die prematurely as the result of disease arising from too great poverty and undernourishment while students; another one-third die prematurely or amount to little due to bad habits and drinking and disease contracted while students; the remaining third rule Europe."
[21] Barnard, Henry, American Journal of Education, vol. xx, p. 365.
[22] This was proposed by Czar Alexander I of Russia in 1815, and became a personal alliance of the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria, and the King of Prussia, "to promote religion, peace, and order." Other princes were asked to join this continental League to enforce peace and, under the rule of Prince Metternich, chief minister of Austria, it dominated Europe until after the political revolutions of 1848.
[23] As a young man Altenstein had been in charge of a subordinate division of the Department of Public Instruction under Humboldt, and was a man of somewhat liberal ideas. Now he was compelled to fall in with the ideas of the political leaders and the wishes of the king, though he still did something to hold back the reactionary forces and preserve much of what had been gained.
[24] Paulsen, Fr., German Education, Past and Present, p. 246.
[25] It was this same Frederick William IV who had for a time refused to grant constitutional government to Prussia, saying: "No written sheet of paper shall ever thrust itself like a second providence between the Lord God in heaven and this land." In 1850, however, he was forced to grant a limited form of constitutional government to his people.
[26] "The motive which dictated the law of 1872 on school supervision (namely, placing the State in complete control of the supervision of religious as well as other instruction) was, as is well understood, to strengthen the hands of the government in its struggle with the Catholic hierarchy, which was then prominently before the public. The law affirmed again the sovereign right of the State over the whole school system, including the elementary or people's schools." (Nohle, Dr. E., History of the German School System, p. 79.)
[27] Alexander, Thomas, The Prussian Elementary Schools, pp. 537-38.