V
Higher Technical Schools
Technische Hochschulen
We have at this point in our study reached the schools of highest rank offering training of a technical character, called variously technical high schools, technical colleges, or polytechnics, the Technische Hochschulen. These schools are not high schools in the sense that the term would be applied to our American institutions, but are rather schools of collegiate grade, ranking in fact, as the title indicates in the university class. While not exactly comparable to our engineering schools, they approach more nearly these than they do any other of our American educational institutions.
Before the beginning of the century just closed it was apparent to some German minds more far seeing than the rest, that schools of a higher than secondary rank must be inaugurated to offer training in the sciences; give opportunity to show the application of science to the arts; and prepare young men to grapple with scientific industrial problems such as were constantly springing up. Should the university attempt such work? An effort was made looking toward this end. It was at once evident that here was not the place to begin. The university was an institution in and of itself. Its methods, curriculum and aim were fixed, owing to long established customs. It had a certain work to perform, its own peculiar function to fulfill, and traditional and classical tendency were too strong to be checked in their movement, or to allow a branch stream to flow in and thus add to or modify the existing content.
The war for industrial supremacy, between England and Germany particularly, was a prominent factor leading up to the establishment of technical schools in the latter country. Germany saw the necessity for heroic action, and her people, anxious to improve from the standpoint of her industries at home not only, but that they might rival and surpass their neighbors across the “Silver Streak” readily took up the cry for advanced scientific training. This then was the object of the Technische Hochschulen:[2]
“They were intended to secure for science a foothold in the workshop, to assist with the light of reasoned theory the progress of arts and industry, till then fettered by many a prejudice and hindered through lack of knowledge; on the other hand, they sought to raise that part of the nation engaged in industry to such a love of culture as would secure to it its due measure of public respect.”
[2] Note on the earlier History of the Technical High School in Germany by A. E. Twentyman in Special Reports on Educational Subjects, London, Vol 9, page 468.
The dates of the founding of the now existing Technische Hochschulen vary somewhat, certain of the schools growing out of a foundation which at the beginning was of a low or intermediate grade. Several of the schools have passed through a period of transition or reorganization state during the course of their existence. The institution, and time of establishment of each are as follows.
| Berlin, | 1799 |
| Carlsruhe, | 1825 |
| Munich, | 1827 |
| Dresden, | 1828 |
| Stuttgart, | 1829 |
| Brunswick, | 1835 |
| Darmstadt, | 1868 |
| Aachen, | 1870 |
| Hannover, | 1879 |
In 1799 was instituted in Berlin the Bauakademie, a State institution whose purpose was set forth in the royal decree thus: