Chapter XXII: National Organization in Prussia (2)

For those who were to form the official and directing class of Society--a closely limited, almost entirely male, intellectual aristocracy--education in separate classical schools, with university or professional training superimposed, was provided, and this type of training offered a very thorough preparation for a small and a carefully selected class. Out of this class the leaders of Germany for a century have been drawn. [20] For this classical school also the universities were early directed to prepare a well-educated body of teachers. The Prussian plan was followed in all its essentials in the other German States, so that the drawing given (Fig. 173) was true for Germany as a whole, as well as for Prussia, up at least to 1914.

NEW NINETEENTH-CENTURY TENDENCIES MANIFESTED. In this early evolution of the Prussian state school systems we find two prominent nineteenth-century ideas expressing themselves. The first is the new conception of the State as not merely a government organized to secure national safety and protection from invasion, but rather an organization of the people to promote public welfare and realize a moral and political ideal. To this end state control of the whole range of education, to enable the State to promote intellectual and moral and social progress along lines useful to the State, became a necessity, and some form of this education, in the interests of the public welfare, must now be extended to all. Though France and the new American nation gave earlier political expression to this new conception of the State, it was in Prussia that the idea attained its earliest concrete and for long its most complete realization. Seeing further and more clearly than other nations the possibilities of education, the practical workers of Prussia, and after them the other German States, took over education as a function of the State for the propagation of the national ideas and the promotion of the national culture. Of this development Paulsen says:

In the nineteenth century Germany took the lead in the educational
movement among the nations of Europe. The German universities have
become acknowledged centers of scientific research for the whole
world.... In the domain of primary and technical education Germany has
also become the universal teacher of Europe.

But it must not be forgotten, in this connection, that the German
people had been the pupils of their neighbors during a greater length
of time and with greater assiduity than any other European nation.
Thus, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Germany imported the
culture of Humanism from Italy. During the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries she introduced the modern courtly culture and language of
the French people, besides giving admission, since the middle of the
eighteenth century, to the philosophy, science, and literature of
English middle-class society. Lastly, since the end of the eighteenth
century, the Germans have yielded themselves to the influence of the
Hellenic spirit with greater fervor than any other nation.

The second nineteenth-century idea which early found expression in the Prussian State, and one which became a dominant factor during the latter half of the century, was the idea of utilizing the schools, as state institutions, to promote national ends--to unify and nationalize peoples. National self-consciousness here first found concrete expression, and with wonderful practical results. From a geographical expression, consisting of nearly four hundred petty self-governing cities, principalities, and states, and some fourteen hundred independent noblemen and prelates, before the Napoleonic wars, their close found the German people free from serfdom, united in spirit, and organized politically into thirty-eight modern-type States. In 1870, largely as a result of the nationalizing efforts of government and education, working hand in hand, an Imperial Empire of twenty-two States and three Free Cities was formed. The struggle for national realization, begun by Prussia after 1807, and with education as the important constructive tool of the State, has since been copied by nation after nation and has become the dominant force of modern history. To awaken a national self-consciousness, to acquire national unity, and to infuse into all a common culture has supplanted the humanistic cosmopolitanism of the eighteenth century and become the dominant characteristic of nineteenth-century political history. In this Prussia led the way.

THE PERIOD OF REACTION. Through the period preceding the Wars of Liberation (1813-15), and afterward for a few years, an educational zeal animated the Government. The schools during this period were free on the one hand from politics and on the other from minute official regulation. As one writer well stated: [21]

It was difficult to decide whether the schools derived their
importance from the life which surged around them, or whether their
importance was due to their intrinsic power, very carefully fostered
by the state authorities.... There was spirit and life in Prussia;
there was much activity and liberty in contriving, with little outward
parade. Any foreigner, visiting Prussia, might observe that the
vitalizing breath of government, like the spirit of God, was acting
upon the whole people.

Napoleon was finally vanquished at Waterloo (1815) and sent to Saint Helena, and the Congress of Vienna (1815) remade the map of Europe. In doing so it forgot that the people wanted constitutional government, instead of a return to absolute rulers. It restored old thrones, rights, and territories, and inaugurated a policy of political reaction which increased in intensity with time and dominated the governments of continental Europe until after the middle of the century. Under the lead of the Austrian minister, Metternich, and by "third-degree" methods, the so-called Holy Alliance [22] of continental Europe suppressed free speech, democratic movements, political liberties, university freedom, and liberalism in government and religion. The governments in this Alliance redirected and restricted the people's schools, as much as could be done, to make them conform in purpose to their reactionary ideas. In consequence, the development of popular education in Germany, as well as in France and other continental lands, was for a time checked. The great start obtained by Prussia and the German States before 1820, though, was such that what had been done there could not be wholly undone. In France, Spain, the Italian Kingdoms, the Austrian States, and Russia, on the other hand, what had not been developed to any extent could be prevented from developing, and in these lands popular education was given back to the Church to control and direct. In England, also, though for other reasons there, the Church retained its control over elementary education for half a century longer.

CHANGE IN THE SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOLS. The King of Prussia, Frederick William III (1797-1840), though he had given full adherence to the movement for general education during the dark period of Prussian history, was after all never fully in sympathy with the liberal aspect of the movement. After Austria, by the settlement at Vienna, became the leader of the German States, and Metternich the dominating political personality of Europe, the King came more and more to favor a restriction of liberties and the holding of education to certain rather limited lines, fearful that too much education of the people might prove harmful to the Government. Accordingly, under the influence of the King and against the desires of the liberal leaders, Prussia now changed direction and embarked on a policy of reaction which checked normal educational progress; led to the unsuccessful revolution of 1848 and the subsequent almost fanatical governmental opposition to reforms; and was in large part responsible for the disaster of 1918. It is an interesting speculation as to how different the future German and world history might have been had Prussia and the German States held to the liberal ideas of the earlier period, and drawn their political conceptions from England and the new American nation, rather than from Austria and Russia.

Accordingly, in November, 1817, the Department of Public Instruction was replaced by a Ministry for Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs, and Karl, Baron von Altenstein, was made Minister. He continued in office until his death, [23] in 1840, and his administration was marked by an increasing state centralization and limitation of the earlier plans. In 1819 he codified all previous practices into a general school law for the kingdom. While the King never really approved and issued it, it nevertheless became a basis for future work and is the law so enthusiastically described by Cousin, in 1830 (R. 280). Under his administration the earlier creative enthusiasm and the energy for the execution of great ideas disappeared, and the earlier "stimulating and encouraging attitude on the part of the authorities was now replaced by the timid policy of the drag and the brake." The earlier preparatory work in the development of Teachers' Seminaries and the establishment of elementary schools was allowed to continue; Pestalozzian ideas were for a time not seriously restricted; compulsory attendance was more definitely ordered enforced, in 1825; the abolition of tuition fees for _Volksschule_ education was begun in 1833, but not completed until 1888; and a more careful supervision of schools was instituted, in 1834. The great change was rather in the spirit and direction of the instruction. The early tendency to emphasize nationalism and religious instruction (p. 571) was now stressed, and the liberal aspects of Pestalozzianism were increasingly subordinated to the more formal instruction and to nationalistic ends. The soldier and the priest joined hands in diverting the schools to the creation of intelligent, devout, patriotic, and, above all else, obedient Germans, while the universal military idea, brought in by the successful work of Scharnhorst (p. 567), and retained after the War of Liberation as a survival of the old dynastic and predatory conception of the State, was more and more emphasized in the work of the schools and the life of the citizen. When Horace Mann reported on his visit to the schools of the German States, in 1843, he called attention to this element of weakness (R. 281), as well as to their many elements of strength.

FURTHER INTOLERANCE AND REACTION. The reactionary tendencies which set in after the settlement of Vienna had, by 1840, produced stagnation in the life of the Governments of Europe, and the revolutions of 1848, which broke out in France, Italy, Switzerland, and the different German and Austrian States, were revolts against the reactionary governmental rule and an expression of disappointment at the failure to secure constitutional government. The revolutions were both successful and unsuccessful--successful in that the greater liberty they sought came later on, but unsuccessful at the time. In consequence, immediately following 1848, an even more reactionary educational policy was instituted. University freedom was markedly restricted; the institutions lost their earlier vigor; and the number of students suffered a marked decline in consequence. The secondary schools also felt the new influences. Latin and Greek were made compulsory; uniform programs for work were insisted upon; and Latin in particular was reduced to a grammatical drill that destroyed the spirit of the earlier instruction and put gymnasial teaching back almost to the type made so popular by Sturm. The few _Realschulen_, which had continued to exist and were tolerated before, were now treated with positive dislike. In 1859 they were able to force their first official recognition, but only when changed from practical schools for the middle classes to secondary schools, on the same basis as the _Gymnasien_, and for parallel ends.

It was upon the elementary schools (_Volksschulen_) and the Teachers' Seminaries that the most severe official displeasure now fell. A number of _Volksschule_ teachers had been connected with the revolutions of 1848, and "over-education" was regarded as responsible. The Teachers' Seminary at Preslau, which had for long given a high grade of training, was closed, and the head of the Seminary at Berlin, Diesterweg, was dismissed because of his strong advocacy of Pestalozzian ideas. Anything savoring of individualism was especially under the ban. Bitter reproaches were heaped upon the elementary-school teachers, and the new King, Frederick William IV (1840-61) considered their work as the very root of the political evils of the State. To a conference of Seminary teachers, held in 1849 in Berlin, he said: [24]

You and you alone are to blame for all the misery which the last year
has brought upon Prussia! The irreligious pseudo-education of the
masses is to be blamed for it, which you have been spreading under the
name of true wisdom, and by which you have eradicated religious belief
and loyalty from the hearts of my subjects and alienated their
affections from my person. This sham education, strutting about like a
peacock, has always been odious to me. I hated it already from the
bottom of my soul before I came to the throne, and, since my
accession, I have done everything I could to suppress it. I mean to
proceed on this path, without taking heed of any one, and, indeed, no
power on earth shall divert me from it.

Thus easily did an autocratic Hohenzollern cast upon the shoulders of others the burden of his own failure to grasp the evolution in political thinking [25] which had taken place in Europe, since 1789. Unfortunately for the future of the German people he was able to force his will upon them.

PROGRESS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AS SHOWN
BY THE DECREASE IN ILLITERACY IN PRUSSIA,
BY PROVINCES
(From _Rep. U.S. Com. Educ._, 1890-1900, I, p. 781)

_Provinces_ 1841 1864-65 1881 1894-95

_Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent._
East Prussia \ / 7.05 .99
15.33 16.54
West Prussia / \ 8.79 1.23
Brandenburg 2.47 .96 .32 .06
Pomerania 1.23 1.47 .43 .12
Posen 41.00 16.90 9.97 .98
Silesia 9.22 3.78 2.33 .43
Saxony 1.19 .49 .28 .09
Westphalia 2.14 1.03 .60 .02
Rhenish Prussia 7.06 1.13 .23 .05
Hohenzollern .00 .00 .00 .00
===== ===== ===== =====
The State 9.30 5.52 2.38 .33

In 1854 new "Regulations" were issued which put the course of instruction for elementary schools back to the days of Frederick the Great. The one- class rural elementary school was made the standard. Everything beyond reading, writing, a little arithmetic, and religious instruction in strict accordance with the creeds of the Church, was considered as superfluous, and was to be allowed only by special permit. The elimination of illiteracy, the creation of obedient citizens, and the nationalizing of new elements became the aim of the schools.

The instruction in the Teachers' Seminaries was reduced to the merest necessities, and they were given clearly to understand that they were to train teachers, and not to prepare educated men. All theory of education, all didactics, all psychology were eliminated. A return was made to the subject-matter theory of education, and a limited subject-matter at that, and it once more became the business of the teacher to see that this was carefully learned. Religious instruction naturally once more came to hold a place of first importance. Similar reactionary movements took place in other German States, all being sensitive to the reactionary spirit of the time and the leadership of Austria and Prussia.

THE MODERN GERMAN EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE. After about 1860, largely in response to modern scientific and industrial forces among a people turning from agriculture toward industrialism, a slight relaxation of the reactionary legislation began to be evident. This expressed itself chiefly in a diminution of the time given to memoriter work in religion, and the introduction in its place of work in German history and geography, with some work in natural science. In the Teachers' Seminaries instruction in German literature, formerly rigidly excluded, was now added. It was not, however, until after the unification of Germany, following the Franco- Prussian War, and the creation of Imperial Germany under the directive guidance of Bismarck, that any real change took place. Then the changes were due to new political, religious, social, industrial, and economic forces which belong to the later period of German history.

In 1872 a new law gave to the Prussian elementary schools a new course of study; reasserted the authority of the State in education; extended the control of the public authorities; and made the State instead of the Church the authority even for their religious instruction. [26] The schools were now to be used as of old to build up and strengthen the nation, but particularly to support the new Prussian idea as to the work and function of the State. _Realien_ were given a new prominence, because of new industrial needs, and the instruction in religion was revamped. The old memoriter work was greatly reduced, and in its place an emotional and political emphasis was given to the religious instruction. To make the school of the people an instrument for fighting the growth of social democracy, and a support for the throne and government, instruction in religion was "placed in the center of the teacher's work," and teachers were given to understand that they were "members of an educational army and expected loyally to follow the flag." The secondary schools also were redirected. A new emphasis on scientific subjects and modern languages replaced the earlier emphasis on Greek. The Emperor interfered (R. 368) to force a revision of the gymnasial programs better to adapt them to modern needs. In particular were the universities of all the States unified and nationalized, and great technical universities created. Science, commerce, technical work, modern languages, and government were stressed in the instruction of the leaders.

Deciding clearly where the nation was to go and the route it was to follow, and that education for national ends was one of the important means to be employed, the different parts of the educational systems in the States--elementary schools, secondary schools, universities, normal schools, professional schools, technical schools, continuation schools-- were carefully integrated into a unified state system, thoroughly national in spirit, and given a definite function to perform in the work which the Nation set itself to carry through. Nowhere have teachers been so well trained to play their part in a national plan, and nowhere have teachers acquitted themselves more worthily, from the point of view of the Government. As Alexander [27] has well said:

During the nineteenth century the leaders of Germany decided that
Germany should assume leadership in the world in every line of
endeavor, particularly in commerce and world power. They set this as
the very definite goal of their national ambition. The next question
was how that aim could be accomplished. It was to be done through
education. Accordingly school systems were organized with this aim in
view. In a State such as the Germans proposed building there were
be leaders and followers. The followers were to be trained for a
docile, efficient German citizenship; that is, the lower classes were
to be made into God-fearing, patriotic, economically-independent
Germans. This was the task of the _Volksschule_, and it has been
wonderfully well accomplished. This type of German is created to do
the manual labor of the State.

The leaders were to be trained in middle and higher schools and in the
universities. There were to be different grades of leaders; leaders in
the lower walks of life, leaders in the middle walks of life, and
leaders of the nation. The higher schools and the universities were
employed to produce these types of leaders.... The leaders think and
do; the followers merely do. The schools were organized for the
express purpose of producing just these types.

So well was this system and plan working that, had the Imperial Government not been so impatient of that slower but surer progress by peaceful means, and staked all on a gambler's throw, in another half-century the German nation might have held the world largely in fee. As it is, the results which the Germans attained by reason of definite aims and definite methods are both an encouragement and a warning to other nations.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Point out the extent of the educational reorganization which resulted from the reform work begun at Halle.

2. How do you explain the very early German interest in compulsory school attendance, when such was unknown elsewhere in Europe?

3. Compare the Prussian Regulations of 1737 with what was common at that time in practice in the parishes of the American Colonies.

4. Show the wisdom of the early Prussian kings in working at school reform through the Church. Could they well have worked otherwise? Why?

5. How do you explain such a slow development of a professional teaching body in Prussia, when all the state influences had for so long been favorable to educational development?

6. Show that the Oberschulcollegium Board marked the beginnings of a State Ministry for Education for Prussia.

7. Show that the spirit of the Prussian leaders, after 1806, was a further expansion of the German national feeling which arose in the Period of Enlightenment.

8. Show that the reorganization of elementary education, and the creation of the University of Berlin, were almost equally important events for the future of German lands.

9. Show that the work of Prussia, in using the schools for national ends, was: (a) in keeping with the work of the French Revolutionary leaders, and (b) only a further extension of the organizing work done by Frederick the Great.

10. Show how the universities of Germany early took the lead of the universities of the world, and the influence of this fact on national progress.

11. Enumerate the new nineteenth-century tendencies observable in the early educational organization in Prussia.

12. Explain the marked mid-nineteenth-century reaction to educational development which set in.

13. Explain the early and marked welcome accorded science-study in German lands.

14. Explain in what ways Prussia attained an educational leadership, ahead of other nations.

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying _Book of Readings_ the following selections, illustrative of the contents of this chapter, are reproduced:

273. Barnard: The Organizing Work of Frederick William I.
274. Prussia: The School Code of 1763.
275. Prussia: The Silesian School Code of 1765.
276. Austria: The School Code of 1774.
277. Fichte: Addresses to the German Nation.
278. Mann: The Prussian Elementary Teacher and his Training.
279. Dinter: Prussian Schools and Teachers as he found them.
280. Cousin: Report on Education in Prussia.
281. Mann: The Military Aspect of Prussian Education.,

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. Explain the interest of Frederick William I (273) in elementary education.

2. Characterize, from the Codes of 1763 (274) and 1765 (275), and cite paragraph to show: (a) The type of instruction ordered provided; (b) the type of teacher expected; (c) the character of the attendance required; and (d) the character of the continuation training ordered.

3. Show the similarity in their main lines of the Prussian (274) and Austrian (276) Codes.

4. Would the reasoning of Fichte (277) apply to any crushed nation? Illustrate.

5. Do we select teachers for training as carefully in the United States today as they did in Prussia eighty years ago (278)? Could we?

6. Did such conditions as Dinter describes (279) exist, even later, with us?

7. Was the Prussian school system, as described by Cousin (280), a centralized or a decentralized system?

8. Show that Mann's reasoning as to the strength of the Prussian school system (281) was thoroughly sound.

SELECTED REFERENCES

* Alexander, Thomas. _The Prussian Elementary Schools_.
* Barnard, Henry. "Public Instruction in Prussia"; in _American Journal
of Education_, vol. XX, pp. 333-434.
Barnard, Henry. _German Teachers and Educators_.
* Cassell, Henry. "Adolph Diesterweg"; in _Educational Review_, vol.
I, pp. 345-56. (April, 1891.)
Friedel, V. H. _The German School as a War Nursery_.
Lexis, W. _A General View of the History and Organization of Public
Education in the German Empire_.
* Nohle, E. "History of the German School System"; in _Report U.S.
Commissioner of Education_, 1897-98, vol. I, pp. 3-82. Translated
from Rein's _Encyclopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik_.
* Paulsen, Fr. _German Education, Past and Present_.
* Paulsen, Fr. _The German Universities_.
* Russell, James. _German Higher Schools_.
Seeley, J. R. _Life and Times of Stein_, vol. I.