University questions in general-Dr. Theobald Ziegler,
Hochschulfragen im allgemeinen.
Von
Dr. Theobald Ziegler,
Professor an der Universität Strassburg.
The universities emerged in the Middle Ages. The Studium generale in Paris was the model also for the oldest German universities. They were under both worldly and spiritual sovereignty, but were independently governing bodies with their own jurisdiction and self-elected rectors. The name universitas magistrorum et scolarium describes the corporation as the entirety of the lecturers and students, while it was only later that the universitas literarum became the summary of the entire academic teaching system. The science that was pursued and passed on in the medieval universities was scholasticism, which in its heyday had nothing ossified and pedantic, nothing dead and sterile, but full of rich, eventful life, full of witty teachers and funny scholars, full of written and oral production, full of fresh, happy fights. Only one, of courseit was not free science; the sword of Damocles of the ecclesiastical ban, excommunication, hovered over her; what she had to teach and prove to be true, that was established in advance as ecclesiastical dogma. Not least through this internal contradiction scholastic science was in the late 15th century old and become stale, and universities than their bodies needed as herself a thorough reform.
This came through humanism. A purely humanistic university was not founded anywhere, and in Vienna the Collegium poetarum et mathematicorum was unable to assert itself as an independent institution in relation to the university. Not only the numerous newly established universities, but also the old universities took up the humanistic spirit in addition to scholastic science and added new humanistic-philological chairs to the existing philosophical and theological chairs. This innovation was confirmed and reinforced by the Reformation,which made knowledge of the three languages (Latin, Greek and Hebrew) a condition for theologians. But Catholicism also took part in the humanist movement and sought to make it serviceable to the old church through the Jesuit order; so most of the Catholic universities gradually fell into the hands of the Jesuits and became religious schools with the privileges of universities. Due to the ecclesiastical opposition, the Protestant universities also became strictly denominational, Protestant theology, too, became or remained scholastic, and the libertas philosophandi was absolutely absent, as Spinoza’s concerns about his appointment to Heidelberg show, even for them and the freest among them.
But the Thirty Years’ War slowly brought the realization that the denominational disputes and contradictions were a misfortune for our people, and from the Netherlands, England and France a freer breeze blew over anyway, which soon also benefited the German universities. In Prussia, where the principle of “cuius regio eius religio” was first broken, the Great Elector thought of opening an asylum in a Brandenburg city for scholars from all over the world who had been banished from their fatherland through persecution or other tyranny could live unmolested in their scientific work. But this utopian idea was realized in the more unpretentious form of the old universities by his successor Friedrich III. at the University of Halle, which was newly founded in 1694. Here, too, the old intolerant practice quickly revived, as shown by the intrigues of the Pietists against the philosopher Chr. Wolff and his brutal expulsion from Prussia by Friedrich Wilhelm I. And so it was only after the founding of Göttingen in 1737 that Hanover gained fame to have founded a university based on the principle of free research; and Erlangen, founded by the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1743, followed suit. Of the to have set up a university based on the principle of free research; and Erlangen, founded by the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1743, followed suit. Of the to have set up a university based on the principle of free research; and Erlangen, founded by the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth in 1743, followed suit. Of theRationalism, which ascended Prussia’s royal throne under Frederick the Great, continued to seal this achievement and generally ensured the liberation of secular science from theological and denominational shackles in Germany as well.
The first two completely modern universities did not come into being until the 19th century, in Berlin in 1810 and in Breslau in 1811. The spirit of Schleiermacher and Wilhelm v. Humboldt, the spirit of neo-humanism and our idealistic philosophy following Kantfrom the beginning in the happiest and most effective way. But even before that, it was the spirit of the Enlightenment, “the Berlin freedom to think and write,” which the former received as a good inheritance. The principle: “Science and its teaching is free” was, of course, only included in the fundamental rights of the Frankfurt Parliament, but only codified what had gradually become established since the days of the Enlightenment. From now on it was actually the Magna Charta of the German universities. However, in contrast to the previous universities with one-sided denominational orientation in all faculties, Breslau was the first non-denominational simultaneousInstitution with two separate theological faculties. The fact that, for reasons of a practical nature, a double occupation with a Catholic and a Protestant each was ordered in the Philosophical Faculty was of course a nasty cuckoo, which was still in the 20th century in the Spahn case and in the secret contract with the Curia at the University of Strasbourg as a precedent. By enforcing the general freedom of movement of German students, W. von Humboldt created a common type of German universities beyond the borders of Prussia which , despite all the diversity and individual structure of the individual, was on the whole a general German national one .
In addition, after the wars of liberation, in which professors and students took a glorious part in word and deed, they became the most decisive champions of the German idea of unity and freedom and thus the caretakers and carriers of national consciousness in Germany, which was in Frankfurt in 1848 Parliament, which was a right-wing professors’ parliament, has made another strong appearance. That the people stood behind their professors, they had acquired this beautiful trust through the brave deed of the Göttingen Seven, who protested against the repeal of the Hanoverian constitution and preferred to be deposed rather than forced to pay homage, because they did not know how to play lightly with oaths wanted to.
In the new empire the universities and their professors have ceased to be the political leaders. But the headline above the college building of the University of Strasbourg, which was rebuilt in 1872: literis et patriae, shows that the close connection between the university and national ideas and tasks still exists and not least of the great realist Bismarck in his importance and advertising power has been recognized.
At the end of the 19th century something new came up again, a fresh branch in the old trunk of the German universities. At the centenary of the Charlottenburg Technical University in 1899, this and all of the technical universities in Prussia were granted the right to award doctorates as a doctoral engineer and thus the equality of these modern institutions with the older universities was publicly declared; Here, too, the other German states immediately followed Prussia’s approach. Some, of course, saw something like a reduction in the reputation of the universities: certainly not rightly. It was just a sign of our realistic and increasingly technical times and a recognition of the importance and value of technology for our culture. The establishment of special educational institutions for them was not much older than 100 years. Paris started again with the école polytechnique at the end of the 18th century and provided the pattern. But first the Swiss Polytechnic in Zurich was raised to the level of a university in the middle of the 19th century, which the Germans quickly joined; And so that award of university character in 1899 was only the external seal on the inner, rapid and steady development of these institutions themselves. Growing into the free spirit of the older sisters is from now on their business, and is a task that is not so easily goes without saying. Of course, the idea has also emerged and ventilated, especially recently in the university plans for Dresden, whether it was not possible and advisable to unite both high schools, the polytechnic and the university, into a single institution, for example by adding a technical faculty to the natural science faculty of the old universities. This has been implemented on a very small scale in Göttingen. But not only the practice, but also the theory tended to march both on separately as before and to let the mutual competition act as a spur to restless striving forwards. If they let us show them the way to freedom, our students might learn from them the orderly diligence. This has been implemented on a very small scale in Göttingen. But not only the practice, but also the theory tended to march both on separately as before and to let the mutual competition act as a spur to restless striving forwards. If they let us show them the way to freedom, our students might learn from them the orderly diligence. This has been implemented on a very small scale in Göttingen. But not only the practice, but also the theory tended to march both on separately as before and to let the mutual competition act as a spur to restless striving forwards. If they let us show them the way to freedom, our students might learn from them the orderly diligence.
However, the question of the relationship between theory and practice in teaching at our universities can generally only be answered once we have become clear about their purpose and have agreed. Our university professors are researchers and teachers at the same time, one more this, the other more that; if you were only one of the two, you would not be in the right place at the university. This also results in a twofold purpose: on the one hand, the universities, as research institutes, should promote science, on the other hand, they should teach young people scientifically. How the modern research institutes in their special position behave towards the universities and how they develop further, whether they wither away from them or vice versa, demolish them and push them down to the second level, these are questions of the future that cannot yet be overlooked and decided today. In Leipzig one is sticking to the connection between the research institutes and the university and is certainly doing the right thing. But as far as the task of teaching science is concerned, it is of course also possible here for the university to serve science and research at the same time by attracting young people to science and to become teachers of science. But that is not their actual and regular task. Science is not there for science, but for man’s sake and for life’s sake. The young people should be trained not in science, but in a profession – as a clergyman or judge, as a doctor or teacher. not to science, but in our German view also not without science, through drill and routine. And so the purpose is: Education through science to a profession.Here, of course, there is a twofold difficulty: an imaginary and a real one. The one when science thinks it is too noble to take practice into account. Yet medicine and natural sciences, jurisprudence and theology have long since cast off this prejudice; only from among the ranks of the philosophical faculty can one occasionally hear the following phrase: “We do not know any candidates for school examinations among our audience, we only know students of philology.” That is wrong and only wrong; but it is also unwise to attune to this high-handed tone and thereby snub and challenge public opinion; the “vitae, non scholae” also applies to universities. Even in the cinderella position of education at most German universities, that prejudice and this aversion of the philosophical faculties to concessions to practice can still be seen. Conversely, of course, many and not the worst of the professors of classical and modern philology, historians, and geographers have long since taken full account of what future teachers will need for teaching and schooling; your participation in the scientific examination committees already indicates this. And so the right relationship between theory and practice is breaking more and more in the philosophical faculty. Here, too, it means: education through theoretical science for the practice of the profession and for work in the profession. Historians and geographers have long given full consideration to what future teachers will need for teaching and school; your participation in the scientific examination committees already indicates this. And so the right relationship between theory and practice is breaking more and more in the philosophical faculty. Here, too, it means: education through theoretical science for the practice of the profession and for work in the profession. Historians and geographers have long given full consideration to what future teachers will need for teaching and school; your participation in the scientific examination committees already indicates this. And so the right relationship between theory and practice is breaking more and more in the philosophical faculty. Here, too, it means: education through theoretical science for the practice of the profession and for work in the profession.
If in this case it is a matter of a mere prejudice that needs to be dismissed and destroyed and which is actually in the process of disappearing, the real danger for the universities from practice lies in a completely different place. Science and its teaching are free. On the other hand, however, the state and, for the theological faculties, especially the churches, have an interest in ensuring that future state and church officials are really trained for the state or for the church, that is, in their sense and in their interests. This jeopardizes the freedom to teach, primarily of the theological lecturers, and conflicts arise from which free science does not always emerge victorious. This applies to the highest degree to the Catholic theological faculty. In the dispute over the Spahn case, it was countered for the first time that it was a “foreign body” in the midst of the universities, which are set on free and unqualified research. On the other hand, the Catholic side pointed out that no science is entirely without preconditions. This, of course, is a dispute over the expression. We all approach our specialist work with certain prerequisites taken from scientific tradition; But the rest of us are absolutely free in these prerequisites, absolutely not bound to any of them and, above all, not obliged to any from outside; rather, we recognize it as our right and our duty to drop any such requirement at the moment when well-founded doubts arise against them. The lack of preconditions is therefore not a fact but all the more an “idea” in the Kantian sense of the word, that is, a task, a duty and a right. This right is withdrawn from the Catholic theologian, he is not allowed to recognize and fulfill this duty; therefore he is not an unconditional researcher, not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar a task, a duty and a right. This right is withdrawn from the Catholic theologian, he is not allowed to recognize and fulfill this duty; therefore he is not an unconditional researcher, not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar a task, a duty and a right. This right is withdrawn from the Catholic theologian, he is not allowed to recognize and fulfill this duty; therefore he is not an unconditional researcher, not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar This right is withdrawn from the Catholic theologian, he is not allowed to recognize and fulfill this duty; therefore he is not an unconditional researcher, not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar This right is withdrawn from the Catholic theologian, he is not allowed to recognize and fulfill this duty; therefore he is not an unconditional researcher, not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar not a free scientific worker. It has always been like that; the anti-modernist oath prescribed by the motu proprio of September 1, 1910 only made it terrifyingly clear how unfree the Catholic theologian actually is in his “teaching, speaking and writing”. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar Talking and writing “actually is. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar Talking and writing “actually is. Now, of course, the professors at the state universities are still exempt from this oath for the time being. But only because “in their previous teaching activity they have always represented the principles summarized in the formula of the oath”, and only with the “intention of the peculiar To do justice to the situation and constitutional position of the faculties and to take away any cause for church political agitation from those who are enemies of the Church ”. But since all future priests to be ordained have to take the oath, despite this dispensation, sooner or later all members of the Catholic theological faculties will swear the anti-modernist oath and have committed themselves to “accept everything and everything that comes from the infallible magisterium the Church has been defined, asserted and explained, especially those doctrinal points that are directly opposed to the errors of our time. ”Thus, through this unfortunate oath, a rift has opened up through our faculty of lecturers or is expanded by them and is present in the eyes of all the world been led, a crack, in view of this, the continued existence of the Catholic theological faculties is seriously questioned. And so it was only consistent when Tübingen professors applied at the fourth German University Teachers’ Conference that Catholic scholars burdened with the oath were to be excluded from the chairs of German universities, and when it was declared that those members of academic teaching staff who had taken the anti-modernist oath , have no business at a German university, “because they forego independent knowledge of the truth and exercise their scientific convictions and thus forfeited a claim to the honorary position of an independent researcher”. But on the other hand, the establishment of a Catholic theological faculty in Strasbourg under the resistance of the Alsatian clergy has shown that the Catholic faculties have a national significance and that it is in the interests of our national unity and our unified German education and culture that The future Catholic priests remain in touch and in touch with their secular fellow students during their studies and they are given the opportunity to look beyond their denominational-church blinkers and into the areas of free German research and free German science. Of the hopes that were tied to that foundation, of course, by far not all have been fulfilled, Not even the lectures of bona fide historians and philosophers were attended by the students of the Strasbourg seminary; and in 1912 the Baden Minister of Education also stated of Freiburg that “the interrelationships between teachers and students in the Catholic theological faculty on the one hand and the other faculties on the other are unfortunately no longer as lively as they used to be”. But even the little that is achieved here is already a lot, and so we can well understand that the governments, at least for the time being, do not want to know about a radical extirpation of this foreign body from the life of our universities. There are two opposing interests here that have not yet found a balance, or perhaps cannot find a balance at all. that “the interrelationships between teachers and students in the Catholic theological faculty on the one hand and the other faculties on the other are unfortunately no longer as lively as they used to be”. But even the little that is achieved here is already a lot, and so we can well understand that the governments, at least for the time being, do not want to know anything about a radical extirpation of this foreign body from the life of our universities. There are two opposing interests here that have not yet found a balance, or perhaps cannot find a balance at all. that “the interrelationships between teachers and students in the Catholic theological faculty on the one hand and the other faculties on the other are unfortunately no longer as lively as they used to be”. But even the little that is achieved here is already a lot, and so we can well understand that the governments, at least for the time being, do not want to know anything about a radical extirpation of this foreign body from the life of our universities. There are two opposing interests here that have not yet found a balance, or perhaps cannot find a balance at all. and so we can well understand that the governments, at least for the time being, do not want to know anything about a radical extirpation of this foreign body from the life of our universities. There are two opposing interests here that have not yet found a balance, or perhaps cannot find a balance at all. and so we can well understand that the governments, at least for the time being, do not want to know anything about a radical extirpation of this foreign body from the life of our universities. There are two opposing interests here that have not yet found a balance, or perhaps cannot find a balance at all.
And all the less to be able to find, since such a clean separation and solution has not been undertaken in other areas either. Far removed from the Catholic faculties, the lecturers in the Protestant theological faculties are not entirely “unconditional” and free. Occasional cases of conflict show this, in which a solution is usually achieved by placing an orthodox representative of dogmatics or the New Testament as a so-called penal professor at the side of the liberal. The real conflict here lies beyond the university, lies in the fact that clergymen are reprimanded for views that they have heard and accepted as students from their theology professors.
Events in the field of economics over the last few decades have finally shown that science can also come into conflict with the state. Here, too, as in the case of Protestant theologians, one occasionally helps one another by appointing “penal professors”. Because there is no solution in principle here either: instead of the principle, power decides as the ultima ratio, and this is on the side of the state, partly also the church, not on the side of science. In general, however, the state and also the Protestant church can and must be satisfied with pushing two things into the conscience of the researcher: 1. that he says everything he has to say in such a way that it can be pedagogically justified; and 2. if he is against the state that hired him or against the church, to proceed himself feels prompted and internally obliged that he then retires from the service of this state or this church and no longer says as its employee and mandate, but as a freelance writer, what he has to say in this sense for his right and considers his duty. So these conflicts are fundamentally different from those between science and the Catholic Church. Here they come in from within, not from without, from an alien power ultra montes; there the conscience and the good will of those involved help, here even the best will and the appeal to conscience do not help; that is why the problem here is so fundamental and so desperate.
The traditional way of academic teaching is that of lectures – in the past real reading of a textbook or a self-made manuscript, more recently, and also expected by the students, in the form of free lecture. All sorts of objections have been raised against the custom of lectures: it is a waste of time, because what is presented here orally, bypassing the advantages of the art of printing, can be read more quickly and better in print; and on the part of the students, rewriting is thoughtless and a mechanism without much profit or value. Both are wrong. The former, because the living speech is something else and has a completely different effect than the dead letter of the print. Behind it stands a personality, who stands up for what is said and therefore encourages people to go along or to contradict in a completely different way; And even the unfinished and seeking of such oral lectures, which are not usually rehearsed in front of the mirror, allows the listeners to take part in the thought-work itself with full interest. For them, however, the art of finding the essentials from what has been presented is an excellent educational tool that is not devalued by the many examples of thoughtlessness when writing down. But lectures have never been the only form. In the Middle Ages, disputations were added, which boosted quick-wittedness and eloquence, admittedly also righteousness and belligerence. Today they are completely or almost completely out of date and abandoned, perhaps unduly. Then came the declamations in the humanist era, speech exercises that were supposed to serve the educational ideal of that time, the gift of the Latin eloquentia. This exercise, too, is abandoned today, and rightly so; Even at the time of their existence, the speeches were usually prepared for them by the professors instead of the students themselves, and so failed to achieve their goal. Instead, today in the humanities, the students involved in research in the seminars themselves; the seminar paper is the preliminary stage of the doctoral thesis as the young man’s first independent academic achievement at the end of his studies. Philological seminars have existed for a long time; that such seminars and seminar exercises are now set up for all subjects, this first became a custom at the newly founded Strasbourg University and then quickly became commonplace everywhere. On the scientific and medical side, however, everything pushed towards such independent research work and collaboration; In laboratories and when experimenting, in clinics and polyclinics, in hospitals and operating theaters, the main emphasis today is not only on seeing things for oneself, but also on the participation of our budding naturalists and doctors. One can say, for example: in the first semesters, receptive behavior predominates in the lectures, in the later semesters, on the other hand, self-activity comes more and more to the fore. On the scientific and medical side, however, everything pushed towards such independent research work and collaboration; In laboratories and when experimenting, in clinics and polyclinics, in hospitals and operating theaters, the main emphasis today is not only on seeing things for oneself, but also on the participation of our budding naturalists and doctors. One can say, for example: in the first semesters, receptive behavior predominates in the lectures, in the later semesters, on the other hand, self-activity comes more and more to the fore. On the scientific and medical side, however, everything pushed towards such independent research work and collaboration; In laboratories and when experimenting, in clinics and polyclinics, in hospitals and operating theaters, the main emphasis today is not only on seeing things for oneself, but also on the participation of our budding naturalists and doctors. One can say, for example: in the first semesters, receptive behavior predominates in the lectures, in the later semesters, on the other hand, self-activity comes more and more to the fore. but also on the own participation of our budding naturalists and doctors. One can say, for example: in the first semesters, receptive behavior predominates in the lectures, in the later semesters, on the other hand, self-activity comes more and more to the fore. but also on the own participation of our budding naturalists and doctors. One can say, for example: in the first semesters, receptive behavior predominates in the lectures, in the later semesters, on the other hand, self-activity comes more and more to the fore.
This not only results in new problems of what is called university pedagogy, without it being understood as a special discipline; University teaching is far too individual for that: there are also problems with the external organization of teaching. Georg Kaufmann has found a danger in the excessive expansion of the mass universities of Berlin, Munich and Leipzig, which is denoted by the words “world university” and “provincial university”. In the sense that he means it – “the friend of the universities is worried that a tool of the old divide et impera principle will grow out of it” – I cannot admit that, but because with these high numbers of students it is precisely the cooperation and The self-employment of young people is again questioned and made illusory. In During the lecture, of course, the crowd has a stimulating and cheering effect on the lecturer. If, however, in a seminar 100 and more you just listen instead of participating yourself, in the clinic, at the bedside or at the operating table 200 and more hardly see what is happening, in laboratories people can no longer find a place for semesters, then comes the Too little participation and cooperation for individuals, the professor does not get to know him and cannot respond to his needs and questions; and so what we see and praise as the noun of these seminaristic and practical courses is largely lost again. The quality of academic teaching suffers from overcrowding in universities. There is, of course, a means of counteracting and remedying this evil – the establishment of new universities, Increasing the number of positions, distributing the listeners and participants in the exercises and practical courses, with the introduction of a numerus clausus for the individual lecturer, to a larger number of teachers. But for once it all costs a lot of money and therefore runs into difficulties with the state and its finances; and on the other hand, the student cannot be easily pushed away from a professor who may be particularly popular and to a less popular and praised one. And the lecturers will also be reluctant to take them away. A limit on the number of But for once it all costs a lot of money and therefore runs into difficulties with the state and its finances; and on the other hand, the student cannot be easily pushed away from a professor who may be particularly popular and to a less popular and praised one. And the lecturers will also be reluctant to take them away. A limit on the number of But for once it all costs a lot of money and therefore runs into difficulties with the state and its finances; and on the other hand, the student cannot be easily pushed away from a professor who may be particularly popular and to a less popular and praised one. And the lecturers will also be reluctant to take them away. A limit on the number ofForeigners or even their exclusion from our German universities would be just a drop in the bucket, and moreover a loss of national reputation to the outside world and the abandonment of a means to get to know each other and understand the peoples back and forth. It is only of course that foreigners must not be given preference over domestic residents, and they have just as little right to transplant bad customs from their homeland to our universities.
The question of the autonomy and corporation character of our universities is then of particular importance. The faculties are sovereign in granting or denying venia legendi, or at least they should be. Abuses, which can also arise in the process, are not exactly frequent, but restrictions are always spiteful and embittering; the lex Arons in Prussia was not a lucky choice. When filling professorships – full and extraordinary – the faculties have at least one right of nomination, which the government does not have to respect, but actually does respect as a rule. In many years of practice I have found that this right is generally exercised very conscientiously and objectively by the faculties. Nevertheless, the possibility of mistakes and emotional proposals in favor of a certain direction or party or to keep an uncomfortable competitor away cannot be denied; such cases occur because the faculty members are human too. It is therefore a good thing that the decision on the proposals is left to the government and that it does not have to stick to the three or four on the list. But it is just as good that it usually does so, since the faculty probably knows best the needs of its own university and the qualifications of those eligible for the position. The recently requested statement in Bavaria about un-proposed country children is serious damage to those rejected in this way, to whom a flaw would be expressly attached. So in a certain sense the corporation complements itself. But who belongs to the corporation? Merchant says: Self-governing corporations must be aristocratic. Certainly. But who belongs to this aristocracy? In the Middle Ages everyone, lecturers and students; together they chose their head, the rector. Gradually the circle narrowed, in many cases except for the small number of ordinaries. In contrast, efforts have recently been made among the excluded extraordinarians and private lecturers, which want them to participate in self-administration. For this they can refer to history on the one hand and to their cooperation on the other hand and to the fact that the universities are often dependent on this; and the bigger they are, the more. The only value and happiness of our private lectureship lies in the fact that the private lecturers are not candidates for civil servants, but rather, completely free teachers and researchers, who apart from the venia legendi have no other rights, but therefore also no duties and no dependency, except for science and the listeners, who know how to gather around themselves through their own personality. You this To take the character of the very private would mean more and more to the university, and even more than it has already done, to give it the character of an official and thereby also endanger the freedom of teaching. Therefore, above all, one will have to differentiate. Merchant has divided the associate professors – because only these can be involved – into five groups; It will suffice to distinguish between two classes: those who are representatives of necessary subjects and, as such, perhaps also heads of institutes, without whose cooperation the university teaching revealed a gap; and secondly, those who, having risen from the private lecturer, still have essentially the character of such and only bear the name – the title and rank – of a professor. It is entirely justified and a good thing for the former to demand and receive their full share in the administration of the university and faculty; in the case of the latter, on the other hand, there is no reason for this and no legal claim: in my opinion, they shouldn’t even strive for it, but rather enjoy their golden freedom. On the other hand, it is reasonable that all extraordinaries in the plenary also elect the rector and possibly also the representative of the university in the first chamber. The private lecturers, of whom the younger ones do not yet know the needs of a university, especially in terms of its administrative side, are also better excluded from this; they should not seek any further rights at all; for for this they would also have to have duties imposed on them and their freedom thereby be restricted. from whom the younger ones do not yet know the needs of a university, especially in terms of its administrative side, and therefore cannot judge who is the right man to represent them to the outside world, better excluded; they should not seek any further rights at all; for for this they would also have to have duties imposed on them and their freedom thereby be restricted. from whom the younger ones do not yet know the needs of a university, especially in terms of its administrative side, and therefore cannot judge who is the right man to represent them to the outside world, better excluded; they should not seek any further rights at all; for for this they would also have to have duties imposed on them and their freedom thereby be restricted.
Behind all these questions, however, there is ultimately only one major problem facing our universities at the moment: the relationship between these self-governing bodies and the state. We have come across it again and again so far. Science needs money, our universities are becoming more and more expensive. It is Althoff’s great merit to have provided them with ample means and thereby brought them to bloom and shine. For this they had to accept an increasing dependence on the state and its representatives, and their professors had to become more and more civil servants. And so the two competitors and the two competing views soon meet again on the question of salary. At first there is something abnormal that the professors are to a certain extent paid twice for their services, once by the state in the form of salary and then by the students in the form of college fees. The reasons put forward against the latter, that this leads to a great inequality in the income and the standard of living of the professors and that the professor comes into a lopsided position towards the student, I cannot accept. If inequality – what harm is it? and she does come anyway; just think of the medical practice of great clinicians and the legal opinions of outstanding lawyers. But I never encountered anything or even came to my consciousness about a lopsided position or even a certain dependence on the students. Just as little can I admit the main reason of the other side that the professor is determined solely or at least mainly by the college fee to be diligent and conscientious in giving his lectures and to make the right effort for them: as if our officials were not without it such special income also conscientiously fulfilled their professional duties. However, the example of the civil servant shows that through the college fee the independence of the professor from the benevolence or ill will of a government, as required by the corporation character of the universities and particularly necessary in the interests of the professor’s freedom of teaching and speech, is indeed best is preserved. But since titles and orders are just as flourishing in our universities as they are in our civil service and dependency can also be marked by awarding or withholding such trivialities, this reason is only decisive for those who are also prepared to renounce titles and orders is. Only then are the reasons for and against the college fee balanced; The way things are today, I would, for the sake of the evil appearance that clings to it, firmly take the side of the opponents of this institution. That with the means of information that Prussen found to collect part of this private income for university purposes, that who is also willing to renounce titles and medals. Only then are the reasons for and against the college fee balanced; The way things are today, I would, for the sake of the evil appearance that clings to it, firmly take the side of the opponents of this institution. That with the means of information that Prussen found to collect part of this private income for university purposes, that who is also willing to renounce titles and medals. Only then are the reasons for and against the college fee balanced; The way things are today, I would, for the sake of the evil appearance that clings to it, firmly take the side of the opponents of this institution. That with the means of information that Prussen found to collect part of this private income for university purposes, that I cannot accept the word of the solution to this controversial question; only that seems to me to emerge from the fact that the days of college money are numbered and the institution is in the process of withering away, as it has really already been eliminated in Austria. With which, of course, the professor will then assume the character of an official even more than before. And so the question of the freedom of teaching and its maintenance will emerge even more clearly and again and again as the real core, as in the whole problem of the relationship between university and state, which should ultimately be just as important to the state as to science and their representatives themselves. For where an unfree science leads and how it degrades, corrupts and ruins, The anti-modernist oath already shows this as a sufficiently daunting example. And it also shows that there is nothing with the only advantage of bondage, with greater convenience for governments.
In addition to the college fees, there are also the doctor and doctoral fees; the word “doctor factory” does not cast a particularly positive light on such scientific activity. But the value of the doctoral thesis itself is problematic if the professor does not think of the student but of his own scientific needs when setting the topic and expects him to do scientific hard work to satisfy them. And in itself the value of most dissertations is not too great. For this reason it has recently been suggested that they should be left unprinted and content with compiling short reports from them and about them. But if you have lived through the times when this was common at many universities,
The representative of the state at the universities is the curator, while the Chancellor in Tübingen is more likely to be seen as a representative of the university to the government. One can argue about whether such special representation is necessary at all; Baden can be done without curators, and Heidelberg and Freiburg are no less flourishing for that reason. The conference of university teachers in September 1849 answered the question in the negative and agreed to Böckh, who explicitly stated: “The corporate independence of the university can never exist with a curator.” Today almost everywhere in Germany one has become so used to this facility that one hardly pays any attention to the danger with which it threatens that independence. And thankfully you have also got used to the very few great and important curators,
But not only the corporation and its position in the state, the student body of our day also has its problems. Her story too; and it would not be uninteresting to see how modern studentism has gradually grown out of great dullness and desolation and brutality and has become what it is today in its peculiarity. It has to do with the transformation of the character of our universities themselves, but also with external political and cultural conditions of all kinds: there are new students living at the new universities. But the great change was only brought about by the participation of the German student in the great patriotic act of the Wars of Liberation. As a result, Ernst came to the German academic youth, as it did at that time; and he stayed even after the war. The founding of the German fraternity, with its tendency to prepare the unity and freedom of the fatherland, is the great deed of German students and their justified pride for all time. That through the overzealousness and fanaticism of individual strikers and pushers Metternich and the reaction the handle was given to make these absolutely right and noble endeavors the subject of violent persecutions and vile torments, and that this soon a ripe for that beautiful May blossom of the German Student life is forever to be regretted and is one of the many tragedies in our German history. Even without this, the fraternity would hardly have succeeded in bringing the entire student body together into one large unit; and maybe it was It is a gain that the motley diversity of many corporations has taken and remained in place of a single, large and slightly uniform league.
For the student, too, the alpha and the omega is academic freedom – in its three meanings: as the professor’s freedom to teach so that the student can come into the right relationship of trust with him; as freedom to learn for himself so that he can choose independently at work and learn to do compulsory work voluntarily; and as freedom of life, that in these years of student independence and ruthlessness he prepares himself for the voluntary and yet not slavish submission to custom, as far as it is reasonable and as far as it is moral. With all this, of course, “young men must be dared to become men.” But at all risk: the deep moral value and all the charm of our German student life rests on this freedom.
For a long time, the bearers of this life to the outside world were almost exclusively the color-bearing compounds. Recently they have been opposed to another form, the free student body. It represents the present thoughts: the necessity of acquiring a general, also artistic education, social spirit and social achievements, maintenance of the sport, the democratic element and the general one. Right to vote on student soil too. In this way they stand in marked contrast to the romanticism of those who wore colors of yesterday as the representatives of today’s realism. For the foreseeable future, however, these two elements, the romantic and the modern, will assert themselves side by side at our German universities and will have to get along with each other. Difficulty is only made by the question who should belong to the free student body. All of them, as this claims itself and feels to represent all non-incorporated students, or only those who expressly want to be represented by it? For the time being, the academic authorities recognize only the latter, and it will be up to the free student body to be so attractive and promotional by what it offers and what it does that most of the non-incorporated will join it, and you as theirs Consider representative; otherwise there is a risk that it will again become just a corporation alongside and among the others. Of course, there will always be recluses and lonely people among the students. which expressly want to be represented by her? For the time being, the academic authorities recognize only the latter, and it will be up to the free student body to be so attractive and promotional by what it offers and what it does that most of the non-incorporated will join it, and you as theirs Consider representative; otherwise there is a risk that it will again become just a corporation alongside and among the others. Of course, there will always be recluses and lonely people among the students. which expressly want to be represented by her? For the time being, the academic authorities recognize only the latter, and it will be up to the free student body to be so attractive and promotional by what it offers and what it does that most of the non-incorporated will join it, and you as theirs Consider representative; otherwise there is a risk that it will again become just a corporation alongside and among the others. Of course, there will always be recluses and lonely people among the students. that most of the non-incorporated join her and consider her their representative; otherwise there is a risk that it will again become just a corporation alongside and among the others. Of course, there will always be recluses and lonely people among the students. that most of the non-incorporated join her and consider her their representative; otherwise there is a risk that it will again become just a corporation alongside and among the others. Of course, there will always be recluses and lonely people among the students.
The student corporations are formed according to the most varied of points of view – to cultivate the national idea or the student spirit or for cheerful sociability; there are gymnastics clubs and choral clubs; Scientific associations are also among them. Even in the latter there is a certain one-sidedness, so-called shop talk becomes almost a necessity and an obligation. However, the denominational associations, which as Catholic student associations at our universities are becoming more and more numerous and more and more focused, are completely evil. Kaufmann judges from them: They “deprive a considerable part of the students of the Catholic denomination from close contact with their Protestant fellow students, which is all the more regrettable since the training of the theological Konvikt already deprives the Catholic theologians of free communication with the other students; this development is promoted by the duel compulsion of most corporations, but on the whole it is a sign of the turning away from the spirit of the communion of denominations in our day. “But they are, I add, also a national danger because they are denominational for us The divided fatherland make the necessary modus vivendi of the denominations difficult among one another and thwart their coexistence and feeling of being together already in their youth and from youth on. One can only wish, therefore, that they disappear again; only of course they shouldn’t be forbidden; that would only make them martyrs and strengthen them rather than drain them. And the resistance of the anti-clerical student body itself did not lead to the desired goal: the Catholic corporations continue to flourish and are more numerous than ever. However, this segregation of students, promoted by bishops, party men and theological faculties, diminishes in a denominational sense the national value assigned to the theological faculties, and thus in the long run undermines the very basis of their existence within the framework of our universities. And the resistance of the anti-clerical student body itself did not lead to the desired goal: the Catholic corporations continue to flourish and are more numerous than ever. However, this segregation of students, promoted by bishops, party men and theological faculties, diminishes in a denominational sense the national value assigned to the theological faculties, and thus in the long run undermines the very basis of their existence within the framework of our universities. And the resistance of the anti-clerical student body itself did not lead to the desired goal: the Catholic corporations continue to flourish and are more numerous than ever. However, this segregation of students, promoted by bishops, party men and theological faculties, diminishes in a denominational sense the national value assigned to the theological faculties, and thus in the long run undermines the very basis of their existence within the framework of our universities.
The struggles of the student body against the special academic jurisdiction have of course fallen silent, as this no longer exists anywhere as a privileged and exceptional jurisdiction. On the other hand, the university as a corporation cannot and will not be able to do without the need to exclude unworthy elements from itself or to lead them back on the right path by warning and reprimand before this last step and cut; that the prison sentence is disappearing – from the beginning in Strasbourg, now also in Bavaria, is only to be welcomed. The question arises whether the composition of our disciplinary offices, with or without a university judge, is a suitable one. If they take the form of professional and honorary courts, nothing would stand in the way of that representatives of the student body also sit in court over their fellow students and have to help decide questions such as whether someone is still to be regarded as a worthy student or a connection according to their principles and leadership is compatible with the spirit of a German university. Such participation would completely remove the semblance of venom from the academic discipline and, if not relieved, it would certainly be able to benefit student life and, in particular, the relationship between students and professors.
The fact that next to the student nowadays the student also has the same rights is an innovation that is only to be welcomed. For a long time, women’s studies had a particularly large number of tough opponents, especially in university circles; in the meantime the resistance has ceased and the reasons against it have been recognized as ragged and threadbare. That the gates of the university should be opened to women was a demand of justice and had become economically necessary. Now that it has been done, they have to show what they can achieve in addition to or in distinction from men in science. The preliminary impression that they are essentially receptive to this in no way diminishes their right to this activity. There is greater concern that some unsuitable elements, because it has become fashionable, or seek to push through longing for the freedom of student life. And it remains to be seen how the free coexistence of so many young people of different sexes will develop in the long run. The free student body has hardly found the right form for this.
One of the main obstacles to women’s studies and its recognition by universities was initially the inadequate and dubious nature of the prior education of women studying. Through the establishment of special girls ‘high schools and female “study institutions” or elsewhere through the admission of girls to the higher boys’ schools (co-education), this question is regulated in terms of equality or equivalence with the previous education of their male fellow students. As for them, the only narrow gateway that leads to regular admission to the university and matriculation is the passing of the Abitur exams. Because the so-called “fourth way” for the high school graduates of the teachers’ seminars (Oberlyzeen) is a long-term wrong path, against which the women themselves warn.
Incidentally, the question of previous education for the universities has recently become a problem in general due to the equality of the three nine-class schools and the admission and the flow of secondary school high school graduates to university studies. Our universities and their teaching operations are built on a humanistic basis and tailored to students with a humanistic education. Therefore, it will always be difficult for those who do not understand Latin to take part and get the full benefit from it. Experience has shown that in the short years since secondary school high school graduates were admitted, this has been proven beyond doubt. But it is also in the nature of the matter itself. Real and Oberrealschulen are not intended and set up as preparatory institutions for university studies; apart from its service for practical professions of all kinds, the preliminary stage for technical universities. Therefore they shouldn’t have the ambition to breed as many university students as possible; this should still be seen as an exception, as a kind of career change, which should only be made easier in this way. The way things are today, this inequality of educational background is really a complication and Damage to university teaching, which is only becoming more and more noticeable due to the steadily growing rush to the universities. In any case, the fact that the quality of students has recently been declining is a complaint that has been heard several times. Therefore, in their own interest and in the interests of the students, the universities can only wish and demand that the Abitur exam is not always made easier, but rather that it is based on the principle: Landgrave get tough! will proceed. The greater severity here is the greater mercy, also for those affected by it. And the public interest demands it anyway.
Precisely for this reason, not all possible professions that can do without a high school diploma and academic studies should not be – businessman calls post officials, pharmacists, dentists, farmers and elementary school teachers – making or striving for the same of class and “departmental vanity” for themselves. I can only agree with Kaufmann in this complaint that in many cases the best time for practical preparation and the right psychological disposition is lost and the universities are forced to increasingly “accept students without the necessary previous education and without scientific intent” will also have to be distinguished once more among those named by him. And in any case, all academic and Latin arrogance must be expressly kept away; in the interests of the general striving for education, the gates of the universities must be opened wide; and so it is only to be welcomed if for some lectures the circle of listeners is expanded beyond the rite enrolled students and the right of observation is not taken too timidly and narrowly; Of course, visits to the colleges must never become a sport or fashion affair. All in all, yes for thisUniversity extensionIn wider circles there are the popular university courses, in which the professors put their knowledge and the results of their research at the service of general popular education. On the other hand, the hope that workers in particular will be won over for this has not been fulfilled, at least here in Germany, or only in very few places. But if one holds these courses at the level of the eagerly educated elementary school teacher, then that purpose is indirectly achieved through his mediation in school and advanced training school and the social tendency of such courses is also realized in this way. The students have succeeded better in getting to know them themselves in the elementary courses for workers and through the social work that they do here, To help bridge the gap between academics and workers in a meritorious way. The students themselves have the greatest benefit from immersing themselves in the social spirit of our time and dismissing foolish prejudices, in which our young people who are learning Latin in particular often grow up.
In addition to the old ones, three new universities are currently in the making (because even in Hamburg and Dresden the plans are hardly definitely given up and buried). In Hamburg, the existing colonial institute and the city’s already richly developed lecture system are to be expanded into a full university. Therein lies the seed for something new, when a university in the capital of our German shipping and sea trade places the training for service in our colonies at the center of its tasks and thus becomes an educational institution that is adapted to the needs of our new German position of power and to the genius loci, which corresponds to the distant gaze of its large trading companies and the daring entrepreneurship of the Hanseatic city. In Dresden one thinks, as I said, to a kind of personal union of university and technical college. And in Frankfurt a. M. is a foundation university that does not cost the state anything, but is supposed to sustain itself financially on its own. But since it strives for state recognition with all the associated authorizations of a state university and has to strive for it as a university, it still needs the state, and so it should not become a city university, as Bologna once was, free of all bureaucratic tutelage and also free the final barrier that the church or state would like to draw to academic freedom. Of course, the concerns that are raised against this new establishment because of the metropolitan milieu or because of possible damage to neighboring universities are completely irrelevant. Planned abandonment of theological faculties: the new universities would thereby be removed from a number of difficulties and conflicts from the outset, but would also make themselves poor in important people and in honorable and steeling intellectual struggles; and so sooner or later they would have to fill the gap. Finally, the position of the city and the founders in Frankfurt is unclear and not without danger. They want to exert influence not only on the administration and financial charges, but also on the appointment of professors by setting up a board of trustees that safeguards their interests. The aim is to gain a completely independent professorial body that is not bound by any political or denominational restrictions. But the question is whether the threefold competition from the state, The Board of Trustees and the Faculty act in reverse and add a further nuance of dependency to the ones that already exist; In democratic North America, such local commissions often act in a way that badly restricts freedom. Or more generally: here, too, the problem of the universities’ autonomy and their preservation against interference from above and from outside will only arise in a different form, but hardly less severely and severely than the actually burdensome problem and how to new solutions, so occasionally lead to new types of conflicts.
But these are future considerations. In the meantime, the university plans of these excellent and modern-oriented cities show that the old is far from out of date and that the trunk of the German universities, despite its centuries-old history, is healthy and powerful enough to keep growing new branches and twigs – as we hope , in the service of our German science, our Germanic freedom and our national position of power, and thus also in the service of humane education and human culture in general.
Literature:
Denifle, The emergence of the universities in the Middle Ages up to 1400. 1885.–
Ewald Horn, “Academic Freedom”. 1905. –
Georg Kaufmann, The History of the German Universities. Vol. 1, 1888; Vol. 2, 1896. –
Georg Kaufmann, University of Wroclaw. Festschrift to celebrate the 100th Existence. 2 vol. 1911. –
Max Lenz, History of the University of Berlin. 4 vol. 1910. –
Ms. Paulsen. The German universities and university studies. 1902. –
Wilh. Schrader, history of the Friedrichs University in Halle. 2 vol 1894. –
Fr. Schulze and P. Ssymank, German Studentism from the First Times to the Present. 1910. –
C. Varrentrapp, Joh. Schulze and the higher Prussian education system. 1889. –
Wilhelm Wundt, The Leipzig University through the Centuries. (Speeches and essays 1913). –
Theobald Ziegler, History of Education. 3rd edition 1909. –
Theobald Ziegler, the German student. 11th and 12th eds. 1912.–
Theobald Ziegler, About Universities and University Studies. 1913.
FOOT NOTES
- University of Wroclaw. Festschrift for the celebration of the centenary. Part I, p. 251.
