Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/845

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EDUCATION]
GERMANY
 823
Years.  Number of 
Recruits.
 Unable to Read or Write. 
 Total.   Per 1000 
Recruits.
 1875–1876  139,855 3331 23.7 
1880–1881 151,180 2406 15.9 
1885–1886 152,933 1657 10.8 
1890–1891 193,318 1035  5.4 
1895–1896 250,287  374  1.5 
1898–1899 252,382  173  0.7 
1900–1901 253,000  131  0.45

Of the above 131 illiterates in 1900–1901, 114 were in East and West Prussia, Posen and Silesia.

Universities and Higher Technical Schools.—Germany owes its large number of universities, and its widely diffused higher education to its former subdivision into many separate states. Only a few of the universities date their existence from the 19th century; the majority of them are very much older. Each of the larger provinces, except Posen, has at least one university, the entire number being 21. All have four faculties except Münster, which has no faculty of medicine. As regards theology, Bonn, Breslau and Tübingen have both a Protestant and a Catholic faculty; Freiburg, Munich, Münster and Würzburg are exclusively Catholic; and all the rest are Protestant.

The following table gives the names of the 21 universities, the dates of their respective foundations, the number of their professors and other teachers for the winter half-year 1908–1909, and of the students attending their lectures during the winter half-year of 1907–1908:

  Date of
 Foundation. 
 Professors 
and
Teachers.
Students.  Total. 
 Theology.   Law.   Medicine.   Philosophy. 
 Berlin 1809 493 326  2747  1153  3934 8220
 Bonn 1818 190 395 833 282 1699 3209
 Breslau 1811 189 330 617 284  840 2071
 Erlangen 1743  77 155 323 355  225 1058
 Freiburg 1457 150 219 373 580  642 1814
 Giessen 1607 100  63 204 331  546 1144
 Göttingen 1737 161 102 441 188 1126 1857
 Greifswald 1456 105  68 188 186  361 803
 Halle 1694 174 331 450 217 1239 2237
 Heidelberg 1385 177  55 357 385  879 1676
 Jena 1558 116  48 267 265  795 1375
 Kiel 1665 121  35 271 239  480 1025
 Königsberg  1544 152  68 317 218  502 1105
 Leipzig 1409 234 303 1013  606 2419 4341
 Marburg 1527 117 133 400 261  876 1670
 Munich 1826 239 169 1892  1903  1979 5943
 Münster 1902  95 278 458 . .  870 1606
 Rostock 1418  65  48  67 211  322  648
 Strassburg 1872 167 241 369 255  844 1709
 Tübingen 1477 111 464 467 263  384 1578
 Würzburg 1582 102 106 331 625  320 1382

Not included in the above list is the little academy—Lyceum Hosianum—at Braunsberg in Prussia, having faculties of theology (Roman Catholic) and philosophy, with 13 teachers and 150 students. In all the universities the number of matriculated students in 1907–1908 was 46,471, including 320 women, 2 of whom studied theology, 14 law, 150 philosophy and 154 medicine. There were also, within the same period, 5653 non-matriculated Hörer (hearers), including 2486 women.

Ten schools, technical high schools, or Polytechnica, rank with the universities, and have the power of granting certain degrees. They have departments of architecture, building, civil engineering, chemistry, metallurgy and, in some cases, anatomy. These schools are as follows: Berlin (Charlottenburg), Munich, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Dresden, Stuttgart, Aix-la-Chapelle, Brunswick and Danzig; in 1908 they were attended by 14,149 students (2531 foreigners), and had a teaching staff of 753. Among the remaining higher technical schools may be mentioned the three mining academies of Berlin, Clausthal, in the Harz, and Freiberg in Saxony. For instruction in agriculture there are agricultural schools attached to several universities—notably Berlin, Halle, Göttingen, Königsberg, Jena, Poppelsdorf near Bonn, Munich and Leipzig. Noted academies of forestry are those of Tharandt (in Saxony), Eberswalde, Münden on the Weser, Hohenheim near Stuttgart, Brunswick, Eisenach, Giessen and Karlsruhe. Other technical schools are again the five veterinary academies of Berlin, Hanover, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart, the commercial colleges (Handelshochschulen) of Leipzig, Aix-la-Chapelle, Hanover, Frankfort-on-Main and Cologne, in addition to 424 commercial schools of a lesser degree, 100 schools for textile manufactures and numerous schools for special metal industries, wood-working, ceramic industries, naval architecture and engineering and navigation. For military science there are the academies of war (Kriegsakademien) in Berlin and Munich, a naval academy in Kiel, and various cadet and non-commissioned officers’ schools.

Libraries.—Mental culture and a general diffusion of knowledge are extensively promoted by means of numerous public libraries established in the capital, the university towns and other places. The most celebrated public libraries are those of Berlin (1,000,000 volumes and 30,000 MSS.); Munich (1,000,000 volumes, 40,000 MSS.); Heidelberg (563,000 volumes, 8000 MSS.); Göttingen (503,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.); Strassburg (760,000 volumes); Dresden (500,000 volumes, 6000 MSS.); Hamburg (municipal library, 600,000 volumes, 5000 MSS.); Stuttgart (400,000 volumes, 3500 MSS.); Leipzig (university library, 500,000 volumes, 5000 MSS.); Würzburg (350,000 volumes); Tübingen (340,000 volumes); Rostock (318,000 volumes); Breslau (university library, 300,000 volumes, 7000 MSS.); Freiburg-im-Breisgau (250,000 volumes); Bonn (265,000 volumes); and Königsberg (230,000 volumes, 1100 MSS.). There are also famous libraries at Gotha, Wolfenbüttel and Celle.

Learned Societies.—There are numerous societies and unions, some of an exclusively scientific character and others designed for the popular diffusion of useful knowledge. Foremost among German academies is the Academy of Sciences (Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Berlin, founded in 1700 on Leibnitz’s great plan and opened in 1711. After undergoing various vicissitudes, it was reorganized by Frederick the Great on the French model and received its present constitution in 1812. It has four sections: physical, mathematical, philosophical and historical. The members are (1) ordinary (50 in number, each receiving a yearly dotation of £30), and (2) extraordinary, consisting of honorary and corresponding (foreign) members. It has published since 1811 a selection of treatises furnished by its most eminent men, among whom must be reckoned Schleiermacher, the brothers Humboldt, Grimm, Savigny, Böckh, Ritter and Lachmann, and has promoted philological and historical research by helping the production of such works as Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum; Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum; Monumenta Germaniae historica, the works of Aristotle, Frederick the Great’s works and Kant’s collected works. Next in order come (1) the Academy of Sciences at Munich, founded in 1759, divided into three classes, philosophical, historical and physical, and especially famous for its historical research; (2) the Society of Sciences (Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften) in Göttingen, founded in 1742; (3) that of Erfurt, founded 1758; (4) Görlitz (1779) and (5) the “Royal Saxon Society of Sciences” (Königliche sächsische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften), founded in Leipzig in 1846. Ample provision is made for scientific collections of all kinds in almost all places of any importance, either at the public expense or through private munificence.

Observatories.—These have in recent years been considerably augmented. There are 19 leading observatories in the empire, viz. at Bamberg, Berlin (2), Bonn, Bothkamp in Schleswig, Breslau, Düsseldorf, Gotha, Göttingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Jena, Kiel, Königsberg, Leipzig, Munich, Potsdam, Strassburg and Wilhelmshaven.

Book Trade.—This branch of industry, from the important position it has gradually acquired since the time of the Reformation, is to be regarded as at once a cause and a result of the mental culture of Germany. Leipzig, Berlin and Stuttgart are the chief centres of the trade. The number of booksellers in Germany was not less than 10,000 in 1907, among whom were approximately 6000 publishers. The following figures will show the recent progress of German literary production, in so far as published works are concerned:

Year  1570   1600   1618   1650   1700   1750   1800   1840   1884   1902 
Books  229 791 1293 725 951 1219 3335 6904 15,607 26,902

Newspapers.—While in England a few important newspapers have an immense circulation, the newspapers of Germany are much more numerous, but on the whole command a more limited sale.