The social history of education and the reform of the university in Germany since 1945

Hartmut Kaelble, Humboldt-University

Yokohama 17 April 2008

I shall present major trends in the social history of education and in the university reforms in Germany since 1945: I shall treat four aspects: the expansion of education; the educational opportunities, i.e. the access to secondary and higher education; the public debate on higher education; and the reform of the educational institutions, including the introduction of the principle of competition in recent years. I shall present the history of these four topics in treating four periods: the immediate post-war period until around 1950; the period of optimistic believe in social progress and state intervention during the 1950`s until the early 1970’s and 1960`s; the period of the forgotten education during the late 1970´s until the early 1990`s; finally the period of the new awareness of education since the later 1990`s. I shall primarily deal with West Germany, since this is the educational system which predominates since the 1990’s in Germany as a whole, but in some respects I shall refer also to the East German history of education. I shall also try to present the German case in European comparison.

Content

1. The post-war period

1.1. Strong demand for higher education

1.2. Inequality of educational opportunities

1.3. Attempts of educational reforms by the allies

2. The 1950`s to early 1970’s: believe in social progress and state intervention

2.1. Strong expansion of education

2.2. Limited improvement of educational opportunities

2.3. Topics of vivid debates

2.4. Reforms

3. The late 1970´s to early 1990’s: the forgotten education

3.1. Continued expansion

3.2. Some more equal opportunities

3.3. Limited debates on education

3.4. Few reforms

4. Recent developments: new public awareness of education

4.1. International and European trends

4.2. Special German developments

Summary