Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/489

Rh EDUCArr1oN.] GERMANY 471 of illiterates was 4'6 per cent. in the army, and 2'3 in the ‘ taught, the other branches being modern languages, espe- navy, tl1e corresponding numbers in France being 23 and 14 per cent. In England 23 per cent. of the marines could neither read nor write in 1865, 4 per cent. could only read, and 37 per cent. could write but imperfectly. In Austria only 28 per cent. of the recruits could write, and in Russia scarcely 10 per cent. had any school education. But the provinces of Germany differ much from one another in this respect. Education is very i11fcrior in the eastern Polish districts. During the three years from 1875-78 in the districts of Posen, Bromberg, and Oppeln there were in all 107, 9'24, 8'02 per cent. of illiterates among the recruits, in the provinces of West and East Prussia 8'77, 8'66, 7'80. After these the rate takes a long leap to 3'18, 3'17, 1'94 in Alsace-Lorraine and the Palatinate. In 1877-78 there was no considerable district in Germany which sent so many as 1 per cent. of illiterates. The most satisfactory state of matters is to be found in Saxony, Thuringia, Baden, and Wiirtemberg, and especially in the last two. Wiirtemberg had only one recruit among 6000 that was unable to read. The census in Prussia in 1871 proves primary school instruction to be much better among the Protestants than among the Catholics, as will be seen in the following table :— Percentage of coi_respond—! Illiterates of 10 Years “ales 1,-emqles mg P°pu]‘m°"' and under. ‘ ' ' ' * 5": 1 Males. F em. | Total. I Protestants ..... ..l 390,117 693,400 4-9 8'3 6'7 Catholics ........ . 464, 755 685, 535 11 '3 16 '4 13 '2 Jews ............... 7,976 15,648 4'9 9'4 7'2 ‘ Others ........... ... 995 1,851 3'7 6 1 I 5'2 I I l _ Total ..... 863,843 1,396,434 7-1 11-1 9-2 | Unremitting attention is being paid to the improvement of primary schools (vol/cssc/mlen), although many of the eastern districts are still destitute of these in the rural localities. Not long ago the position of teachers of primary schools was very unsatisfactory; and the supply of masters was unequal to the demand. In recent years much has been done in all the states to effect a reform on thisstate of 1natte1's. In 1875 there were 170 seminaries in Germany for the t1'aining of schoolmasters. But this number is insufficient, for it may be estimated that 5000 to 6000 new appointments I cially French and English, mathematics and natural philo- sophy, geography, and modern history. These schools have long enjoyed great popularity. They are classiﬁed as of the first and of the second order. In the former a pupil remains generally for nine 01' ten years, as in the gymnasia ; and those who pass the highest examination are allowed to enter the universities, but only to study the 111odern languages, mathematics, and natural sciences. In 1878 there were 129 realschulen of the ﬁrst order, mainly in Saxony, Rhineland, Berlin, and Hanover. The real- schulen of the second order prepare pupils for those pro- fessions which do not require a university course. On the average a pupil leaves school in the seventeenth year of his age. Besides these institutions, which are increasing every year, there is a eonside1'able number of technical schools (gewerbeschulen). Their purpose is purely in- dustrial 5 drawing, mechanics, mathematics, physics, and chemistry are among the subjects of instruction, languages being excluded. There are, moreover, schools of commerce, navig-ation, and agriculture in different towns. The military law relating to the one year’s volunteers has had an important influence on the attendance at all these institu- tions. In 1879 there were 878 schools with the privilege of furnishing pass certiﬁcates to such volunteers; of these 360 were gynmasia, 129 were realschulen, and about 40 were private schools. Exact and uniform statistics of the higher schools do not as yet exist. Many of the last-me11- tioned institutions are maintained partly or entirely at the expense of the municipalities, and by far the greater number are denominational, Protestant ones prevailing. The follow- ing table shows the number of Prussian schools in 1875 maintained severally by the Government, by the munici- palities, and by other funds :— ’ g 1'umber of .li«hIlc Schools in Prussia maintained by ‘ Denomination. ' . 1 Government. liuni(-ipalitics. Private F nnds. 1 Protestant ..... .. 100 199 16 Mixed .......... ..! 1s 38 .. (‘atholic ....... .. 43 31 2 Jewish ....... ..| 2 Total .... ..l 101 l ‘.268 20 l'ru't'c)'st'ties and Ilig/tel‘ T cc/micul Sc/zools.—Germany are required annually, if one master is not to have charge of owes its large number of universities, and its widely diffused n1o1'e than (30 children. Saxony has the greatest number of institutions of this kind (15). 1Vithin the last few years many municipalities have begun to found schools of a somewhat higher rank for the lower classes of the town population, called middle schools. There are four different kinds of schools for the higher being 21. branches of education. training_for the universities, the foremost place in the course of instruction being assigned to the classical languages; but French, English, and mathematics are also taught, and some attention is given to natural science, history, and geography. Their constitution dates back to very remote times, and but few and slight alterations have been made in their schemes of study since the beginning of the present century. Officials, judges, clergymen, teachers, and physi- cians for the most part receive their early education at the gymnasia. In 1878 there were 360 gynmasia in Germany, or for every 600 square miles and every 117,000 in. habitants. Central Germany has the largest proportion, 1 for every 75,000 inhabitants. To these must be added the progymnasia, about 90 in number. The same studies are.prosecuted in these, but the highest classes of a gym- nasium are wanting. Of more recent growth is the system higher education to its former subdivision into many separ- I ate states. Only a few of the universities date their existence The gymnasia supply preparatory has no faculties of law and medicine. i ! of realsc/mlen, where Latin is the only ancient language , from tl1c present century; the majority of them are very much olde1'. Each of the larger provinces, except Posen, has at least one university, the entire number at present All have four faculties except Miinster, which As regards theo- logy, Bonn, Breslau, and Tiibingen have both a Protestant and a Catholic faculty; Freiburg, Munich, Miinster, and Wiirzburg 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, and of the students attending their lectures during the summer session 1878, arranged according to the numbers in attendance :—1 1 The teaching staff was classiﬁed as follows: ordinary professors 957, extraordinary professors 403, honorary professors 41, private teachers (privat-docenten) 438, language and exercise masters 39. The following table gives the number of the students in the different faculties for 1878 :— 1. Students of Protestant ihc-nlo_:_v  1.738 '.-’. ,, ltonian Catholic theology... (‘-89 3 law. politics, and i‘nrcstr_v  5,156 4. ., medicine. surgei_v, and pharinacy  3,727 5. ,, philosophy, philology, histor_v, geography, mathematics, and natural science  7.937 6. L’nmatrieuIate(l students (chieﬂy at Berlin). .. 2,285