Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 79.djvu/610

606 themselves are far from considering their universities perfect. Intense reform movements are reshaping the entire university life, but it is characteristic that no so-called reform propositions are taking hold which limit in any way the freedom of study. The Germans do not want more examinations by which the student becomes more or less a school pupil, although they believe in thorough discipline and supervision even in the highest classes of the Gymnasium, which corresponds to the average American college. The most wholesome change in the student life is the quiet but steady repression of the vulgar beer-drinking habits with all the noisy accessories. The entire student life, has become cleaner and more modern. The old traditions had come from a time when the young academic scholar wanted to emphasize the contrast between his eager life and the dullness of the philistine crowd. But modern times have changed this contrast by bringing life and interest and political activity into those crowds and the student has thus lost his right to live a life entirely different from that of his social surroundings. The rush of young Germany toward the university is still steadily increasing. There are about 63,000 students in the twenty-one high seats of learning, 12,000 in the law schools, 12,000 in the medical schools, about 4,000 students of divinity and the remainder in the so-called philosophical faculty which corresponds to the American graduate school. It is characteristic that the chief increase has come to the universities in the large cities in which the old-fashioned student life has always played a small role. In Berlin there are 14,000 persons attending the lectures and in Munich 7,000, in Leipzig 6,000. Yet especially those universities in small towns which are famous for the beauty of landscape have had their proportionate growth. In lovely Freiburg in Baden the one thousandth student was welcomed with a celebration at the time when I came there as a young instructor. Recently they have celebrated the coming of the three thousandth student. The rapid growth of the academic communities strongly suggests the foundation of new universities. Münster in Westphalia grew into a full-fledged university only a few years ago, Frankfort-on-Main is at present fighting with enthusiasm for the development of its academy into a university. The Prussian Diet is still seriously objecting to this ambition of the citizens of Frankfort, as it fears that the smaller universities in the neighborhood would be the sufferers, but the university of Frankfort is surely to come. The same may be said of the university of Hamburg, which so far consists of a number of interrelated institutes. But while the universities are growing in number and branching off in new and ever new specialties, they are also being supplemented by new forms of scholarly activity. The most characteristic new feature which gains increasing importance is the erection of research institutes, especially in the field of natural science and medicine. There investigations can