FRG Education

• The Allied occupiers faced severe problems with schooling in post-war Germany. Many schools had been physically destroyed so they had to find suitable buildings or spaces where schools could be housed.  
• The biggest issue for the Allied occupiers was the Nazi legacy: 

  • Education system was geared to the promotion of Nazi ideas 
  • Majority of teachers = members of the NSDAP 
  • Most of the surviving resources contained Nazi ideology 
• The priority post-war was to reopen schools with a curriculum that advocated ideas like democracy and tolerance with suitable teachers and teaching resources.  
• However, any joint educational programme across Germany was impractical as each occupying power sought to follow the educational practices in their own country.  
• Traditionally, education was the responsibility of the states in Germany, however it had been rigidly centralised by the Nazis and now the states wanted it back to its original form. The actual educational system and teaching methods had been effective throughout the period of compulsory education, which was partly why the Nazis found it easy to indoctrinate school students.  
• The US occupying authorities wanted the setting up of US-type comprehensive schools where all secondary students were housed in one institution regardless of ability. However, the states wanted to maintain their models based on selection. The states won this battle since the US authorities had more important priorities than completely reorganising the education system.  
• The states agreed in 1950 that civic education should be compulsory in schools. While content wasn’t prescribed, the intention was to promote liberal ideas such as tolerance and individual freedoms, while also familiarising students with the main features of totalitarianism.  
• From 1962, teachers were instructed to teach the Nazi period and about the communist USSR. Some states even recommended that all students visited former concentration camps.  
• In the 1949 Basic Law, Article 30 gave the states overall responsibility for education. However, it was important to standardise their educational systems, curricula, and qualifications for the benefit of families moving between states whose children may have faced a different educational system.  
• The Dusseldorf Agreement (1955) regulated areas such as: 

  • Number of examination subjects 
  • Length of studies 
  • Length of school holidays 
  • Beginning of school year 
  • Examination standards 
• The states agreed a tripartite secondary school structure following four years of primary education, based on the previous selective system: 

  • High school – 4 years 
  • Intermediate school – 6 years 
  • Gymnasium (elites) - 8 years – preparing students for higher education (specialised in classical and modern languages, sciences etc) 
• The highest school qualification was the Abitur, a general certificate that paved the way for higher education. In 1972, the number of academic subjects required for the Abitur was reduced and students were given the option of concentrating on a few specialised subjects.  
• Despite developments, the differing provision in different states and their resistance to federal government intervention on their powers was a recurring theme. As late as 1978, the federal government released ‘Deficiencies Report’, which urged the necessity of making the education system more standardised, arguing it was detrimental to the FRG’s economic development.  
• There was considerable concern that German children were underachieving compared with other developing countries. This can be seen with Georg Picht’s articles in 1964.  
• In the 1960s, questions about the educational system were raised in parliament: 

  • Compared to similar European nations, few Germans attended full-time schooling until 18 
  • Fewer went onto university study 
  • Federal spending on education was a small portion of the total national budget 
  • Significant differences in educational opportunity/quality between regions (class size, foreign language study etc) 
• In the 1960s, questions abut the educational system were raised in parliament:

  • Selection system should be fairer – should be based solely on the student’s ability
  • Gender inequalities – more girls left full-time schooling at an early age – educational paths typically based on their father’s occupation
• When Brandt became chancellor in 1969, he asserted that education would become a priority for his government. He established a Federal Ministry of Education and Science to oversee education and ensure it met the anticipated needs of scientific and technological developments in the future. However, his reforms were limited due to the powers of the federal government and states.  
• Many advocated the abolition of selection and introduction of comprehensive schools. But comprehensive schools were criticised for lowering educational standards. In Bavaria (most conservative state), only one comprehensive school was opened by 1990 and even North Rhine-Westphalia (most populous state), had only 181 comprehensive schools compared to 623 Gymnasia by 1990.  
• Until the Nazi era, German universities enjoyed international respect for their academic excellence, but they were conservative and elitist, concentrating on research rather than teaching.  
• By the 1960s, many university students were critical of overcrowding and shortages of teaching resources.  
• In the 1960s and 1970s, 24 new universities emerged within West Germany, including the distance learning centre in Hagen established in 1975. Reforms were also implemented. For example, in 1971, the federal government began providing financial aid to students to make higher education more accessible, as at the time, less that 7% of young people in the FRG went to university.  
• The number of students in higher education rose from 200000 in 1960 to 1.9 million by 1992, while academic staff employed in universities increased from 19000 to 78000.  
• To cater for the higher demand, new technical universities were established. However, many, especially the older universities, maintained their emphasis on research over student-centred learning and with it their elitist image.  
• In 1980, apprentices outnumbered university students two to one. However, a shortage of apprenticeships in the late 1980s as manufacturing industry declined in the FRG, motivated more students to enter universities. Enrolment grew by 75% between 1977 and 1992. Yet, by as late as 1981, only about 38% were women.