The Volksschule was universal, free, and compulsory. The fundamental subjects were taught along with gymnastics and religion, which held important places in the curriculum. Girls and boys were taught in separate schools except when it was uneconomical to do so. Boys usually received training in manual work, and girls in domestic science. Graduates of the Volksschule found it almost impossible to enter the secondary school, which was attended almost exclusively by graduates of private preparatory schools charging fees. The Volksschule led its students directly to work and was thus separate and parallel to the secondary school program rather than sequential.
Boys who, at the age of nine, were about to enter secondary school had to decide on one of the three types of schools, each offering a different curriculum. The traditional classical Gymnasium stressed Latin and Greek. The Realgymnasium offered a curriculum that was a compromise between the humanities and modern subjects. The Oberrealschule stressed modern languages and sciences. Although Kaiser William II threw his influence on the side of the modernists in 1890, the Gymnasium continued to overshadow the other two schools until after World War II.
Secondary schools for girls were recognized by Prussia in 1872 and were extended and improved in 1894 and again in 1908. These schools were fee-paying and were thus available chiefly to the upper social and economic strata. The course of instruction lasted 10 years, from age 6 to 16. This 10-year school was called the Lyzeum, the first three years being preparatory. Beyond it was the Oberlyzeum, which was divided into two courses: the Frauenschule, which offered a two-year general course, and the Lehrerinnenseminar, which offered a four-year course for prospective elementary school teachers. Girls who wanted a secondary school education similar to that of the boys transferred at the age of 13 to the Studienanstalt.
Continuation schools for the working class augmented apprenticeship training with part-time education. They were the forerunners of the part-time vocational Berufsschulen, which continued through the close of the century. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Georg Kerschensteiner, these schools increased in importance in the early 20th century. Between 1919 and 1938 they filled out the secondary sector to ensure attendance at some kind of school for all youth to the age of 18. Weimar Republic
In no sphere of public activity did the establishment of the Weimar Republic after 1919 cause more creative discussion and more far-reaching changes than in that of education. A four-year Grundschule was established, free and compulsory for all children. It was the basic building block for all subsequent social liberalization in education. Besides the elementary subjects and religion, the child was instructed in drawing, singing, physical training, and manual work. The Oberstufe, the four upper classes of the elementary school, combined with the Grundschule to form a complete whole. Most elementary schools thus provided an eight-year course of study. Intermediate schools (Mittelschulen) were established for children who wished a longer and more advanced elementary school course and were able to pay modest fees.
The Weimar constitution preserved the religious tradition, which had been an essential part of the school curriculum in Germany since the Reformation. No pupil, however, could be compelled to study religion, and no teacher could be forced to teach it. Communities were accorded the right to establish schools in accordance with the particular religious beliefs of the pupils.
As regards secondary education, the Weimar Republic kept the prewar division of Gymnasium, Realgymnasium, and Oberrealschule. (There were three comparable schools for girls.) In addition, there was established the Aufbauschule, which was a six-year school following completion of the seventh year of the elementary school, and the Deutsche Oberschule, a nine-year school that required two modern foreign languages and stressed German culture. Nazi Germany
After Adolf Hitler’s accession to power in 1933, the Nazis set out to reconstruct German society. To do that, the totalitarian government attempted to exert complete control over the populace. Every institution was infused with National Socialist ideology and infiltrated by Nazi personnel in chief positions. Schools were no exception. Even before coming to power, Hitler in Mein Kampf (1925–27; “My Struggle”) had hinted at his plans for broad educational exploitation. The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda exercised control over virtually every form of expression—radio, theatre, cinema, the fine arts, the press, churches, and schools. The control of the schools began in March 1933 with the issuing of the first educational decree, which held that “German culture must be treated thoroughly.”
The Nazi government attempted to control the minds of the young and thus, among other means, intruded Nazi beliefs into the school curriculum. A major part of biology became “race science,” and health education and physical training did not escape the racial stress. Geography became geopolitics, the study of the fatherland being fundamental. Physical training was made compulsory for all, as was youth labour service. Much of the fundamental curriculum was not disturbed, however. Changes after World War II
Immediately after World War II, the occupying powers (Britain, France, and the United States in the western zones and the Soviet Union in the east) instituted education programs designed to clean out Nazi influence and to reflect their respective educational values. These efforts were soon absorbed into independent German educational reconstruction. The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) of May 1949 granted autonomy in educational matters to the Land (state) governments. Although efforts to strengthen the federal government’s presence waxed and waned, Land governments remained independent and divided along political lines on educational reforms.
The two main political issues dividing the states had always been confessional schooling and the tripartite division of secondary schooling, with conservative states like Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg on one side and socially progressive states like Hessen and West Berlin on the other. After a 20-year period of reform discussion on these issues, marked by influential state or national proposals, the balance shifted in the mid-1970s to the conservatives—albeit with a great deal of internal liberalization. That is, confessional schools and confessional instruction in schools remained, but the latter was increasingly in ecumenical or ethical versions. This change, like others, was supported by the presence of a large number of non-German children representing various cultural beliefs and behaviours. On the issue of dividing secondary schools, in spite of continued strong intellectual and political support from some quarters, the movement toward comprehensive schools had, at least for the time being, died out. Even where comprehensive schools (Gesamtschulen) existed, they usually incorporated separate secondary paths. Nevertheless, the effective extension of common schooling through an “orientation stage” between elementary and secondary schooling, the attempt to develop each level so that it better served more youth—even if differentially—and the functional integration of school branches through curriculum reform and transfer possibilities all pointed to a comprehensiveness within the system.