CB - Education

2006

CB — Education

Katholizismus und Jurisprudenz: Beiträge zur Katholizismusforschung und zur neueren Wissenschaftsgeschichte [Catholicism and Jurisprudence: Contributions to Research on Catholicism and the Evolution of Scholarly Investigation]. Alexander Hollerbach. Paderborn: Schöningh, 2004. 330 p. 24 cm. (Rechtsund staatswissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Görres-Gesellschaft, N.F. 111). ISBN 3-506-71756-1: EUR 49.90 [06-1-083]

The essays in this collection were written between 1973 and 2003. The present publication is enhanced by updated bibliographies, an author index, a comprehensive list of Hollerbach’s publications on the history jurisprudence, and a list of dissertations supervised the author. The footnotes are so comprehensive that they can serve as a bio-bibliographical lexicon for the history of German jurisprudence in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The volume is organized around four themes: (1) a summary of the 100 year history of the Görres Society, Section Law and Social Science [Görresgesellschaft; Sektion für Rechts-und Sozialwissenschaft] and the Catholic Association of Lawyers [Katholischer Juristenverein]; the history includes remarks by Ernst Friesenhahn, Karl Peters und Hermann Mosler; (2) three essays about Catholic interpretation of law and state from the time of the German Empire to the Federal Republic of Germany; (3) biographical essays about Godehard Josef Ebers, Josef Schmitt, Karl Neundörfer, Gustav Radbruch, Julius Federer, und Josephus Johannes Maria van der Ven; and (4) five essays on the Christian interpretation of Natural Law in the historical debate on natural verse legal rights.

During his Kulturkampf [Culture War] Bismarck and the Prussian-led Protestant states sought to strengthen the power of the secular state by enacting several laws aimed at reducing the political and social influence of the Roman Catholic Church: Jesuit Law, banning Jesuits from the Empire; the Kanzelparagraph prohibiting preaching politics from the pulpit; mandatory civil marriage; and mandatory government regulation of religious schools. The Catholic Church responded to repressions by founding organizations such as the Görres Society in 1876 and the Zentrum (Center Party), which became the largest party in the Reichstag by 1878. The Zentrum gained more importance during the Weimar Republic, producing politicians such as Fehrenbach, Wirth, Marx, Brüning, and von Papen, before it was dissolved in 1933.

After 1945 Catholic jurists were members of the two interdenominational Christian parties (SPD and CDU) and were therefore positioned to be nominated as law professors and federal judges. While Catholics made up only 31 percent of the general population, the percentage of Catholic law professors and judges was significantly higher than the total Catholic population would lead one to expect. The influence of these Catholic lawyers and lawmakers is seen in laws and policies in the area of marriage, divorce, abortion, birth control, artificial insemination, genetic testing, genetic therapy, euthanasia, and more.

Hollerbach’s essays are a timely and systematic contribution to the discussion of religious neutrality in the formulation of laws and policies regulating an increasingly diverse society. [frh/hm]

Minervas verstoßene Kinder: vertriebene Wissenschaftler und die Vergangenheitspolitik der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft [Minerva’s Outcast Children: Expelled Scientists and Coming to Terms with the Past at the Max Planck Society]. Michael Schüring. Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag, 2006. 416 p. 22 cm. (Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, 13). ISBN 978-3-89244-879-2; ISBN 3-89244-879-5: EUR 34 [06-1-085]

This is the latest volume in a series of monographic studies examining the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, predecessor of the key German scientific research organization, the Max Planck Society, during the National Socialist period (1933-1945). The series, commissioned the Max Planck Society, is directed by historians Reihard Rürup and Wolfgang Schneider. The current volume, by Michael Schüring, is a revision of the author’s 2003 dissertation.

Schüring’s study consists of three parts: a section on methodology; an account of the persecution and expulsion of Jewish scientists and those deemed politically undesirable by the Nazi regime, as well as the measures taken to provide reparation and compensation to the expelled scientists after 1945; and an analysis of how the Max Planck Society dealt with the burden of its organizational history in the post-War period.

Because the Kaiser Wilhelm Society was largely supported with public funds, personnel at all levels of the organization, from top administration to office and laboratory assistants, were subject to the April 1933 law barring Jews from the German civil service. Schüring provides a list of 126 names of the persecuted and expelled; tellingly, the list of post-War reparation and compensation cases numbers only 37. Schüring cites documents that illustrate how expressions of sympathy and regret for individual Jewish colleagues frequently mixed with latent anti-Semitism on the part of leading figures in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and did not prevent these non-Jewish scientists from rationalizing and ultimately accepting the expulsions.

The book follows the postwar reconstitution of the Max Planck Society under the auspices of the Allied forces, particularly the British, and considers its role in the context of mounting Cold War tensions. Schüring also traces lines of continuity from the leadership of the Nazi-era Kaiser Wilhelm Society to that of the postwar Max Planck Society, but at the same time documents that several formerly expelled members accepted honorary posts in the administration of the Society (although few of the exiled scientists returned to post-War Germany).

This book successfully combines institutional history, scholarly biography, social historical analysis, history of the wartime exile experience, and reflection on the process of coming to terms with the Nazi past in the German scientific establishment. It is well-indexed and is valuable both as a reliable handbook chronicling the fate of individual German scientists and as an incisive critical analysis of their social and political context and its reverberations. [frh/kw]

Germanistik in Breslau 1918-1945 [German Language & Literature Study in Breslau, 1918-1945]. Wojciech Kunicki. Dresden: Thelem bei w.e.b., 2002. 318 p. ill. 23 cm. (Silesica, 2). ISBN 3-933592-97-6: EUR 45 [06-1-091]

The author is Professor of German at the University of Wrocław and a highly knowledgeable specialist of German-Silesian history. His dissertation, “... auf dem Weg in dieses Reich”: NS-Kulturpolitik und Literatur in Schlesien 1933 bis 1945 [“… On the way to this Reich”: Nazi Cultural Politics and Literature in Silesia, 1939-1945] (Leipzig, 2006—see RREA 12:187). The goal of Kunicki’s present work is to situate the Germanic Seminar and the “German Institute” within the greater framework of the University’s and Silesia’s cultural life between 1918 and 1945.

The work begins with and quickly moves beyond an iconostasis of professors and a survey of the department to a discussion of the department’s interrelationship with other departments, the University, the educational landscape, professional organizations, and the perceptions of higher education outside the academy. Kunicki describes the professors’ role as decision-makers and then proceeds to concentrate on (1) the theoretical and material reasons for the founding of the German Institute in 1927, which supplanted the Germanic Seminar; (2) the multiple contacts to people outside the academy, e.g., writers who received honorary doctorates (interestingly enough, Gerhard Hauptmann was not awarded one)and regional, scientific, and political organizations in Silesia and neighboring provinces;and(3)the description of important areas of research, such as Silesiana and the borderlands (the subject of many dissertations listed in the index, p. 249-261).

The years after 1918 marked the end of the “patriotic” Germanistik of the Wilhelmine Era. Following the Treaty of Versailles, the city of Breslau with its University and German Department took on the role of a cultural bulwark in the borderlands — well before 1933 there was much antagonism toward the now non-German east-central Europe, with no chance of building any bridges to these countries, especially Poland. There were two professorships ca. 1894-1945, one in German philology and one in recent German literary history, with emphasis placed on orthography, dialect research, applied linguistics, and Silesian literature. The department strongly emphasized the propagation of German values, self-confidence, and dignity in the study of German culture and language. Outside the department the University supported Germanistik-related study in theater, journalism and in Scandinavian topics. Breslau University had the highest student enrollment in the humanities in all of Prussia, and 15 Breslau University Germanists are listed in the 2004 Internationales Germanistenlexikon (IGL) [International Dictionary of Germanists] (see RREA 10:80). The section of brief biographies (p. 290307) includes a number of non-Germanists, including the historian Hermann Aubin, who collaborated closely with the Seminar and in numerous research undertakings.

Despite harsh war losses, Wroclaw University’s comprehensive archives provided the bulk of Kuniki’s research material, augmented by the archives in Berlin, Leipzig, and Weimar. Other than not having described more fully the Breslau Germanists’ far-reaching network with the rest of Germany, Kunicki has produced an informative work about this no longer extant German university. [frh/ga]

Greifswalder Köpfe: Gelehrtenporträts und Lebensbilder des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts aus der Pommerschen Landesuniversität [Greifswald Profiles: Faculty Portraits and Biographical Sketches from the 16th-18th Centuries of the Pomeranian State University]. Dirk Albermann and Birgit Dahlenburg. Rostock: Hinstorff, 2006. 211 p. ill.30 cm. ISBN 3-356-01139-1: EUR 19.90 [06-1-092]

The University of Greifswald has published, and RREA has reviewed, some important works on the occasion of its 550th anniversary: Die Matrikel der Universität Greifswald und die Dakanatsbücher der Theologischen, der Juristischen und der Philosophischen Fakultät 1700-1821 (see RREA 10:191), Die Studenten der kg. Universität Greifswald 1821-1848 (see RREA 10:192) and Nordische Studenten an der Universität Greifswald in der Zeit von 1815 bis 1933 (see RREA 10:193).

The core of the Greifswalder Köpfe are the 90 portraits of Greifswald faculty members of the early modern period, encompassing around a quarter of the faculty from 1500 to 1750. Eleven of the portraits survived the Second World War only as photographic reproductions. Facing each portrait is a short biography of the subject and information on the painting. The art-historical essays on the significance of the portraits and the history of the collections, by Birgit Dahlenburg and Barbara Peters, are well worth reading.

These valuable reproductions, mainly oil paintings on linen, make this book an important work of professorial iconography. Such portrait collections are an ideal supplement to faculty directories such as the Lexikon Greifswalder Hochschullehrer 1775 bis 2006 (see IFB 05-01-179), which generally do not contain likenesses, and are frequently sought after. [mk/rb]

Universität und Gesellschaft: Festschrift zur 550-Jahrfeier der Universität Greifswald 1456-2006 [University and Society: Festschrift for the 550th Anniversary of the University of Greifswald, 1456-2006]. Ed. Dirk Alvermann, Karl-Heinz Spieß, and Ralf-Gynnar Werlich. Rostock: Hinstorff. 21x24 cm. ISBN 3-356-01137-5 (set): EUR 46 [06-1-093]

Vol. 1. Die Geschichte der Fakultäten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [The History of the Faculties in the 19th and 20th Century]. 602 p. ill. ISBN 978-3-356-01135-7, ISBN 3-356-01135-9: EUR 24.90

Vol. 2. Stadt, Region und Staat [City, Region, and State]. 374 p. ill. ISBN 978-3-356-01136-4, ISBN 3-356-01136-7: EUR 24.90

Previous anniversaries of Greifswald University’s founding have produced several important festschrifts, such as Johann Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten’s Geschichte der Universität Greifswald: mit urkundlichen Beilagen [History of the University of Greifswald: With Documentary Supplements], in many ways unsurpassed since its publication for the 400th anniversary in 1856 (reprinted in 1986 by Scientia-Verlag) and the threevolume festschrift from the 500-year celebration (Greifswald, 1961). See also Lexikon Greifswalder Hochschullehrer 1907 bis 1932 (Bad Honnef, 2004—see RREA 11:145) and three different titles covering student registrations (see RREA 10:191-193).

University Archivist Dirk Albermann and Professor of Medieval History Karl-Heinz Spieß present in volume 1 of the 550-year festschrift a history of the four traditional Faculties (akin to U.S. “schools” within the German university system), treating separately the Math-Science Faculty, which split off from the Philosophical Faculty in 1951, and incorporating much previously unpublished work into the lavishly illustrated essays. Carsten Woigk’s essay “Die Studierenden der Universität zu Greifswald 1806-2006” [The Students of the University at Greifswald 1806-2006] gives tables and diagrams that continue, correct and supplement Franz Eulenburg’s classic work Die Frequenz der deutschen Universitäten von ihrer Gründung bis zur Gegenwart [The Population of the German Universities from Their Founding to the Present] (Leipzig 1904) with regard to Greifswald. Volume 2 is dedicated to the university in its social context starting with the end of the Middle Ages and early modern era. We learn about university buildings before 1800, the university as landlord and church patron, university law, faculty appointment procedures from the first years of Swedish rule through the GDR period, and the university’s influence on northern Europe. All honorary doctoral degree recipients from 1815 to 2005 are listed.

This is a source-rich, sumptuously illustrated history of one of the oldest German universities. Between this work and an earlier edited volume, Die Universität Greifswald und die deutsche Hochschullandschaft im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [The University of Greifswald and the German Higher Education Landscape] (Stuttgart, 2004), the last two centuries of Greifswald University’s history are now especially well researched. [mk/rb]

500 Jahre Theologie in Hamburg: Hamburg als Zentrum christlicher Theologie und Kultur zwischen Tradition und Zukunft. Mit einem Verzeichnis sämtlicher Promotionen der Theologischen Fakultät Hamburg [500 Years of Theology in Hamburg: Hamburg as a Center of Christian Theology and Culture between Tradition and the Future. With a Lsting of all Degrees Granted by the Hamburg Theological Faculty]. Ed. Johann Anselm Steiger. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005. xi, 504 p. ill. 24 cm. (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte, 95). ISBN 978-3-11-018529-4; ISBN 3-11-018529-6: EUR 128 [06-1-094]

This work is a collection of 16 essays on the history of theological studies in Hamburg during the last 500 years. Although the University of Hamburg has had a theological faculty only since 1955, there is a rich tradition of non-university theological study in Hamburg dating back to the 16th century. The essays cover earlier theological institutions in Hamburg, most importantly the renowned Hamburger Akademisches Gymnasium, as well as notable Hamburg theologians and religious scholars. An essay on the doctoral program of the University of Hamburg includes a detailed listing of graduates and their dissertations from 1955 to 2005. The essays will be of interest to scholars in the field of theological studies rather than a general audience. [mk/jc]

Die Matrikel der Universität Leipzig [Admissions to the University of Leipzig]. Weimar: VDG, Verlag und Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften. 28 cm. [06-1-095]

Partial vol. 1. Die Jahre 1809 bis 1832 [The Years 1809 to 1832]. 2006. 503 p. ill. ISBN 978-3-89739-522-0; ISBN 3-89739-522-3: EUR 63

Since its founding in 1409 hundreds of thousands of students have enrolled in the University of Leipzig. We know their names via an edition of the matriculation registers of the years 1409 through 1809, which was published in six volumes from 1902 to 1909 by historian Georg Erler. As the 600-year anniversary of the University’s founding approaches a group of scholars has taken on the immense task of publishing the matriculation lists for the next 100 years. The first volume of this work covers the period from the winter semester 1809/1810 to the winter semester 1831/1832, and contains 8,108 names. The edition is based on the hand-written matriculation lists in the University’s archives. For the years up to 1819 the chronological information on each registrant was relatively sparse, and contained only the name, place of origin, and date of enrollment of each student. Thereafter the listings also included information on each student’s previous education and local Leipzig address. After 1832(thus not covered in this first volume)the entries included the ages of each student and the name and occupation of their fathers. Considering the explosive increase in enrollment in Leipzig in the later 19th century, it is understandable that researching additional biographical information, such as the subsequent careers of students, was not feasible. This volume is a first step in presenting a detailed picture of the student body of one of the most important German universities of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This first volume has an alphabetical name index. When the work is complete a comprehensive index by place of origin of each student will be issued and a databank of information not included in the published edition is to be made available. [mk/jc]

Ut omnes unum sint: Gründungspersönlichkeiten der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität [That All May Be One: Founders of the Johannes Gutenberg University]. Ed. Michael Kißener and Helmut Mathy. Stuttgart: Steiner. 24 cm. (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, …). [06-1-096]

Part 1. 2005. 128 p. ill. (…, n.s. 2). ISBN 3-515-08650-1: EUR 26

Part 2. 2006. 133 p. ill. (…, n.s. 3). ISBN 978-3-515-08781-0; ISBN 3-515-08781-8: EUR 29

The titles in the previous series Beiträge zur Geschichte der Universität Mainz, which began in 1955, dealt primarily with the old royal university, while the new series establishes a new emphasis by utilizing the postwar name, the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The reestablishment of the university involved to no small degree working closely with the foreign military commands present in postwar Germany; in particular the close association with French authorities gave the Mainz university the largely undeserved reputation of an institution heavily influenced by France and the Catholic Church. It also suffered under the reputation of having allowed many faculty tainted by association with the National Socialist regime to restart their careers. The volumes at hand do not dodge these accusations, but do modify them through careful analysis.

Both volumes consist mainly of biographies of the founders, encompassing their origins, education, professional careers, and activities in Mainz. Kißener attempts, at the end of the first volume, to write a collective biography of the first postwar generation of scholars, analyzing in particular the Nazi question. The first volume concludes with a useful selected bibliography of the history of the university, but neither volume has a name index, which is unfortunate. It would also have been useful to point to other studies where Mainz professors were examined within the context of their disciplines, which could aid in drawing conclusions about the individuals concerned. [frh/dsa]

Historisches Wörterbuch der Pädagogik [Historical Dictionary of Pedagogy]. Ed. Dietrich Benner and Jürgen Oelkers. Weinheim; Basel: Beltz, 2004. 1,127 p. 25 cm. ISBN 3-407-83153-6: EUR 128 [06-1-100]

Taking two years to prepare, this comprehensive, single-volume work covers over 50 topics, each with a varying number of detailed essays. The work is based on the premise that many disciplines ignore their own history and that this kind of dictionary is important for documenting, historically analyzing, and reflecting on the discipline, without which current theoretical developments would not be possible.

The topics are sorted into four categories: (1) anthropological topics such as anthropology, work, family, generation, humanism, culture, and gender; (2) pedagogical topics such as giftedness, didactics, training, youth, child/hood, teacher, and instruction-planning; (3) topic-oriented pedagogy of disciplines, for example aesthetics, adults, kindergarten, morality, and religion; and (4) general reflections on pedagogy, such as enlightenment, authority, form, methods, and theory & practice. Completely excluded are two important areas in the current education debate — topics about policy (such as discipline, praise and criticism, reward and punishment, and achievement and recognition) and topics about social issues (such as disadvantageousness, equal opportunity, and advocacy). In light of the present debate in education, it would have been helpful to include historical treatment of these current issues as well.

Nonetheless, this Historical Dictionary of Pedagogy is a demanding and comprehensive compendium, which should be found in every pedagogical and every humanities/social sciences research library. [cps/ga]

Politische Entlassungen in der NS-Zeit: vierundvierzig biographische Skizzen von Hochschullehrern der Universität Leipzig [Political Dismissals in the Nazi Period: Forty-four Biographical Sketches of Faculty Members at the Universityof Leipzig]. Ronald Lambrecht. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2006. 202 p. ill. 24 cm. (Beiträge zur Leipziger Universitäts-und Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Reihe B, 11). ISBN 978-3-374-02397-4; ISBN 3-374-02397-5: EUR 19.80 [06-2-302]

Although significant progress has been made in research on Nazi-era emigration, some aspects of it have been surprisingly sparsely covered. Among them are the politically motivated discharges of professors from institutions of higher education. The volume under review, one of a series dedicated to the history of the University of Leipzig on the eve of its 600th anniversary, is part of an attempt to fill this gap. At this institution, 44 professors in all were discharged for political reasons, pursuant to articles 3, 4 and 6 of the 1933 Law on the Restoration of Professional Civil Service (BBG), which dealt with “Aryanness,” prior political activity, or “simplification of management” (this vague terminology was particularly convenient for concealing politically-motivated firings). The law led to the dismissals of Jewish faculty as well as those who held left-wing and pacifist views. Many of the fired professors were extremely influential in their fields. A significant number of them emigrated, and very few returned to Germany after the end of the war. The coverage is limited to professors, due to the lack of good sources on the dismissals of other teaching faculty or on student expulsions. No effort was made to look into the dismissals of staff, even though such research could have proven extremely fruitful.

The biographical sketches contain the most important dates, occupations, and a list of publications, but illuminating contextual information such as the family backgrounds of the professors, their institutional involvement, and the contributions they made to their fields is absent. Even accounting for the difficulty of providing such data in some cases, the authors ought at least to have made an attempt to do so. Due to the book’s sloppy layout, there are one or two empty pages between personal entries.

While worthy in its own right, this volume provides only basic information about its subject. The itemized reference list at the end of each entry contains mostly secondary literature, while the professor’s discipline is poorly covered. In spite of all these shortcomings, one would wish that similar reference works existed to provide information about political dismissals at other German universities. [frh/as]

Tübinger Professorenkatalog [Register of Tübingen University Professors]. Ed. Sönke Lorenz for the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen. Ostfildern: Thorbecke. 25 cm. [06-2-306]

Vol. 1.1. Die Matrikel der Magister und Bakkalare der Artistenfakultät (1477-1535) [Registry of Masters and Baccalaureate Degrees of the Fine Arts Faculty (14771535)]. Ed. Miriam Eberlein and Stefan Lang for the Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen. 2006. 460 p. ISBN 978-3-7995-5451-0: EUR 39.80

Die Matrikel der Magister und Bakkalare der Artistenfakultät is the first volume of a comprehensive project to list all the faculty of the University of Tübingen from 1477 to 1977. This first volume includes baccalaureate and masters members of the fine arts faculty from 1477 to 1535. In contrast to members of the higher faculties (theology, law, and medicine), members of the lower faculty were not permanent salaried employees of the university, although those with a masters degree were expected to spend a year teaching at the university after graduation and those with a baccalaureate degree were required by statute to participate in the presentation of academic instruction.

The current volume lists 2,472 individuals who possessed a baccalaureate degree and 844 who attained a masters degree at the University of Tübingen between 1477 and 1535, when the university was in the process of becoming Protestant. The source document, Manuscript 15/11 of the University Archives, is not a biographical encyclopedia, but rather a listing of individuals who received degrees, supplemented with some biographical details, chronologically organized and including name, home town, and occasionally other items.

To reconstruct the academic careers of the individuals treated in the current volume, the editors searched the directories of other universities in existence at the time and even noted negative results. Other sources in Tübingen were used, e.g., the university’s directory of graduates, the dean’s office registry of fine arts faculty, and Werner Kuhn’s work, Die Studenten der Universität Tübingen zwischen 1477 und 1534 (Göppingen, 1971). Unfortunately, the editors overlooked an indispensible local resource, the Sammlung aller Magister-Promotionen, welche zu Tübingen …geschehen by the Stuttgart publisher Johann Nicolaus Stoll (1756; reprint Amsterdam, 1972), an oversight that should be corrected in future volumes. In addition, the database Repertorium Academicum Germanicum (RAG) could have provided information; conversely, the database would also benefit from the work of the University of Tübingen’s project.

The person index provides references to the various source directories and to Kuhn. The place index suggests that the University of Tübingen derived its graduates largely from the Swabian and Alemanic geographic areas. These indexes also help to mitigate the difficulties caused by the wide variations in spellings of person- and names in use during the period of coverage. [mk/jb]

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