Page images
PDF
EPUB

1850.]

Founding of German Universities.

361

as chemical in the laboratory, chirurgical in the hospital, theological or philological in societies, etc., bring the professor into immediate relation to a smaller number of students. After a study time of three years or more, the student is, on his own application, examined; and if found sufficiently instructed, dismissed as a candidate. The students of medicine remain generally longer than others, and have, after the examination, to defend a printed dissertation in a public disputation, for their degree.

The oldest university of the German empire is that in Prague. It was founded in 1348, by the emperor Charles IV, in his favorite residence; and began soon to flourish, like her sisters in Paris, Oxford, and Bologna. At the end of the century, it is said to have numbered more than twenty thousand students (10,000 in Bologna, in A.D.1260). They were divided into four "nations," Bohemians (with Moravians and Hungarians), Saxons (with Danes and Swedes), Bavarians (with Austrians, Suabians, Franks, and Rhinelanders), and Polish. But this splendor lasted only a short time; for, in 1409, after some quarrel with the Bohemians, the Saxons, together with the Bavarians and Poles, quitted Prague and founded the high school (hohe schule, hochschule) or university in Leipzig.

In 1365, the Latin school of Vienna, founded 1237 by the emperor Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen, in which also philosophy and the fine arts were taught, was changed into a university by the foundation of some professorships for law and medicine, and afterwards for theology (1384). The four nations here were the Austrians, Hungarians, Saxons and Rhinelanders. Vienna was soon followed by Heidelberg, 1387, Cologne,1388, Erfurt, 1392, Würzburg, 1403, etc. The universities are now Königsberg for Prussia, Berlin for Brandenburg, Breslau for Silesia, Greifswalde for Pomerania, Rostock for Mecklenburg, Bonn for the Rhineland, Kiel for Schleswig-Holstein, Leipzig for Saxony, Halle (Wittenberg, 1502-1815) for the province of Saxony, Jena for the Saxon duchies, Göttingen for Hanover, etc., Tübingen for Würtemberg, Heidelberg (and the catholic Freiburg) for Baden, Marburg and Giessen for the two Hesses, Erlangen for Franconia, Munich for Bavaria, Vienna, Prague, etc. for Austria. As to the Austrian universities, however, it must be mentioned, that they have a different organization from those in other German States, and that they, except Vienna and Prague, which have, in spite of the prejudice of non-Austrian Germans, a celebrated name throughout the States for their physical and medical learning, have no just claim to rank with the universities out of Austria.

A university has four faculties. Each faculty has three kinds of VOL. VII. No. 26. 31

teachers, called professores publici ordinarii, p. p. o., prof. extraordinarii, p.e., and privatdocenten. Only the ordinary professors are members of the faculty, and of the senate consisting nearly of all the p. p. o. The senate of Leipzig numbers 40 members and upwards. At the head of the senate and of the whole institution stands the Rector, elected for one year by and out of the senate, or Prorector in those States where the prince himself is the permanent rector. On the 31st of October, the anniversary day of the Reformation, yearly celebrated in Saxony, the rector in Leipzig abdicates in the "aula" of the "augusteum," after having given a short account of the last year. Then the professor of eloquence and poetry (formerly Hermann) speaks a Latin oration, and "his magnificence," the new rector, is installed for the next year. He is the highest administrative and judicial officer, without having, of course, the manual labor of it. He presides in the senate and court, but every branch has its particular functionaries. There is a royal judge appointed with two secretaries, a treasurer with several clerks for the administration of the university estates and capital, and plenty of other officers down to the prison keeper, who has about thirty "careers" under his care, sometimes full, often containing but one or two chief malefactors, who are confined to their solitary residences perhaps for half a year and more. The wealth of the university in Leipzig is immense. Besides the large foundations for the professors, there are nearly a thousand ❝stipendia” for students belonging to certain families or towns etc., and most of them paying a yearly rent of thirty dollars.

The larger universities have from 50 to 107 professors (in Leipzig 69), for each important branch of science one prof. publ. ord., who is bound to teach it, yet at the same time he is allowed to lecture on whatever he pleases (some time ago the government prevented certain political lectures). The number of p. p. o. in Leipzig is at least forty; that of the p. extraor., who have generally small salaries, and of the privatdocenten, who have none at all, is varying and unlimited. Most professors give one lecture "publicly," as it is called, meaning gratis (a p. publicus o. is bound to do it), and another "privately" i. e. for pay. The expenses of the student in this respect are not large. To become a privatdocent, the scholar must receive the permission of “habilitation” from the faculty, and then, like any p. p. o., present a dissertation and defend it against the attacks of those professors, who are willing and able to censure him. Any vacant ord. professorship is filled by the election of one by the government, out of three nominated by the faculty. At the head of the faculty stands a dean, “decanus."

The new student, when he has made up his mind what course to pursue, looks into the lecture catalogue, index lectionum, or on the

1850.]

Course of Study at Leipsic.

363

blackboard (posted at some conspicuous place in the buildings and containing the notices of the professors), to choose four or six lectures to his liking. Some experienced friends advise him, and he acts accordingly. A student of theology, for instance, used to hear in Leipzig (in the first term of five months), historical introduction to the Scriptures by Winzer, Matthew or Luke by Theile, the psalms by Fleischer or Brockhaus, logic by Drobisch, anthropology by Heinroth, a Greek author by Hermann; in the following terms the Romans or Hebrews by Winer, history of the church by Niedner, dogmatic by Winer or Grossmann, pastoral theology by Krehl, moral philosophy by Hartenstein, etc. Others may have attended the lectures of other professors on the same subjects, but all generally hear in the first year exegetical lessons on the Gospel besides philosophical and philological lectures, in the second year on church-history and on the epistles, in the third year on dogmatic and pastoral theology. When they apply for the theological examination, they must show a list of the most necessary lectures attested by the respective professors as having been attended. But this might require only a few hours' attendance and the subscrib ing of the name on the circulating sheet, since the professor is unable to control his hearers, whom he does not know, or to convict them of non-attendance. The subscription, or the payment, is what he testifies by his name. However, the examination will show the scholar. Many a first rate gentleman, accomplished in all the worldly wisdom, which the university life imparts, has been transferred to another year or to another business, after he had received a zero in Hebrew or in any other of the five or six theological branches. Many a first rate talker in his mother tongue, who could not express distinctly his feelings and meaning in a dead or outlandish jargon, sounding almost "like Dutch," (as the proverb runs, though there is probably no language on earth coming nearer the English than that same Dutch) "fell through," as it is called, in distinction from "came through." A favorable result of the examination in Leipzig, which makes the student candidate of theology, is a good recommendation to the second or State-examination, two years afterwards, which is to declare him candidate for the ministry, by Ammon, Wahl, Käuffer, Lange in Dresden. This gives him the undoubted right, to wait ten years more for a ministry, if he is not so lucky as to come in before by the favor of some private “collator” i. e. country nobleman or city senate. There are two such examinations, also, for the lawyer, the former being theoretical, the latter practical. Only the physician, when he has made his examination, and for his degree the disputation, may go and practise, wherever he pleases.

The philosophical faculty has a nearer relation to the three sister

faculties, than they have to each other. To be sure the theologian may attend a lecture on anatomy, or the lawyer and physician may hear Winer on Protestantism and Catholicism; however, either of the three has a more intimate intercourse with the philosophical branches, i. e. with logic, psychology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, history, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy, natural history, etc. than the three have with each other. There have been five professors lecturing on philosophy proper (the most popular, Drobisch and Hartenstein, are disciples of Herbart); seven on classical philology, four on history and polity, Wachsmuth, Pölitzt, Bülau, Flathe, one on astronomy, Möbius, one on zoology, Schwägrichen, one on mineralogy, Naumann, one on botany, one on chemistry, one on natural philosophy, Fechner, one on mathematics, Drobisch, two on pedagogy, two for Hebrew and Arabic, one on old German literature, Haupt, and several on the modern languages.

There being in Leipzig about three hundred students of each of the three professions, the chief lectures in those faculties are always attended by a large audience, but those in the philosophical faculty, however excellent they may be, have sometimes but a few hearers, (Hegel had in the first term at Heidelberg only four students, and was comforted by the theologian, Paulus, the leader of the "Rationalists,” that he himself had sometimes lectured for not more than five. Several lectures are discontinued in the first week. The number of students exclusively devoted to theoretical, i. e. philosophical, philological, etc. learning is of course small, because rich estates or poor professorships are but rare articles after all, in common life, and it would be still smaller if it did not contain a good many non-Saxons or non-Germans. Of the twenty or twenty-five philologists in Leipzig ten years ago, there were scarcely more than ten born in the kingdom of Saxony. But, as it has been mentioned already, the philosophical faculty is not only intended for the few who prepare themselves for the chairs of their teachers, but also for the great mass of professional students, who, however, as it has been always complained of, avail themselves too little of the advantage to improve more and more in the liberal and humanistic learning, which they acquired in the gymnasia. Scarcely two come from those quarters, it is true, to hear lectures on the Integral Calculus, on archaeology or syntax, etc.; but there are generally enough to make a considerable audience in logic, psychology, history, etc., especially new-comers or füchse (foxes) as they are nicknamed by their older fellows.

The importance of a university depends partly on the size and wealth of the State, and partly on the temporary excellence of most or several

1850.]

Leipsic as a place for Classical Study.

365

of the professors. About fifty years ago, the little Jena had Schiller, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, Hegel and other distinguished men. The university at Giessen, in the grand-duchy of Hesse, is one of the smallest, but Liebig has given her a new lustre, and the government, anxious to detain him, has gracefully vouchsafed to make him baron. Of course, Giessen is now the resort of many students of chemistry from all parts of Germany and from other countries. Students of law went to Heidelberg, to hear Thibaut and Mittermaier, physicians to Vienna, Prague or Würzburg (Julius Hospital), philosophers to Berlin (Hegel † 1831, etc.) or Munich (Schelling, now in Berlin), or Göttingen (Herbart†), theologians to Halle (Tholuck, etc.) or to Leipzig (Winer and Niedner), or to Berlin (Schleiermachert, Neander). But most of the professional students remain in their respective State universities. And even the smallest universities, Rostock, Kiel, Marburg, Giessen, Jena, Erlangen, have at any time a number of stars, either shining in the modest dress of privatdocenten, or with the splendor of titles. But when the light has reached the eyes of richer universities, it is soon transferred to a larger sphere, sometimes in an ungenial region or after the fire of genius has gone.out. Berlin (since 1810) and Munich are new universities, transferred from Frankfort on the Oder and Landshut, but in consequence of their being situated in capitals and near the heart of the " Landsväter," they have the greatest number of students. Berlin has about 1600. Jena about 375. The university in Vienna was closed last year, the "academic legion" having been the chief corporation of the revolution, and the "Aula," Vienna's Faneuil Hall. Göttingen was once great under Münchausen's curatorship, having Michaelis, Heyne, Heeren, Herbart, Gauss, Ottfried Müller, etc., but a good deal of her renown since the Duke of Cumberland became king of Hanover, 1837, has disappeared. Seven celebrated professors protested against his arbitrary changes, and were compelled to resign. They were Ewald the orientalist, Albrecht, Weber, now in Leipzig, Gervinus, now in Heidelberg, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, now in Berlin, and Dahlmann, now in Bonn. Ewald has lately returned to Göttingen.

For the students of philology Leipzig has been for fifty years a favorite resort. The lately deceased Hermann was the magnet. His fame had been on the increase since the beginning of the century, and when it had spread farthest, his vitality had not decreased. The ministers of education in Russia and France, Uwaroff and Cousin, were seen sitting on the old benches in his lecture-room, and the former numbered even among his friends. Also the present Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusettss, Dr. Sears, has listened to the

« PreviousContinue »