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State, Church, and the Politics of School Reform during the Kulturkampf

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Abstract

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Type
Symposium: Catholics and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1986

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References

1. Apart from discussing the School Supervision Law of 11 March 1872, the accounts of the Kulturkampf in Prussia in Dettmer's, GüntherDie ost- und westpreussischen Behörden im Kulturkampf (Heidelberg, 1958)Google Scholar, Schmidt-Volkmar's, ErichDer Kulturkampf in Deutschland 1871–1890 (Göttingen, 1962)Google Scholar, Wahl's, AdalbertDeutsche Geschichte 1871–1914 (Stuttgart, 1926)Google Scholar, and Zielinski's, ZygmuntDer Kulturkampf in der Provinz Posen,” Historisches Jahrbuch 101 (1981): 447–61Google Scholar, do not examine the fight that the state waged against the Catholic Church in the elementary school system. Schiffer, Heinrich takes note of the extensive conflict in the school domain without analyzing its full importance in Der Kulturkampf in Stadt und Regierungsbezirk Aachen (Aachen, 1929)Google Scholar. School politics is treated superficially and uncritically in Foerster's, ErichAdalbert Falk: Sein Leben und Wirken als Preussischer Kultusminister (Gotha, 1927)Google Scholar. Josef Becker is exceptional in the careful attention that he gives to the school question during the Kulturkampf in Baden, in his Liberaler Staat und Kirche in der Ära von Reichsgründung und Kulturkampf (Mainz, 1973).Google Scholar

2. Krueger, Bernard, Stiehl und seine Regulative: Ein Beitrag zur preussischen Schulgeschichte (Weinheim, 1970), 116–17.Google Scholar

3. Titze, Hartmut, Die Politisierung der Erziehung: Untersuchungen über die soziale und politische Funktion der Erziehung von der Aufklärung bis zum Hochkapitalismus (Frankfurt, 1973), 189–91.Google Scholar

4. Bernard Krueger, op. cit., 316–22.

5. La Vopa, Anthony J., Prussian Schoolteachers: Profession and Office, 1763–1848 (Chapel Hill, 1980), 81ff.Google Scholar

6. Lüttgert, Gottlieb, Preussens Unterrichtskämpfe in der Bewegung von 1848 (Berlin, 1924), 54ffGoogle Scholar; Meyer, Folkert, Schule der Untertanen: Lehrer und Politik in Preussen 1848–1900 (Hamburg, 1976), 30ffGoogle Scholar; Pretzel, C.L.A., Geschichte des Deutschen Lehrervereins in den ersten fünfzig Jahren seines Bestehens (Leipzig, 1921), 31–36.Google Scholar

7. For Ladenberg's views on the relation between the church and the school, see his “Erläuterungen, die Bestimmungen der Verfassungsurkunde vom 5. Dezember 1848 über Religion, Religionsgesellschaften und Unterrichtswesen betreffend,” in von Rönne, Ludwig, ed., Das Volksschulwesen des preussischen Staates (Berlin, 1855), 227ff.Google Scholar

8. Albrecht, Helmut, Die Stellung des politischen Katholizismus in Deutschland zu den Fragen des Unterrichts und der Erziehung in den Jahren 1848–1850 (Leipzig, 1929), 152–53.Google Scholar

9. Huber, Ernst Rudolf, ed., Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1961), 1: 401–14.Google Scholar

10. “Motive zu dem Entwurf des Unterrichtsgesetzes (1862),” in Stiehl, Ferdinand, ed., Die Gesetzgebung auf dem Gebiete des Unterrichtswesens in Preussen vom Jahre 1817 bis 1868: Aktenstücke mit Erläuterungen aus dem Ministerium der geistlichen, Unterrichts- und Medicinal-Angelegenheiten (Berlin, 1869), 231–33Google Scholar; Reichle, Walter, Zwischen Staat und Kirche: Das Leben und Wirken des preussischen Kultusministers Heinrich von Mühler (Berlin, 1938), 8285, 190, 209Google Scholar; Wiese, Ludwig, Lebenserinnerungen und Amtserfahrungen (Berlin, 1886), 1: 231.Google Scholar

11. “Motive zu dem Entwurf des Unterrichtsgesetzes (1862),” op. cit., 226.

12. Ibid., 229–32.

13. Anlagen zu den Stenographischen Berichten über die Verhandlungen des preussischen Abgeordnetenhauses (18711872), 2: 1052Google Scholar.

14. On the reaction of the Catholic bishops to the law, see Gatz, Edwin, ed., Akten der Fuldaer Bischofskonferenz 1871–1899 (Mainz, 1977), 1: 50ff.Google Scholar

15. Constabel, Adelheid, ed., Die Vorgeschichte des Kulturkampfes: Quellenveröffentlichung aus dem deutschen Zentralarchiv (Berlin, 1957), 127–28Google Scholar; Berg, Christa, Die Okkupation der Schule: Eine Studie zur Aufhellung gegenwärtiger Schulprobleme an der Volksschule Preussens 1872–1900 (Heidelberg, 1973), 2426.Google Scholar

16. Adelheid Constabel, ed., op. cit., 136–39.

17. Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des preussischen Abgeordnetenhauses (9 Feb. 1872), 655, 666, 696.

18. Jestaedt, Winfried, Der Kulturkampf im Fuldaer Land (Fulda, 1960), 128–31Google Scholar; Trzeciakowski, Lech, “The Prussian State and the Catholic Church in Prussian Poland 1871–1914,” Slavic Review 26 (1967): 620–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zygmunt Zielinski, op. cit., 452, 460.

19. These characteristics and aims are most clearly exhibited in Schulrat Linnig's reorganization of the school system in Cologne. A Catholic and a former Gymnasium teacher, Linnig was the most energetic and enterprising reformer in the school bureauracy in the Rhine Province during the 1870s. Hauptstaatsarchiv Düsseldorf (hereafter cited as St. D.), Regierung Köln, Nr. 2885, Linnig's proposals for the reform of Cologne's school system, dated 25 June and 2 December 1874.

20. Stenographische Berichte (31 Jan. 1874), 982.

21. Christa Berg, op. cit., 55–56; Schneider, Karl, ed., Volksschulwesen und Lehrerbildung in Preussen (Berlin, 1875), 301.Google Scholar

22. Centralblatt für die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen (Mar. 1884), 128–39.

23. St. D., Regierung Düsseldorf, Nr. 2619, report of the county councillor of München-Gladbach, dated 25 Mar. 1873.

24. Ibid., district government to Falk, dated 4 May 1873; the minister's reply, dated 15 May 1873.

25. St. D., Regierung Köln, Nr. 2722. For the Center Party's reliance on the clergy in election campaigns, see Anderson, Margaret L., Windthorst: A Political Biography (Oxford, 1981), 260–66.Google Scholar

26. St. D., Regierung Köln, Nr. 2722, county councillor of Bonn to the district government, dated 26 Dec. 1873.

27. St. D., Regierung Düsseldorf, Nr. 2620, provincial governor to the five district governors, dated 15 Dec. 1873.

28. Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz (hereafter cited as St. K.), Abt. 403, Nr. 10412, Cologne district government to the provincial governor, dated 7 Jan. 1874.

29. Ibid., Aachen district government to the provincial governor, dated 13 Jan. 1874.

30. St. K., Abt. 441, Nr. 26204, Koblenz district government to the provincial governor, dated 10 Jan. 1874.

31. St. K., Abt. 403, Nr. 10412, Cologne district government to the provincial governor, dated 7 Jan. 1874.

32. St. K., Abt. 403, Nr. 10412, provincial governor to Falk, dated 28 Jan. 1874.

33. Ibid., provincial governor to Falk, dated 30 Mar. 1874.

34. Ibid., Düsseldorf district government to the provincial governor, dated 7 Feb. 1874; his reply, dated 17 Feb. St. D., Regierung Düsseldorf, Nr. 2620, Falk to the provincial governor, dated 12 Feb. 1874, [copy].

35. St. D., Regierung Aachen, Nr. 17587, district government to Falk, dated 24 Oct. 1876.

36. In Düsseldorf Schulrat Wittig recommended six Roman Catholic candidates to District Governor von Ende on 14 Mar. 1874. The final choice made by Ende two days later included three Old Catholics among the six nominations sent to the minister. St. D., Regierung Düsseldorf, Nr. 2620, the district government to the provincial governor, dated 16 Mar. 1874.

37. Stenographische Berichte (14 Mar. 1876), 607; (24 Jan. 1877), 73ff; (22 Feb. 1877), 773.

38. The Minister of Education gave these statistics in the House of Deputies. Stenographische Berichte (28 Feb. 1883), 1006.

39. St. K., Abt. 403, Nr. 10524.

40. Ibid., directive of the Düsseldorf district government, dated 3 Feb. 1875.

41. Stauder, an official in the ministry speaking for Falk, gave this explanation in a debate on the decree in the House of Lords. Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Herrenhauses (27 May 1876), 257.

42. Stenographische Berichte (14 Mar. 1876), 612.

43. For the text of the decree, see Centralblatt für die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen (Feb. 1876), 120–23.

44. Der Schulfreund: Eine Quartalschrift zur Förderung des Elementarschulwesens und der Jugender-ziehung (1876), 165–66, 301–2; Meyer, Jürgen Bona, Die Simultanschulfrage (Berlin, 1879), 22–24.Google Scholar

45. St. K., Abt. 441, Nr. 26316, Protestant Church consistory of the Rhine Province to the High Church Council, dated 18 Jan. 1878. Such reports from the province on the experience of the interconfessional schools made members of the High Church Council in Berlin join the opposition to Falk's school policy. The councillors expressed their criticism collectively in the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Protestant Church to the Volksschule,” issued on 12 August 1879. For the text, see Verhandlungen der ersten ordentlichen General-Synode der evangelischen Landeskirche Preussens, eröffnet am 9. Oktober, geschlossen am 3. November 1879 (Berlin, 1880), 560–75Google Scholar.

46. Führ, Christoph, Zur Schulpolitik der Weimarer Republik (Weinheim, 1970), 31ffGoogle Scholar. Article 144 of the German Constitution of 11 August 1919 stated that “school supervision is performed by professionally trained (fachmännisch vorgebildete) officials working full-time.”

47. Stenographische Berichte (15 Mar. 1876), 661–63; (7 Mar. 1889), 879.

48. St. D. Regierung Aachen, Nr. 2122 and Nr. 2123; Regierung Köln, Nr. 2777 and Nr. 3109; St. K., Regierung Trier, Nr. 1033, school inspectors' reports. Center Party politicians were not dispassionate or totally fair when they judged the new school inspectors as ambitious place seekers and political opportunists. In 1877 a Catholic deputy from the Rhineland charged that “the newly appointed school inspectors have plunged themselves into the Kulturkampf and have seen their task essentially in the exercise of their office in the service of a certain partisan line.” See Stenographische Berichte (30 Nov. 1877), 643–44. The secular school inspectors in the Rhine Province should not be judged on the basis of the reputation that the new inspectors had acquired in the Polish-speaking districts. In Posen a large number of the secular school inspectors were Protestants of the German nationality. They were outsiders with little knowledge of the Polish language and the culture of the Polish-speaking population. They were drawn deeply into the nationality conflict by enforcing the government's regulations on school instruction in the German language. Upon them fell much of the resentment that the Poles felt toward the Prussian state authorities.

49. Jahrbuch für die amtliche Statistik des preussischen Staates 5 (Berlin, 1883): 552–57, 568–69Google Scholar; Schneider, Karl and Petersilie, Alwin, eds., “Das gesamte Volksschulwesen im preussischen Staate im Jahre 1886,’ Preussische Statistik 101 (Berlin, 1889): 36–37.Google Scholar

50. Jahrbuch fur die amtliche Statistik 5: 561Google Scholar; Statistisches Handbuch für den preussischen Staat 4 (Berlin, 1903): 420.Google Scholar

51. Jahrbuch für die amtliche Statistik 5: 563Google Scholar.

52. St. D., Regierung Köln, Nr. 2725. Pastors who submitted petitions to the district government and then appealed to the minister were not given the reasons for their dismissal.

53. Centralblatt für die gesamte Unterrichtsverwaltung in Preussen (Mar. 1884), 128–39.

54. Stenographische Berichte (12 Mar. 1875), 719–21; (24 Feb. 1877), 872; (30 Nov. 1877), 643–45.