THE GERMAN SCHOOL AS A WAR NURSERY Andrew Melrose's Distinctive Books 2nd Edition A CRUSADER OF FRANCE LETTERS OF FERDINAND BELMONT (Killed in Action, 1915) Price 5/- net 2nd Edition A SOLDIER'S PILGRIMAGE (From the French " Le Voyage du Centurion." By ERNEST PSICHARI (Grandson of Ernest Renan) killed at Charleroi, 1914 Price 5/- net AFTER VICTORY By an AMATEUR OFFICER Price 5/- net 3rd Edition TRENCH PICTURES FROM FRANCE By the late MAJOR WILLIE REDMOND, M.P. Introductory Biographical Sketch by E. M. Smith- Dampier. Price 3/6 net 2nd Edition THE LAST LAP By G. Price 2/6 net DAWN IN IRELAND By MARIE HARRISON Price 3/6 net 2nd Edition IN SALONICA WITH OUR ARMY By HAROLD LAKE Price 3/6 net ANDREW MELROSE, LTD., 3 York Street, Co vent Garden, London, W.C.2 The German School as a War Nursery FROM THE FRENCH Pedagogic de Guerre Allemande By V. H. FRIEDEL With an Introduction by M. E. SADLER. M.A. C.B., LL.D., Litt.D. NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1918 This translation is by MAJOR SELWYN G. SIMPSON, D.Lirr. I desire to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Sadler for his inspiring Introduction, and to Dr. Selwyn G. Simpson for under- taking the translation of my work. V. H. F. PARIS, April, 1918. INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY DR. M. E. SADLER WHAT would one not give, in these early months of the fourth year of the war, for the power to go to Germany and, with full know- ledge of the language and without one's identity being known or questioned, to talk freely with men and women of all ranks and opinions ? In some degree, Monsieur Friedel's book gives one this opportunity. It lifts the veil and shows us some of the currents of German educational thought in war-time. What part can skilfully organized public educa- tion play in furthering the welfare and increasing the might of a modern State ? This is a subject upon which the Germans have arrived at more formulated judgments than have the English. I am far from thinking that these German judgments are wholly sound. On the contrary, they seem to me defective in sympathy with the needs of individual freedom ; conventional in their acceptance of cer- tain established canons of educational orthodoxy ; 7 THE GERMAN SCHOOL and erroneous in some of their practical applications of the theory of general culture. But German educational opinion, whatever its fallacies and defects, is an expert opinion. It is based upon ten decades of administrative experience. It is en- trenched in social custom. It has behind it the power of a vast machine and the prestige of great achievement. It is sharply divided upon some fundamental issues. But, as in German politics, so in German education, the established order still resists attack. Entrenched habits of mind, and the presuppositions upon which those habits are based, defy at present the onslaught of their critics. The supporters of the existing regime are on the whole a solid block. The critics either accept the administrative principles of the present system and merely wish to give an opposite colour to its poli- tical applications, or are forced into extreme theor- etical positions which provoke doubt or excite alarm. In German discussions about education during the last three years we see reflected the political strug- gle between the Socialists and the established social regime. Milder Liberal opinion sways one way or the other. To such opinion the Junker is repug- nant ; the violent Socialist frightens it. Between these two extremes, Liberalism stands disconsolate. It longs for reform in existing educational arrange- ments. But it is puzzled to know what reforms are possible. It dares not be bold, and remains discontented. __ 8 AS A WAR NURSERY The power of organized education is more gener- ally recognized in Germany than in England. Or rather it has been more effectively harnessed by the State. I doubt whether in the interests of freedom this has been good for Germany or the world. But German education, as organized by governments, has been one of the most powerful auxiliaries of the German Empire. And it has served the purpose of the existing economic regime. So powerful is it, that the older school of Socialists wish to employ it in the interests of collectivist Democracy. It is like an armed force which could conceivably be used against its present masters. But the younger Radicals see that a regime of political freedom will call for a thorough-going revision of the teaching-methods and school-organ- ization which are now dominant in the German system of education. On what lines is that revision to proceed ? What is it in German education that calls most urgently for drastic reform ? These are the questions which harass the mind of the younger school of German Radicals and Socialists. America (and, in a less degree, England) point the way to an answer. But American and English institutions are not popular in Germany at the present time. II Monsieur Friedel writes with knowledge and viva- city. He has penetration of mind and a flair for 9 THE GERMAN SCHOOL detecting the political ambitions of the Pan- germanists. As director of the Musee Pedagogique in Paris, he has had access to the documents of the case. He has made good use of them. His book tells us much that we English readers have had no opportunity of learning. Ill Perhaps it will not be thought out of place for me to attempt a short sketch of the situation. In Germany, education is by law the business of each of the twenty-five States (large and small) which compose the Empire. There is no central office in Berlin which controls all German education. No one living can give you all the statistics of all the German schools. And, in the educational sys- tems of the various States there are certain differ- ences of organization, nomenclature, tradition and tone. It is a patchwork this German education ; but at the same time a patchwork well sewn to- gether, and serviceable to the Empire as a whole. This has come about through the operation of cer- tain forces which make for unity. For example, the much-valued and socially influential privilege of " one year service as a volunteer " is attached by the military authorities to approved higher secondary schools throughout the German Empire. Again, the Imperial Law of Industry of 1891 has encouraged the establishment of compulsory continuation schools. The Universities in German-speaking lands TO AS A WAR NURSERY are an intellectual commonwealth with a free- masonry of mutual understanding. The powerful associations of teachers are, many of them, Empire- wide. And there is a learned and authoritative educational Press. Therefore it is just to speak of the German system of education, although ad- ministratively it is twenty-five systems, not one. To a British observer, four things are character- istic of this German system. First, in Prussia espe- cially, there is a deep and significantly purposed social cleft between the elementary school and higher education. Second, higher education has been made the vogue among the middle classes by the military privileges attached to a select category of schools. Policy, good sense, snobbishness, valuable scientific interests are all mixed up in the working of this system. Third, the Universities are in a high degree under the direct influence of the govern- ments. In subtle ways, " the pulpits are tuned." What, with a smile of double entendre, Mr. Gerard calls " the Rat System " is not inefficacious with the climbing type of don. Fourth, German edu- cation has been cleverly and zealously adjusted to the needs of modern industrialism and to the policies of modern commerce. Now, what has been the effect of the war upon the opinions and hopes of the myriad men who count in German education ? How have their ideas, their loyalties, their political convictions, re-acted to the emotions of the war ? Much of TT THE GERMAN SCHOOL what has happened with us has happened in Ger- many also. To them, as to us, the war has made a violent national appeal. The Universities and the schools have answered to the call. The young men have been heroes. The older men have been deeply stirred. The institutions have risen to the emergency. Neither in Germany nor in Great Britain will it ever be forgotten how well the schools and Universities served their country in the great war. Mixed up with this, there has been a certain amount of super-heated patriotism. Some people have been silly, and over-eager to use the schools for " patriotic " purposes. In Germany, a great many enthusiastic citizens want schoolboys to have their minds full of soldiering. They incite the teachers (some of the teachers hardly need incitement) to paint the Entente Devil blacker still, and to invoke the " old German God " as if he were the wealthy but half-retired senior partner whose backing was needed by the firm at a tight corner in a speculative (but, if it only succeeds, gorgeously remunerative) enterprise. There is alarm in Germany, as in Great Britain, at the im- morality, indiscipline and pertness of children, whose fathers are at the front and whose wages are beyond all precedent high. Women are being drafted into the school service in place of men at the war. This in Germany is more of a revolu- tionary change than with us. Again, eager patriots demand that the children's history lessons should AS A WAR NURSERY be coloured by propaganda. According to some purists, the French language, literature and art should henceforward be taboo. Little Germans are to be germanized further still by all the arts of the curriculum. And German policy is to be pushed, especially at Pera and in Latin South America, by subsidized schools and by pertinacious educational preparation. In less grotesque forms we hear the same kind of thing here. Education is a great power. If you can canalize it, you can use it hydraulically for public works. Science, if organized along with education, is a big lever in State policy. For this reason, since the war began, the German Univer- sities have been drawn into closer association with the Technical High Schools. For more than a cen- tury, German education has been patriotic. For the last twenty years it has been prone to Chau- vinism. During the war, it has displayed on its good side a very noble patriotism ; on its vulgar side, a turgid and self-revealing ambition. But no one hates the snobbish and pedantic sides of German education more than do certain Germans. And these men also have talked during the war. With us, the great Public Schools are not so popular as they were four years ago. Their failings have been found out. We admire and love them for their good qualities, but realize vividly their comic shortcomings and complacencies. Still fiercer than among ourselves has been the attack upon the great Public Schools of Germany. The 13 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Gymnasien (ironically so called) have an illustrious history. But in many respects they are whited sepulchres. Venomous are the lips which have spat on them since the war.' The German is proud, inordinately proud, of his educational system. But he often has little love for his old school. He remem- bers the stiff pedantry of some of his schoolmasters : he shudders at the memory of his anxiety about examinations : he despises the pretentious dullness of some of the teaching. He is a heretic, out against an obsolete orthodoxy, which is loaded with privileges and hung about the neck with public honours. Wisely or unwisely, generally unwisely, he clamours for reform in his public schools. He knows that things are wrong, but has little idea how to put them right. He is hypnotized by educational presuppositions, now superannuated. He cannot think himself free from the ideas which still govern the methods of instruction in German higher schools or their mechanical tradition of Allgemeine Bildung. But he hates the spirit of the great German Public Schools, and savagely criticizes them. Nothing, so far, has come from these onslaughts. They do not touch the central point of weakness. The citadels hold out. And the Governments smile, make unreal concessions, and keep things as they are. The attack on the great Public Schools is ne of the chief results of war-time excitement in Ger- many. But the attack, so far, has been futile, though alarming. 14 AS A WAR NURSERY Much more important is another wave of public opinion in Germany about educational affairs. The sacred hierarchy of the schools is threatened. The social privilege of higher secondary education has become more and more unpalatable to the masses of the people. They groan under the harrow of snobbishness and feel themselves put at a disadvan- tage for life by the educational administration of the State. The German workman demands thor- oughgoing educational reform. He wants more bridges over the gulf which divides the secondary from the elementary school. More than this, he wants the elementary school to be the chief concern of the Government and the secondary school to grow out of it as a higher annexe. He demands what he calls the Einheits-Schule. He has been brought up to believe that schools are all-powerful, and he therefore assumes that, if he can get equality in the schools, he will also get equality in every stage of adult life. His dream is an illusion. Yet he is right in hating the present temper of German school administration. But his schemes of reform are fantastic. He asks for impossible things. And therefore his demands are smiled down by the governments and, as the Americans say, cut no ice. Nevertheless they are a portent. If Germany has a political revolution, there will be a revolution in German education. The " high-brows " and the " beat possidentes " will have to make terms with what Mr. Wells calb 15 THE GERMAN SCHOOL "" the common unhampered man." And in those days, if they come, Germany will turn eagerly for educational precedents to the United States of America. In the meantime, however, the established author- ity of German education (especially in Prussia) stands unshaken. Its garrison feels nervous, but holds the gate. And, as a strategical plan, some powerful men in the Prussian Government Offices apparently design a centralization of all the educational controls in Germany. This means that these Prussians want to dominate the Empire and to hold its political fortunes in their hand. There will be resistance to such ambitions. Therefore those ambitions are for the moment skilfully veiled and are pushed rather by intrigue than by open argument. Whether they are to be realized or not depends upon the issue of the war. M. E. SADLER. LEEDS, October, 1917. - 16 PREFACE HARDLY had the war broken out before the Germans set to work to organize the fruits of victory. For no one in Germany doubted it would be otherwise than it had been in 1866 and 1870. They were ready : their enemies were not. From time to time, it is true, German thought conjured up the terrible consequences of a Euro- pean war : but in order that others might be terri- fied. Germany herself did not give any real con- sideration to the matter. She had become used to regard war as " a necessary evil " to see in it "a test sent from Heaven." The citizen who sunned himself in the slow but sure progress of peace had the sayings he had paraphrased at school brought to his mind : " si vis pacem para bellum " : " Der Krieg ist ein grosser Lehrmeister" (War teaches great lessons, etc., etc.). The officers and the recruits were told that " by making war short and brutal they would render it human." They in their turn got the civilians to accept this point of view. Such then was the German belief in 1914. 17 B PREFACE It is surprising to find the propagandists of the East of the Rhine, relying on the inadequate poli- tical education of the German people, asserting that Germany did not loose the dogs of war on Europe. To-day the whole world judges differ- ently. It is true that as far as national politics are concerned the Germans have remained the most uninformed, and it is admitted at present that they are the least advanced as regards world poli- tics. This political immaturity is for the world at large one of the most irrefutable proofs of their culpability. The imperialism of Bismarck ; and the ambi- tions of " Kultur " had led the Germans into a cul- de-sac. Surrounded by nations in which the rela- tions between the individual and the State, and the mutual relationship between the different peoples, followed the natural evolutions of right and liberty, they were unable to escape, save by the sanguinary diversion of a war. As in 1866 and 1870 they meant to succeed, and hoped to find in a cataclysm thus brought about, the solution of the problems arising from their political system, but made impossible of solution by the realities of the systems of all their neighbours. Here we have the reason for their dread of being surrounded. Who created this state of thought ? Who retarded their political education ? Germany is far from being a country of fools. 18 PREFACE To blame the Government the political parties the military caste would absolve the people. This distinction has however been made : the courageous stand made by certain representatives of the people, and the peaceful wishes of various individuals, have been set against the now conciliatory now brutal attitude of the rulers. Any such attempt only shows a misconception of the discipline which pedagogues following the dictates of the State their head have thrust on the entire nation. The pedagogues were the first to bring to light the lessons of this " great master " war. Belgium had just been atrociously crushed, when the most authoritative of them began to develop in the big " Dailies " their projects for the " school of to- morrow " (ecole de demain) " of the doctrine of the new Germany of military education of the young," etc., etc., and to expound the principles of the " peda- gogy of the future." Immediately a general and passionate controversy began. It is not the result of chance. It is most illumin- ating that the Higher Command and the Censor allowed this controversy to continue. In spite of the differences of their systems, the authors of these pedagogical projects all aimed at the strength- ening of the national power. The reforms suggested, however, are not in any way new, far from it. Formerly in time of peace, parliamentary opposi- tion and the political balance of the government had postponed them : now, the experiences of the 19 - PREFACE war, and the national aspirations for the future, gave them an added reality, which was emphasized by their contradictions and even by their excesses. At a moment when the government needed to up- lift the spirit of the nation, discussions on the might of Germany by the education of the rising genera- tion, were truly welcome. It was not entirely the desire to profit by the patriotic enthusiasm and the truce between the political parties, that caused the pedagogues to act with such ardour in the introduction of reforms which had been formerly set on one side. They were but continuing their official work. Had they not been told times without number that the vic- tories of 1866 and of 1870 were the result of their teaching ? Now they were told that it was neces- sary to conquer once again, in order to save the threatened " Kultur," that " Kultur " which they had extolled and built up. It was their natural duty to exploit the successes of the war ; and to point their lessons. The eagerness of the peda- gogues to seize public opinion from the first days of the war, lies in their wish and in their duty to bring the mentality of the people to the concert pitch of Berlin. It was they who brought about the mental outlook which stupefied the world. Thanks to their work the German people were unable to reach the necessary political maturity to assure for them- selves, otherwise than by war, an internal and external development, in accordance with the 20 PREFACE general principles of the civilization of our days. The following chapters set forth the chief aims of this " German war pedagogy." In writing them we have not hesitated to make use of notes made, since the war, from the chief German newspapers. The Press is, we admit, an unsatisfactory authority, especially at present, but the articles used are signed by names well known in the world of education. Formerly the above quoted educational writers and the high officials expounded their theories in documentary brochures and in imposing tomes : now they try to reach the public at large by short essays and concise judgments. Their Press cam- paign is, however, no less sincere than was their official teaching. In the compilation of this work anonymous ar- ticles have only been made use of when they have appeared in controlled periodicals or papers reputed to express official opinion. On the other hand, the extreme papers of all opinions have been dis- regarded. We trust that the war may teach us great les- sons. The German pedagogy, as far back as August 1914, displayed itself in its true colours. It has thrown off its idealistic and Humanitar- ian character and become frankly Rationalist and Utilitarian. Let us bear this in mind. 21 J CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION. By Professor SADLER, C.B... Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University . . 7 PREFACE. By the AUTHOR . . . . 17 CHAPTER I THE EFFECT OF WAR ON THE CENTRALIZATION OF GERMAN EDUCATION ..... CHAPTER II PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND MILITARY PREPARATION . 38 CHAPTER III MORAL AND Civic EDUCATION .... 69 CHAPTER IV THE " EINHEITSSCHULE " 90 CHAPTER V THE WAR AND HUMANISTIC STUDIES . . . 120 iX CHAPTER VI THE POLITICAL R6LE OF THE UNIVERSITIES . . 169 CHAPTER VII THE WAR AND THE GERMAN WOMAN . . .214 CHAPTER VIII THE GERMAN SCHOLASTIC PROPAGANDA IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR . 235 CHAPTER I The Effect of War on the Centralization of German Education TO create an empire, Bismarck falsified the Ems dispatch. He knew that a war with the " hereditary enemy " would enable him to group partisans of individual liberty in Germany around the Prussian standard. Victory achieved, this same individuality forced him to stop short at the principle of federation in the formation of the empire. All his later activity was aimed at imbu- ing this organization with a single and proudly national spirit (deutscher Reichsgedanke) and at consolidating it by a close centralization under the hegemony of Prussia. Being convinced that " this could not be brought about without a fresh war," and whilst waiting for the opportune moment, he took pains to prepare the framework of the proposed unification. * * * To-day, from a military point of view, Germany is a united empire. The King of Prussia, as Emperor, is its supreme and absolute head. Prussian dis- cipline reigns throughout. The individuality of 25 THE GERMAN SCHOOL the various confederate states is reduced to certain differences as regards uniform, which disappear in time of war ; and to certain unimportant details. It appears, however, that the recruits from the southern states on entering the barracks had not the same knowledge, the same keenness of intel- lect, the same standard of moral and physical preparation as the Prussians. The Imperial General Staff had, therefore, pre- pared, in case of war, for the immediate mobiliza- tion of the youth of Germany with a view to a uniform military training (see Chapter II). This was ordered in August, 1914. It is the allurement of an " imperial " institution which it is suggested to continue after th v war. From a legal point of view the empire has tended towards an imperial legislation common to all the states of the confederation. The application of the state of siege and of the war measures, ordered by Berlin, at the beginning of the war seem to have produced different results in the various German states. Is one to believe that the people of Saxony or of Bavaria, foi example, have not yet learnt to behave towards the Prussianizing imperial authority with the same docility as the inhabitants of the Mark of Brandenbourg, and that their " imperial education " is incomplete ? In any case it is a fact that the Generals commanding districts have issued police orders which the zealots at Berlin would like 26 AS A WAR NURSERY to see transformed into permanent imperial statutes (see Chapter III). From a constitutional and political point of view, Bismarck and the imperialists experienced serious disappointments. The individualist groups had disappeared, worn out by vain protests : but power- ful political parties had been formed, which did not delay in making the Government feel their power, at one moment by an indiscreet pressure, at another by the violence of their opposition. At the same time the economic impetus of the country accentuated the antagonism between the masters and the working classes. Whilst the more frequent contact with foreign countries and the growing ease produced, in the middle classes, a state of mind little in keeping with the discipline which the Prussian doctrine exacted, a foundation of democratic ideas remained in the German mind, especially in the centre and the south, to which the success of individual effort in commerce and industry and the great diffusion of instruction were capable of giving new power. How could this be prevented ? How could a permanent effect be given to the lessons of the war for the promotion of the moral union of the State and of the nation ? Bismarck and his followers entrusted the task of subjecting the German states to the central empire, to State education, which had been devel- oped elsewhere for the good of the principles of democratic freedom. This union is completed, 27 THE GERMAN SCHOOL according to their wish, in their higher education. The Universities and the High Schools are the natural allies of the Government at Berlin (see Chapter V). Secondary Education is regarded more than ever as the school of the elite. It prepares for the Universities and professions, not only for the children of the upper classes but also for the pick of. the middle class whom it thus attracts towards positions of government. The pedagogic contro- versy between a classical and modern curriculum has always had a political background. William II personally intervened at the conferences of 1890 and 1900, so that a uniformly German, patriotic and national character should be given to this teaching. It was therefore natural that the Prus- sian elementary teachers should follow this ex- ample (see Chapter IV). As far back as 1908 the Association of German teachers (Deutscher Lehrervereiri), a powerful pan- German society, agitated for " imperial educational legislation." Quite recently a secondary school- master dared write in an educational journal, that " the decentralization of the German educational organization, with all its contrasts and all its strik- ing contradictions, really surpassed the justifiable and boasted individuality of the confederate States." It is astonishing to see the obstinacy of Prussia in not being able to recognize the superiority of the elementary schools in Saxony or in the Southern 28 AS A WAR NURSERY States. She has been forced to model her schools, as regards many details of organization, on those of the neighbouring states, but she has never allowed an occasion to pass of urging them towards a patri- otic outlook and of commending to them the morale of her own system. Indeed the " contrasts and con- tradictions " come from the fact that everywhere elementary education has a democratic character, which it has not in Prussia. In order that this may be forgotten the Government at Berlin has shown an untiring solicitude for the teacher. No portion of the most lavish praises of the patriotic merits of the elementary teacher has ever been delivered in the Prussian House without the teachers reaping appreciable social advantages. These have been repeated on other platforms in the empire, and have been repeated again and again in the papers. What has been the result ? As a result the German elementary teacher has done his best to be worthy of this praise. 1 Were the authorities in Berlin convinced that the Imperial Education met every contingency ? It was unnecessary to make the University circles and the middle classes accept the idea of war. Among the masses of the people the expedient of 1 Taking a phrase, invented by whom and under what circumstances we know not, Rob. Kahn states " that the German elementary teacher leads the German people " (Der deutsche Schulmeister marschiert auch heute an unseres VolkesSpitze.} Frankfurter Zeitung, June 12, 1915. Volks- bildung und Wehrhaftigkeit, by Dr. Rob. Kahn. 29 THE GERMAN SCHOOL the Fatherland basely attacked, strengthened by the strongly imposed political truce, in other countries brought about by the mutual consent of the parties, recalls too vividly the methods of the Iron Chancellor for one not to see in it a precaution added, to make doubly sure, to the imperialistic propaganda in popular centres. War, once again, has " united " the Germans to themselves. And so that, this time, the union should be permanent, the promoters of the central empire have immediately re-commenced the cam- paign for an imperial organization of every grade of public instruction. * * * From the beginning of hostilities the education authorities in all the German states have asked the teachers to bring home to their scholars, in the fullest way possible, the lessons of the war : it appeared essential to them to interest the children " in the great events of which they are the uncon- scious witnesses." In a few months it was possible to introduce this scholastic propaganda to the public in the capital. On March 21, 1915, the Prussian Minister of Education inaugurated at Berlin " the Central Institute Emperor William II for education and teaching." 1 A kind of pedagogical library, the 1 Vide, amongst others, Frankfurter Zeitung, April 24, 1915: Berliner Tageblatt, March 20, 1915. Leipzig followed this example in June. Berliner Tageblatt, June 15, 1915. 30 AS A WAR NURSERY chief idea of which being to conserve whilst mak- ing them accessible, the pedagogical collection brought together at great cost in 1910 for the Brussels Exhibition. As a beginning the new In- stitute organized a special exhibition " The School and the War" There one could see, so we are told, the children's compositions on the glorious episodes of the war, topographical drawings and sketches relative to battles, models of war machines, girls' hand work to be sent to the soldiers : graphs showing the position of the schools with regard to the works of war letters from school children to the " men in grey " and the answers from the Front, and even collections of patriotic war poetry composed by the school children. This living picture of the participation of the little world of school in the realities of the war was frequently commented upon by the experts in their lectures 1 and stress was laid on the means and methods of teaching which it suggests. This Institute is as yet only a Prussian creation, but seeing that it centralizes all that which refers to the German school, even outside the imperial frontiers, and in that it especially aims at point- ing out the lessons of the war for the whole German nation, it follows that it will become an imperial organization. This Institute is expected to expand by force of 1 It will be necessary on another page to quote one or two of these lectures. 3* THE GERMAN SCHOOL circumstance from a centre of study and of in- formation for the use of the schools of all the Ger- man states into a central Administration (Reichs- schulbehorde) to which all general questions, in which uniformity is desired, would be referred, such as the professional preparation of the teacher, the length of term and of vacation, the scope of the curriculum, the fixing of the school-leaving age, etc., etc. It seems as if it would end in overthrow- ing the scholastic autonomy of the confederate states. 1 Soon after the opening of the Central Pedagogical Institute a German Committee for education and instruction was formed. The principal pedagogical societies and such renowned educational experts as Rein, Wychgram, etc., and the high administrat- ive officials immediately became members. This committee proposed to study the best way of re- solving the various pedagogical problems which the war had created or had brought under discussion. The following subjects appeared in its programme : unification in a single homogeneous organization of all the organizations destined to educate youth, from the nursery and infant schools to the Univer- sities and the army : the establishment of a school purely German in character (Deutsche Grundschule) : the rational selection of the chosen scholars to go on to the Secondary Schools : the development of 1 Die Notwendigkeit einer Reich sschulbehorde, by the Lehrer Menzel, (Vossische Zeitung). 32 AS A WAR NURSERY German influence in foreign countries : the revision of the privileges granted to various educational establishments : the physical and military educa- tion of school children and adults : the education of girls, including " the year of State military train- ing for women," etc. 1 The German Committee owes its existence to a secondary schoolmaster. It would have been as- tonishing if a member of high education had not meddled with a question which was more particu- larly of interest to elementary education. It was a future University professor, Privatdocent Dr. Max Brahn of Leipzig, who undertook its forma- tion. 2 Dr. Brahn also considered that it was time to stop the multiplicity of German scholastic organiza- tions resulting from the fact that each confederate state directs its education according to its own ideas. When the Empire was formed, no one realised the importance which a uniform education of the rising generations might have for the German imperial idea. The Constitution of 1871 makes no provision for this question. The initiative of William II in summoning the educationalists of the whole empire to a series of meetings at Berlin, to discuss the various questions affecting secondary education forms a precedent. 1 Vossische Zeitung, January 23, 1916 morning edition. 2 Berliner Tageblatt, January 16, 1916 second supple- ment. 33 o THE GERMAN SCHOOL Has not Prussia often pointed the way to educa- tional reforms to the confederate states? Apart from a small grant 1 made to the Foreign Office to look after German schools in foreign lands, no imperial organization exists to bring the schools in the various parts of Germany into close union. There are however in education certain methods and certain subjects which affect the well-being of the whole nation, and ought, therefore, to be the same in the north and south as in the east and west. Physical education, the aim of which is military aptitude; civil and moral instruction, which should aim at absolute loyalty towards the " Fatherland ; " the teaching of the language, of the history and the geography of the nation should not differ in any part of the empire. The same thing applies to other subjects in the curriculum. The moment has arrived, Dr. Brahn believes, to cement the union formed by the war and to put an end to the inconveniences which too much individuality has caused in peace time. According to his idea " an imperial conference " (Reichsschul- conferenz) is necessary. Men of every profession ought now to be asked to attend, equally with educationalists, in order that education may be finally organized in conformity with the practical and national exigences of the present and of the future. The Confederate States would be left free to arrange the details. In order to provide for 1 A sum of 6,500 marks appears in the Budget. 34 AS A WAR NURSERY the continuity of the decisions of this conference, a permanent and central organization of public instruction something like an under secretaryship of State would be established at Berlin to decide and arrange for the application of the general and guiding principles of a uniform education of the German youth with a view to the complete unity of the empire. 1 * * * This, then, in short, is the ruling political idea underlying the pedagogy of the German war. It will be seen as the base of each of the controversies which are summarized in the succeeding chapters. Just as some honest pedagogues in Germany, we have been surprised to see an educational movement start with such bitterness at a moment when the country was entering into an armed struggle, which was sure to be formidable. This is, however, no movement towards scholastic restoration and re- organization such as has taken place in Germany and elsewhere as the result of violent political changes, but a deep-laid political campaign disguised as education. This accounts for its bursting forth, one might say, automatically, on the declaration of war. The trial found her united. The nation was led to believe that it was defending its existence against its jealous and implacable enemies. Political discord died. This union was 1 Berliner Tageblatt, January 16, 1916 ; vide also chapter iv. the proposals for 'the Einheits- or Gnmdschule. 35 I THE GERMAN SCHOOL to live for ever, welded together by " the thought of Empire." All the forces of the nation henceforth should be concentrated on this thought. The Ger- man nation must be in a position to reap all the fruits of victory. It was therefore necessary that a uniform education of all her citizens should pro- cure immediately the necessary physical, moral and intellectual force. It is a logical postulate, though hard to realize, of their internal policy. 1 The rul- ing party had judged it wise to start a movement of this kind in close connexion with politics and with the aims of the war. It was not therefore a question of an education, broadly speaking humanistic, nor of a purely national education, such as the German thinkers of the beginning of the twentieth century desired, but of a political and nationalist education in accordance with the new German precepts, which are known under the name of " Kultur." The pedagogy of the German war spreads beyond the domain of pedagogy proper. It threatens in- deed to pass beyond the confines of German inter- nal politics. The consequences of possible peda- 1 At the Bavarian Diet (59th sitting of the Commission on the Budget, February i, 1916) a speaker violently attacked the idea of a Reichsschulamt (an imperial office of public education). The Minister of Education replied that this idea had only occasionally appeared in the Press ; that the Imperial Government had not taken the initiative in this matter and that moreover such a centralization was not in accord with the constitution of the empire. - 3 6- AS A WAR NURSERY gogical shufflings and " the new Germany " (Neu- deutschland) which will result, should not be passed over without comment. It is the winning hand of the " time after the war " which is being prepared on the other side of the North Sea. Let us follow it closely. Even now it is possible to distinguish some of the principles of this " war pedagogy " and to form an idea of what the school of thought of the " Germany of to-morrow " will be like, even though it may not be realized as com- pletely as the majority of Germans of to-day would wish. THE GERMAN SCHOOL CHAPTER II Physical Education and Military Preparation IT has been stated that the schoolmaster won our battles. Knowledge alone, however, does not raise mankind to the moral height where he is ready to sacrifice his life for an idea, for duty done, for the honour of his country. The whole education of the soldier must be added. It is not the school- master, but rather the State, which has gained our battles, the State, which for sixty years has urged the education of the nation towards physical strength and moral sanity : towards patriotism and viril- ity. Field-Marshal Moltke unfolded this pro- gramme of military education before the Reichs- tag in 1874, for the benefit of the representatives of the confederate states, whom the skill of Bis- marck had grouped around the Hohenzollern eagle in 1870, and whom it was now necessary to urge forward as a result of the new imperial realizations based on Prussian ideals. Allusion to the middle ages, when the founder of German physical culture (Turnvater), Fr. L. Jahn, advocated physical education with the avowed aim _ 3 8- AS A WAR NURSERY of preparing the country for the merciless struggle against the " hereditary enemy," sufficiently ex- plains the " idea " for which the rising generation of the empire should be ready to sacrifice themselves without a murmur. At the time of the wars with Napoleon the Universities had put themselves at the head of the movement. From that time they have not ceased advertising, in a loud and military manner, physical valour for the benefit of the " national German idea " (Deutscher National- gedanke). The State, as early as 1842, had added " gymnas- tics " to the curriculum of the Secondary Schools and to that of the primary schools in 1862. Many times since then have the methods of school work been the object of pedagogical discussion and reform. The followers of Moltke were able to refrain from openly interfering, as the whole German education was evolving, according to their wish, towards the national and military ideal. 1 1 The figures given by the Prussian Minister of Education at the Budget Committee on February 6, 1916, are striking. Of 51,018 masters mobilized, more than 6,000 have fallen : more than one-fifth of the students of the training col- leges, who joined up as volunteers, have also been killed. At the meeting of March 16, 1916, the Minister stated that out of the 15,700 fully qualified Prussian Secondary School teachers 7,000 were with the colours. Die Lehrer- Kollegien im Krieg,by Professor P. Hildebrandt ( Vossische Zeitung, of December 5, 1915, fifth edition) informs us that one of the public schools in Berlin had lost eighteen 39 THE GERMAN SCHOOL William II, more talkative, defined it more clearly each time he had the occasion to speak to educationists. Physical culture was practised for itself, for the betterment of the race, for the good of public health, but its military character was retained. The Education Authorities, who asked for no- thing else, were urged not to sacrifice physical exercises to useless studies ; to strengthen their obligatory character, to endow a sufficient number of special institutions, so that every elementary out of thirty-three teachers : in others one-third were mobilized. A National Liberal member suggested that, if the scholars of the fifth form were called up they would " form nearly an army corps " (Kolnische Zeitung, March 17, 1916). The Socialist member Hoffmann spoke of 20,000 youths, many amongst them being in the fourth form, fifteen years old : the Higher Command was obliged to stop this stream of recruits who joined up " in der Aufpeitschung der Leidenschaften in der ersten Zeit, und um vom Schulzwang loszukommen. Man ruhmt sich noch, dass die Lehrer wit halber List sie dazu bekommen haben " (In the excitement of the first days, and in order to evade the obligatory attendance at school. It is also stated with pride that the teachers half forced them to do so by ruse.) (Vorwdrts, March 18, first edition.) Finally in the summer of 1915, 81 per cent, of the stu- dents of the Universities, Technical High Schools, etc., were in the army or in the auxiliary services ; and in the winter 1915-16 as many as 84 per cent. : e.g. more than four fifths or, calculated according to the attendance of the last term in peace time, about 56,000 men. This same winter only 10,000 youths of German birth regularly attended the courses (Tagliche Rundschau, June 5, 1916). 40 AS A WAR NURSERY and secondary teacher could become an expert instructor of physical culture. 1 It is interesting to call to mind the sarcastic and threatening criticism which was levelled at France from the other side of the Rhine with regard to her scholars' battalions, to the patriotic character of her gymnastic societies (as for example the " Alsa- cienne-Lorraine) : and to the teaching of shooting in her elementary schools. The Germans to-day quote the French societies for military preparation, in order to accuse her of " militarism/' and of a " spirit of revenge," but in reality to bolster up their own plans with the precedent of French example. 2 When the German General Staff in August, 1914 mobilized the youth of the country, it be- came clear that Moltke's speech had not been delivered in Parliament simply for oratorical effect. The Minister of War included in his preparations for the conflict physical education as a basis of 1 It is a known fact that many Secondary Schoolmasters (Oberlehrer) add " gymnastics " to the facultas docendi of Greek, Latin and modern languages, etc. Every effort has been made to make this " exception " the rule, and to make " gymnastics " one of the main subjects (Haupfach) so that the teaching of gymnastics in the schools should only be done by the Oberlehrer. Vacation training courses have been organized for teachers in general, and there is in Berlin a most elaborately equipped institute for the training of teachers for this special instruction. 2 Tdgliche Rundschau, January, 1916 (evening edi- tion). 41 THE GERMAN SCHOOL military efficiency. This formed a part of the pre- parations made by him in view of the expected struggle. At the same time the expression " mili- tary education " (Militarische Jugenderziehung : Erziehung zur Wehrhaftigkeit, etc.) appeared in the leading papers. The Censor permitted the discus- sion on this controversial subject to burst again into flame, because he was certain that the national feeling would override the scruples of the idealistic pedagogues. Public opinion had indeed also been prepared outside educational circles. The numerous gymnastic societies (Turnvereine) had become united after 1870 into a vast and power- ful organization, (Turnerschaft) whose aims became quickly merged in proud nationalism and the ag- gressive display of pan-Germanism. Physical training had its place in all political, social or re- ligious associations. Equally in sports clubs, pure and simple, every effort was made to remove the influence of English models, and to replace them with uniform and aims dear to the military mind. Finally the military preparation was clearly evident in the recently formed clubs of youths and children. Their titles are descriptive of their aims : the Pfadfinder (boy-scouts), the " Jugendsturm " the " Jugendwehr " (of Berlin), the JungdeutsMand,the Wehrkraftverein (of Bavaria), etc. In short, the military pragmatism, which was officially denied, had gained the ascendancy wherever physical exer- 42 AS A WAR NURSERY cises were carried out and they were indulged in on every possible occasion. The nationalism of Bis- marck and the militarism of Moltke had prepared the nation for the effort which was realized as immanent. 1 * * * #. On August 14, 1914, a fortnight after mobiliza- tion, William II gave his sanction to a decree of his War Minister, countersigned by the Minister of the Interior and by the Minister for Education, ordering the formation of " companies of youths " (fugendcompagnien, Jungmannen, Jungmannschaf- ten). 2 Schools, gymnastic societies, sports' clubs, cor- porations and municipalities were asked to form into companies all the youths of sixteen and even fifteen years old, who were capable of benefiting by physical culture and instruction, preparing them for military work. One relied on the patriotism of the youths to make them enlist, and on that of their parents, employers and of the Authorities to make them take part in the training. The Minister of War, by means of instructions (Richtlinieri) 1 Jungdeutschland, Neudeutschland, Alldeutschland, Mitteleuropa (young Germany, new Germany, pan-Ger- manic Central Europe) mark the stages in Germanic dreads. These are the expressions which are to be found on every page of the German papers of these latter years. 2 Every German citizen at seventeen years old is land- sturmpflichtig ; i.e. can be mobilized in the territorial divisions. 43 THE GERMAN SCHOOL laid down in what the preparation of the future recruits should consist ; training of the body and mind ; route marches, reconnaissances, signalling ; choice of ground, judging of distances in short all that would prepare a young man to become rapidly a soldier fit for a campaign, beginning with discipline. The use of arms and special drill were not included in this programme but left for the barrack square. The fact that this mobilization of children was ordered by the Emperor, the supreme head of the imperial armies, proves that it was to be operative in the whole empire. The avowed motive of the measure, which was to " facilitate the training in the depots of young men who might be shortly called to the colours," and its limitation to the duration of the war, only deceived those who be- lieved in a precaution brought about by force of -circumstances. In reality the Government at Ber- lin had much more far-reaching aims. The com- plete and implacable exploitation of victory was to create the Germany (NeudeutsMand) (Beamed of by Germanism, a Germany definitely centralized under the hegemony of Prussia, in a position to im- pose its will. As every political question in Germany begins with the school, and ends with the army, this war measure of the General Staff was regarded by the public as a distinct step towards the unifica- tion of public education under imperial control. * * * 44 AS A WAR NURSERY In Prussia the military preparation of the younger members of the community was entrusted to the presidents of the provinces, i.e. to the immediate representative of the general civil government, who had a senior officer specially attached to or- ganize and direct these " youths' companies." The other German states followed the example of Prus- sia. The Emperor created, for Berlin and for the mark of Brandenbourg, a " General Commis- sariat Department/' at whose head he placed an infantry general. The Ministers of Education and of Commerce received instructions to form similar corps in all institutions under their jurisdiction ; and to reduce lessons in such a way as to allow the pupils enrolled in these companies to take an active part in their training. In cases where there was not a sufficient number of pupils to form a school corps, the boys had to join with the youths who had left school in the battalions which were to be raised by clubs, factories and municipalities. The Civil Authori- ties were ordered to help forward the movement by every means in their power. * * * The purport of the first instructional directions (Richtlinieri) has already been noticed. The minis- ter supplemented these, as experience proved the necessity, and they have now been codified. As the campaign continued the original organizers, chiefly retired military men, were called to the - 45 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL colours, and their places were taken by benevolent civilians, for whose use publishing houses printed a kind of catechism embodying the aims and ideas of the military authorities. The Minister of War had provided for all con- tingencies as regards this forced military prepara- tion ; implements and maps had been purchased, means of transport had been arranged, 1 and policies taken out with the insurance companies to cover the responsibility of the instructors in case of accident, etc., etc. At first the idea was greeted with general enthu- siasm ; then followed a period of reflection and criticism. The parades to be seen at Berlin and elsewhere were considered by the general public, and even by soldiers, as ridiculous, 2 and the Minister of War was obliged to state that he did not want people "to play at soldiers." As far as the children were concerned the mono- tony and fatigue of certain exercises, the courses of theoretical instruction and especially the disci- pline, calmed their first enthusiasm. Then, as the classes were not to be held on Sundays, so as 1 The instructors have free transport to the manoeuvre grounds, and the pupils benefit by reduced fares. The Budget Commission of the Prussian Landtag wished to extend these free passes equally to directors and to every- body helping in the training of the companies. 2 Die Verausserlichung der militarischen Jtigendpflege. (Major Corsep en Argonne) in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger , February 7, 1917. - 4 6- VV\R NURSERY not to prevent the children from going to church the masters and parents considered that the ab- sence of the young workmen for one or two after- noons a week was upsetting to the work and a heavy charge, and, after all, this preparation was not obligatory. It had been organized for the duration of the war, but the war was going on interminably. The cost of living was daily becoming higher, and in many cases there was no one but the son to gain the wherewithal to live or to cultivate the land. It is thanks to the schools that the scheme has never- theless taken root. The teaching profession has been ordered, since the first days of the war, to interest their pupils by every possible means in the great events which were taking place. This it did so well that the young minds soon regarded the " youths ' companies " as a useful adjunct, and a movement was set on foot to make the obliga- tion and organisation permanent after the war. By the middle of 1915 the main lines had been fixed and the instructions completed, and the Press was called in to enlighten and stimulate public opinion. l 1 The article Jugendcompagnien, by Professor Dr. Walter Jesinghaus of Berlin, which appeared in the Berliner Tage- blatt of June 7, 1915, aimed at stimulating the zeal of one section of the community and allaying the fears of another. In January, 1916, the Bavarian Ministers of the Interior, of Religion and of War addressed a new circular to the generals commanding districts, to the prefects, to the municipali- ties and to the representatives of counties and districts 47 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Proposals were then made by pedagogues to include in the curriculum military preparation. Such a proposal was open to various criticisms, the least being the certain disorder which would be caused in the traditional Time Tables. The pro- posals, therefore, gave rise to grave apprehension. Could the education of the brain be reduced with- out hurting the nation's intellectual future ? What subjects could be sacrificed ? Would it be possible to find teachers capable of giving to this preparation as educational an appearance as the military authorities desired. Would there not be the inevit- able danger, whatever steps were taken to combat it, of making the school too military and, as some of the advanced politicians thought, the whole civil life of the nation. Another class of thinker was also to be found in military circles : those who did not possess the true military spirit : and who made the young recruits believe that when they had joined the corps they had nothing else to learn with regard to mili- tary matters. To them it seemed just as dangerous to apply military methods to civil affairs, as it was to introduce civil methods into the barracks, " as had been done in France." * thanking them for what they had done for the military preparation of the young people and urging them to renewed efforts. It seems from this that the success of the first year was incomplete (Miincheney Neueste Nach- richten, January 27, 1916, morning edition). 1 Frankfurter Zeitung, September 19 and 26, 1915 : - 4 8- AS A WAR NURSERY It is impossible to analyse in this work the numer- ous articles and pamphlets to which the enrol- ment of the youth of the country by the Minister of War gave rise. 1 With a very few exceptions professional or educational writers have expressed themselves in favour of the ministerial scheme, and the military preparation of schoolboys and youths has become a reality which future German education will have to . take into its calculations. * * * In March, IQI6, 2 the Prussian Minister of War " Militarismus und J u gen derzie hung " : " Let us leave these stupidities to foreigners," says this serious paper in the first article dealing with organizations imitating army methods. The second is a letter sent by a Bavarian colonel at the Front. This officer is entirely against giving to the educa- tion of the young, in times of peace, any taint of that " sublime and sacred military character " which children cannot understand. 1 The chief articles of the educational papers, as well as the pamphlets and books, have been analysed in the daily papers. In addition to the articles already quoted or to be quoted suo loco ; the following summarize the contro- versy : Militdrische Jugendausbildung, by Professor Dr. Hildebrandt, in the Vossische Zeitung, March 20, 1915, and February 6, 1916; Die Schulprogramm im Krieg, in the Berliner Tageblatt of April 28, 1915 ; Sport und Spiel ; Die Militdrische Vorbereitung der Jugend, by Councillor Suckow of Frankfort on the Oder, Kolnische Zeitung, May 10, 1916. Sport und Spiel, ibid., March, 22 1916. 2 In January, 1916, the Prussian Minister of War had summoned to Berlin representatives of the various gymnas- tic societies of the five largest confederate states. The reason of this conference being to unify the teaching of 49 D THE GERMAN SCHOOL invited State officials, educationalists, presidents of gymnastic societies, etc., of the various states of the empire to a course of instruction. The lectures were delivered in the audience chamber of the Prussian Diet and the conference lasted for several days. 1 The ministerial delegates again explained the views of their chiefs and laid stress on the suc- cess of the scheme. The civil delegates related their experiences and put forward their proposals. The practical demonstrations out of doors terminated the discussions. The chief question was, it appears, the obligatory character of the new military pre- paration. The State officials who were not certain of the general attitude on this point had the satis- faction of seeing that opinion was strongly in favour of compulsion. 2 . Debates on this current subject occupied the chief German gymnastics, and to make it coincide with that in the schools and in the army (Kolnische Zeitung, March 22, 1916). 1 All the principal papers gave accounts of the meetings and analysed the questions discussed amongst others the supplement of the Vossische Zeitung, March 23, 24, 25. Munchener Neueste Nachrichten seized the occasion to make an active propaganda in Bavaria. 2 The president of the gymnastic council of Berlin, Professor Dr. Reinhardt, ventured to ask if it was not pos- sible to waive compulsion. Loud cries of " No " answered his question. One of the officials from the War Office had just enumerated all the disadvantages of a voluntary system. The military authorities rely largely on the ele- mentary and continuation schools both of which are com- pulsory and hope, therefore, to get the idea of compulsion accepted. 50 AS A WAR NURSERY place in the discussions on the educational estimates in the Parliaments and Diets of the confederate states. The Ministers took note of the opinions expressed, almost all in favour of compulsion, but as the question had been raised by the War Office, and as the army is an imperial organization, it was for the Reichstag to legislate on the matter. 1 * * * There would appear to be no insurmountable difficulty to prevent the Imperial Government from 1 Die Jugendorganisation in Baden, Berliner Tageblatt of February 8, 1916. There was an exceptionally full discussion in the Bavarian House. The Minister of Reli- gion spoke during the sitting of February 4, and advocated compulsion and a uniform system for the whole empire organized by the State. The representative of the War Office spoke in the same strain. Both were in agreement with the President, Dr. Wohlgemuth, and of the Deputy, Dr. Muller-Meiningen (Hof), whose treatise Wir brauchen ein Reichsjugendgesetzt (published by Teubner at Leipzig) expressed the views of Berlin. The Socialists and certain Liberals only made reservations with regard to compul- sion. Moreover the Ministers were asked to act in such a way that their Prussian colleagues should not keep the initiative which they had gained for the moment. Mun- chener Neueste Nachrichten, January 27, February 4 and 16, March 25, 1916. The Association of Secondary Teachers in Bavaria had convoked at Munich on April 25, 1915, all the organizations which were interested in the future settlement of the question. At this meeting it was decided that in view of the importance of military educa- tion, it would be well to reduce the time table, homework and the exigencies of examinations in order to provide the necessary free time ; for the future, however, this education ought to aim at the development of the body and the mind. 51 THE GERMAN SCHOOL passing an Imperial law dealing with the physical culture of the youth of the country with a view to the military aptitude of its citizens. It could even count on the Socialist vote. 1 Parents and employ- ers are obliged to send their children and juvenile workpeople to the age of sixteen and eighteen years old to the compulsory continuation school which is held during working hours they could equally well be forced to send them to military training. What would be the effect, in face of this national duty, of the protestations of a few idealistic peda- gogues who were terrified that the time necessary for this military training would be taken from the periods set aside for Greek, Latin, French and English ? The support of a certain opinion and a majority in Parliament may not, however, suffice to render the scheme permanent. The financial question 1 All the Socialists do not regard the Erziehung zur Wehrhaftigkeit, i.e. physical culture, as a preparation for military service, in the same way as Liebknecht. His colleague Adolf Hoffman declared that school and " Wehr- haftigkeit " formed one whole and that it was an Imperial question. His party, therefore, asked for an " Imperial Education Bill." The Bavarian Socialists concurred in this view, but, as also certain sections of the Liberal party, they declared themselves opposed to compulsion. In the Prussian House the Conservatives clamoured for "compulsion." The Minister, however, made no declara- tion on the subject, contenting himself with laying stress on the patriotic devotion of the teaching profession and of the pupils. 52 AS A WAR NURSERY will play a large role in Germany after the war. Will the State and Parliament accept the charge of this fresh obligation when compulsory education, which is more than a century old, has remained up to the present without the logical correlative of being entirely free ? At present the military author- ities grant 50 pfennigs per pupil to the youths' companies for the purchase of instruments, maps, etc. The reduced fares on the trains and trams need not be taken into account. At the end of the war the municipalities will find themselves heavily in debt and faced with heavy charges on account of social reform. They will not, therefore, be in a position to subsidize the movement. On the other hand can the parents be expected to provide and renew clothes and shoes ? It is rather for this reason than to avoid confusion with the regular army that the Minister of War is ready to " toler- ate " a uniform on the condition that it is simple and bears no military ornaments. It is possible to compel the youths who are in any way under school discipline to join the com- panies : but the only way in which compulsion can be forced on the youths of 18 to 20, who have left school and are at work, is by transforming the gymnastic societies, the trades unions, the political or religious associations into State agents. 1 1 A quite recent addition to the law on trades unions allows young people to become members. If, on the one hand, there is reason to fear that they will become prema- 53 THE GERMAN SCHOOL The German War Office is ready to strike the iron while it is hot, and, in profiting by the immediate lessons of the war, is making a propaganda which flatters and pleases the pride of the nation. Force and organization will, it is alleged, be necessary not only for the army but in the politics and commerce of the new the greater Germany. Thanks to these two elements, has not the army marched from victory to victory ? The force, however, is often dissipated by illness, which is too often the conse- quence of vice or simply of abuse of life. l turely entangled in political discussions, there is every reason to hope, on the other, that it will increase their sense of civic responsibilities, and that, if the unions organize physical training, the young people will spend their leisure moments in training rather than in the public-house. Dr. Kerschensteiner of Munich, the well known educationalist, asserts the adoption of this section as " dangerous madness " (Die Woche, vol. 22, May 27, 1916). The associations of young Roman Catholics in the diocese of Munich declared that they were willing to collaborate in a movement for the physical development of the youth but considered that the first aim should be his intellectual and religious well- being (Neueste Nachrichten, February 16, 1916). The Roman Catholic societies for the protection of youth have 300,000, and the Protestant societies 160,000 voluntary members from the families in which a " reasonable state of mind dominates." All these societies have a religious aim. It would therefore be running the risk of extinguishing their influence and existence if they were amalgamated with some compulsory organization. Pastor Dehn of Berlin (Deutsche Rundschau, June 17, 1916) is of opinion that the associations for the " care of youth " (Jugend- pflege) should be left outside military preparation. 1 The German Parliaments have discussed big legal measures for the protection of infants, and all the various 54 AS A WAR NURSERY Wealth, which has come too quickly, has brought to the rough German " middle class " well being, comfort and even luxury, which it appears to be using in a wrong manner. Excited moralists and ambitious nationalists fear for the future. For a long time they had denounced the " weakening of racial valour " by the growing needs of the working classes : by the pleasant scepticism of the business man who frequented the " international palaces," by the vice of the so-called artistic taverns, intro- duced from abroad by the intellectuals. A return should be made to the " national " virtues of the old Germans, big eaters, heavy drinkers and stal- wart fighters, and to follow the example of the uncultivated princes who have created Germany's might Bismarck and the Hohenzollern. 1 To those who thought thus, the Minister spoke with fervour and for the moment they were in the associations interested in these subjects have actively taken up the question. Lively campaigns have been started against venereal disease, against drunkenness, against infant mortality and for the protection of natural, abnormal and degenerate children. School hygiene is recommended and " sex pedagogy " advocated. In short everything which, in school or in relation with the school, can help to diminish the waste of future generations is started ; and appeals and encouragement to increase the birth rate and to raise children in a more healthy manner ( are spread in all directions. 1 Those who ask, in a more cultured spirit, to go " Zuruck vom Deutschland Bismarcks zum Deutschland Goethes " are much less numerous. 55 THE GERMAN SCHOOL majority. 1 The others, including the Socialists, equally numerous, were told again and again that in order to keep the possessions they had, and to increase them, every German of the whole empire ought to be able to fight with his fists, make his sword ring and should keep his powder dry. These, they were told, are the secrets of commerce and the essentials of fruitful international ententes. I Organization requires discipline or, as the Germans say, " the joyful subordination of the individual Ito the interests of the community." The military preparation of youth in making the race physically and morally more vigorous, aims, according to the statements of the Minister ^f War, at counteracting this spirit of personal independence, of exaggerated initiative, of free activity, which threatens to degenerate into dis- I sol vent " subjectivism." The only way of com- bating this ill, from which " democracies perish," of saving the German morale and discipline, is by introducing a military education into the schools. Naturally those who represent the school, the State teachers, are in entire agreement with the administration. The leaders of the movement and their following do not so much desire the better- ment of the race (Ertiichtigung) as the efficient and 1 Der wahrhaft-herzerfreuende Erlass (the decree which has really gladdened the heart), Professor Dr. Hildebrandt wrote, in the Vossische Zeitung of March 20, 1915, speaking of the decree which mobilized the young men. - 5 6- AS A WAR NURSERY disciplined valour for the military career (Militdr- ische Jugendvorbereitung, Erziehung zur Wehrhaf- tigkeit). The congress of German teachers (Lehrer- tag) held symbolically, at Whitsuntide in Eisenach, at the foot of the Wartburg, where Luther translated the Bible, emphasized this distinction in a typical resolution . The assembly asked the military author- ities to guarantee by imperial legislation the pre- paratory school for the army for all the youths from seventeen years upwards who could be enrolled in the Landsturm. It was, however, of the opinion that in the ordinary elementary and continuation schools, nothing further was needed than to add to the compulsory gymnastics an equally compul- sory training in swimming, marching, games, etc. This instruction to be given on one afternoon a week, on a day specially set aside for the purpose by the law. In this way the scholars, up to the age of seventeen years, would receive a uniform physical instruction and training with a view to preparing them for the preparatory school or the army. 1 The Heeresvorschule, if established on these lines, would be quite unlike the democratic Swiss " recruits " school, in that it would be dominated by the military spirit and in that its final aims are quite different in character. * * * The official imposture of the Fatherland attacked 1 Berliner Tageblatt of June 15, 1916, and other papers of the same date. 57 THE GERMAN SCHOOL by a formidable coalition had just brought about complete union. Before the eyes of a hypnotized people, the most imposing war machine that had ever been seen set forth for the frontiers. It was at that moment that the Imperial General Staff ordered the military preparation of the youth of the country. It was needless to state that it was to be permanent and compulsory. The Government was certain that by allowing the question to be discussed in spite of the state of siege the nation would itself demand these two principles : and would break down without pity any opposition to their application. The cases of the Socialist member Liebknecht and of the University professor Fr. W. Foerster are very characteristic in this respect. On March 16 last, during the discussion on the Educational Estimates in the Prussian House, Liebknecht made a violent protestation against " the militarization of the school." " More than ever," he said amongst other things, " the primary school is exploited nowadays, in order to consolidate the position of the ruling classes, and to capture the mind of the young proletariat for the benefit of these classes and for militarism." The militariza- tion of the school has been designed by various middle-class partisans as a phenomenon which calls for thought. Even at school men are being edu- cated to become war-machines. School is a train- ing establishment for war. Physical endurance is, -58- AS A WAR NURSERY at this moment, especially in favour, because fresh material must be furnished to the Moloch which is militarism. The health of man is, therefore, improved in order that he may destroy human life. Liebknecht quoted in support of his thesis a decree of the President of the government of Frankfurt- on the Oder, von Schwerin, who ordered the teachers in the secondary schools to " eradicate from the minds of their pupils the sentiment of the general brotherhood of nations and of international paci- fism ; to be very careful not to excuse or attenuate the crimes committed against Germany by her enemies, and to take every step to inculcate in the minds of their scholars hatred and anger." Liebknecht learnt, on that day, all the hardships of parliamentary procedure. The Government par- tisans, led by the Conservatives, covered him with insults. The sitting was one of the most uproarious that had ever been witnessed in the Prussian House. 1 Arrested in the street a short time afterwards Lieb- knecht was imprisoned and condemned for High Treason. A month later a professor of philosophy and pedagogy at the University of Munich Fr. W. Foerster made very similar statements, concerning the " premature and unseasonable cramming of the child mind with military ideas." Very sincere 1 The analytical account published in the Vorwdrts of March 17, 1916, has been followed, as it is more complete than the Government papers. 59 THE GERMAN SCHOOL and very individual, a writer of great talent and an inspiring lecturer, Prof. Fr. W. Foerster holds opinions with regard to the future of his country diametrically opposed to those of his contempor- aries. He maintains that the principal thing in political parties, social classes and religious beliefs at home, and in nations of different descent and culture abroad, is not so much the force of loud speech and of the sword, but the moral force which is able to prevent inevitable conflicts and to prepare for the union, without which neither individuals nor nations can live and prosper. The military preparation of youth, Foerster states, forms an aggressive and dominating character, devoid of force and nobility, incapable of ruling its passions, and lacking in balance and judgment in moments of stress. Without moral force no useful physical action is possible; that, according to him, is the fundamental axiom of all education. " Simply to form soldiers would injure the greatness of the German people. Not only would military success not be assured (because the God of War is capri- cious) but he would be powerless to develop at home or abroad : he would be unable to perform his national and international missions, and it would be impossible for him to turn his natural and acquired qualities to account." Fr. W. Foerster, whilst being thoroughly and proudly German, is a clear-sighted pedagogue. His works on education are masterpieces of pro- 60 AS A WAR NURSERY found and just observation. He considers that it is ^ impossible to make children realize all the serious- ness of a terrible war, and to apply to them the relentless discipline of the military system. The school can and should only give a general and appropriate physical education, borrowing at the most from the military system certain interest- ing exercises such as those performed by the " Boy Scouts." He concludes : " Young men courageous in their military service that is German; a mili- ' tia of young Germans is not." 1 In the first chapter of a book, very well known in Germany, on " The World War in Education," Fr. W. Foerster described the new pedagogical duties of our day. Having regard to his great authority as Sociologist and Pedagogue, " he had 1 Berliner Tageblatt, February n and 12, 1916: " Deutsch ist eine wehrhafte Jugend, undeutsch ist eine deutsche Jugendwehr." According to the Vossische Zeitung of June 29, 1915, there was a German Jugendwehr at the time of the thirty years' war. The learned paper reprints from a book entitled " Irenomachie, Of Peace and War " ; a dialogue between Peace (Irene) and the Capitanus puero- rum who directs the exercises of the pueri milites. " The child, says Peace, practises what he has learnt ; it would therefore be better to teach him to keep peace than to make war." " We are at war," answers the lieutenant. " That results from the fact that nobody knows how to keep peace : it will be re-established, and will be well suited to your Kingdom. " " What have we to discuss with this woman ? ' ' says the subaltern, " let us continue our exercise." This reminiscence bears the impress of the present time. 61 THE GERMAN SCHOOL not been put in the same boat " as the " molluscs l who attempt to introduce into the school ideas which are contrary to brotherly love, and to the reconciliation of nations," and to the " cowards " who lack the courage to profit by the occasion to make " the ideal of the exclusively German reality " triumph, and to leave the German lower classes brutally to assert their superiority alone against all, by all the German methods which war has taught them. Fr. W. Foerster, unluckily for himself, is unfor- tunate enough to have ideas worthy of a wide- minded thinker ; he has the misfortune to deduce from them, with relentless logic and inflexible scientific honesty, the facts of the political and social history of his own country and of other nations ; and he makes the error of upholding his ideas with a courage all the more noble in that it is rare amongst his compatriots, at a time when they, hypnotized, throw themselves at the feet of the " military Moloch." The University of Munich has publicly 1 Schule und Friedensziele. Fine nationale Gefahr, by the secondary schoolmaster Erich Meyer in the Tagliche Rundschau of January 2 and 3, 1916. A lie jene Typen von Nachtmutzen Trotteln Schlappschwdnzen, Waschlappen (ein Segen dass wir in unserer Sprache diese herzerfrischen- den Anschaulichkeiten haben) sie werden wach und erheben ihre Stimmchen (all these types of weaklings, chicken- hearted fellows, hangers-on (how fortunate that we have in our language these realistic expressions which rejoice the heart) wake up and raise their little voices. 62 AS A WAR NURSERY dissociated itself from its troublesome member, who dared, in a Berlin newspaper, to dissuade the people from the military preparation which the majority of the Germans desired. 1 So far no Imperial law has been passed. The gymnastic societies have elaborated a project ; but the governmental press has received their initiative and their proposals with ironical disdain. There are some patriots who would like to turn Germany into a big " school for N.C.O.'s " with a little science added to leaven the time table ! The Imperial Government awaits the course of events. For the moment it is sufficient if the federal authorities enforce, in the day schools and gymnastic and sporting clubs, the decree of 1914. The German illustrated papers contain photographs of physical exercises, parades and distribution of prizes, etc., which show that the military authorities have the question of " youths' companies " well in hand. In the autumn of 1916, the Prussian War Minister wanted to see the results of the decree of 1914. A 1 This is the famous " Foerster Case " which the French Press has reported incompletely and in certain details incorrectly. Herr Foerster is the son of a Berlin astronomer who is best known as the advocate of moral culture (ethische Kultur) and as consignee of the miserable manifesto of the ninety-three. He was educated at the Technical School of Zurich and later at the University of Vienna. Thence he was appointed to Munich not, it is said, by the Senate, but by the Catholic Government of Bavaria. This is more -6 3 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL general competition of all the organizations which had been formed in Prussia, with a view to the military preparation of the rising generation was arranged. The report on this meeting was sent to the Emperor, who replied by an " order " issued to Headquarters on January 8, 1917, and published in the official Army Orders. It was reproduced in all the German papers. In it William II expressed his royal thanks to all those who had co-operated in this patriotic work ; and especially to the youths who " from duty to the Fatherland, give up their leisure to strengthen their bodies and to train themselves for war." The War Minister seized this occasion to complete the main lines of the military preparation by certain clever recommenda- tions. The following give their tenor : (i) Military preparation is an institution which has to do with military service (militdr- dienstliche Einrichtung). It is quite dis- than enough to account for his not being a prophet in his own country. " Le Musee Pedagogique " (41 rue Gay-Lussac, Paris) contains the following works by Prof. Fr. W. Foerster : Schule und Character Beitrage zur Padagogik des Gehor- sams und zur Reform der Schuldisciplin (Zurich, 1910) ; Schuld und Suhne Einige psychologische und padagogische Grundfragen des Verbrecherproblems und der Jugendfiir- sorge (Munich, 1911), and the translations of Pour former le caracte're (translation by Thirion, Paris, sixth edition, Fischbacher) ; and L'ecole et le caractdre (The moral pro- blems of school life), translation by Borel, (published by Fishbacher). -6 4 - AS A WAR NURSERY tinct from the organizations which aim at the general development of youth (Jugend- pflege). (2) In order to help the delegates and to organize courses of instruction, for the use of the teachers, the generals commanding dis- tricts. 1 and the general royal commissariat 2 should obtain the voluntary assistance of officers unfit for active service ; or should commandeer officers on leave ; or civilians having the rank of officer. One of these officers will be attached to each delegate ; two, if the delegate's district is a very large one. Officers who have already had experience in the training of youth should be taken first. (3) Medical advisers if possible doctors whose official duty is the care of children should be got to interest themselves in the institu- tion. (4) The directors and instructors of the various units are selected by the delegates ; and should promise to teach their group in accordance with the directions of the military authorities. Schools, societies or associations for the physical development 1 Ad interim replacing, during the war, the generals commanding the army corps at the Front. 2 For Berlin and the Mark of Brandenburg. 65 E THE GERMAN SCHOOL of youth, etc., will be able to make sugges- tions as to the choice of the directors and instructors. (5) In the event of a dearth of directors and instructors the delegates will ask the General commanding the district to commandeer provisionally (zur Aushilfe) officers, N.C.O.'s and men who have been wounded in the war. (6) Delegates, directors and instructors are again most strongly recommended to collaborate closely with [the civil authorities with the schools, with the clergy, with the official committees who are interested in the educa- tion of the rising generation and with private societies. In order to simplify the arrange- ments with the clergy, with regard to the exercises which have to take place on Sunday, they should be fixed, once and for all, at a time which suits the local conditions. (7) All overwork of the young people, e.g. long marches with packs, is forbidden. Night operations must not curtail the sleep of the youths, and must be limited to the hours of twilight and dawn. (8) It is of the highest importance to make and conserve suitable training grounds and means of instruction. The results already obtained permit of the certain hope that the interested parties, efficaciously sup- AS A WAR NURSERY ported by the Government and the com- munal authorities, will procure for our youths training grounds, if possible in the immediate vicinity of the large towns, and the necessary means of exercise, in order to make them more vigorous and apt for military service (Ertiichtigung und Wehrhaftmachung) . In winter, a sufficient number of halls and large rooms will be found in the towns and large villages ; and empty barns in the country in which physical exercises and military movements can be carried out (Wehrturnen). Those interested in this movement will learn with pleasure and satisfaction that the spontaneous and devoted activity of the directors and leaders, as also the joyous ardour of " the young men " to enlist, have received merited recognition from such high quarters. There is every reason to be- lieve that the masters and the " young men " will continue in the future to devote themselves with pleasure and enthusiasm to the serious work which they have voluntarily undertaken ; especially so now that the " All Highest " has shown his keen interest in their patriotic work ; and that he has, by his praise, also shown to the public at large the great importance to THE GERMAN SCHOOL the army of the military preparation of the youth of the country. This new appeal because that is what it really was, presents the military preparation as it is under- stood by official, Prussian, Germany " in its true colours/' William II and his Minister of War address the whole of the corps already formed, and the civil groups, including the clergy. The aim is not hidden in the least nor the assurance that the institution will remain the same in char- acter, in memory of the great events after the war. Things will have changed in Germany by the time the discussion on the desired Imperial Law if it ever takes place is held. More numerous and less timid objections will make themselves heard. Military preparation will nevertheless continue. It is in the Prussian temperament. The " State the Educator " will abandon neither the nationalist instruction nor the military education, which she has followed since the beginning of the last century, whether she does it openly or under the cloak of pedagogy, of sport and of hygiene. It is the duty of her neighbours who have been warned, to be on their guard. 68 AS A WAR NURSERY CHAPTER III Moral and Civic Education THIS is not the place to judge the morale of the German army, their Press, their inter- nal and external policy or their Civil Service during the war. It is to be hoped for their own sake that they will find amongst themselves some " Foersters " who will one day speak to the nation perfectly sincerely and loyally. They have already realized what has happened in the realm of education. A moral crisis has broken out amongst the youth of the nation with such violence and so suddenly that it has been impossible either to hide or to modify it. Prof. Fr. W. Foerster seems to be right in demand- ing before everything a healthy, moral pedagogy. The Germans have always boasted of the educat- ive value of their pedagogy ; and they seem to have some reason for their pretension. Their early educators emphasized the spiritual side of educa- tion, and their most heated pedagogical discussions were aimed at the partisans of education and the pedants of instruction. French educationalists will remember with what sarcasm certain German peda- gogues, especially the theologians, hailed the appear- THE GERMAN SCHOOL ance of moral education in the undenominational primary schools in France. They would hardly allow the extenuating circumstances which the frankness of the French admissions with regard to their commencing experiences merited. These could not be regarded as conclusive 1 as the curri- culum for the new education was being devised, .and the teachers could not successfully give, at once, instruction calling for such delicate handling. After lengthy discussions, and thanks to the patient efforts of certain earnest pedagogues, the German authorities decreed that moral instruction should be given, leading up to religious teaching, in the history classes, and reading lessons. What is the use they said of creating a special kind of in- struction to develop qualities which have always flourished of themselves in the minds of the German people, in such a way as to have raised her moral " Kultur " far above that of all other nations. It is evident that the German educationalists have never really grasped the nature and effect of the French moral instruction. A very amusing proof is given by a curious " war " article in the Frank- furter Zeitung. 2 1 We refer to the criticism levelled in Germany at the re- port of F. Lichtenberger, published by the " Musee Pedago- gique " for the exhibition of 1889, in Memoire set Documents scolaire, 2 s6rie, No. 28. The letters exchanged between Mr. F. Buisson and Mr. Ch. Wagner on this subject are no less interesting (Fischbacher, Paris). 2 February 16, 1916. 70 AS A WAR NURSERY An officer of the German medical services found l in the school in a small French village of 180 in- habitants, situated on the banks of the Meuse, two notebooks which had belonged to a little girl in the middle standards, Georgette M , tnat is to say, according to the German officer's belief, to a scholar not yet thirteen years old, but possibly two years younger. These notebooks bear the date of the school years 1909 and 1910. The officer sent them to a friend, Ludwig Goldschmidt of Gotha, who considered them of sufficient interest to warrant their contents being published for the information of the readers of the Frankfurt papers. His article is entitled Kant in a French Village School. It is indeed the philosophy of the author of the Criticism of Pure Reason, and the moral of the Prussian thinker that M. Goldschmidt discovers in the pages stolen from a French primary school. The audacity of the village schoolmaster on the Meuse disconcerts him just as much as his talent. " For," he says, at the beginning of his article, " the present day French celebrities in the domain of philosophy only have the renown which they ascribe to themselves : they are not even plagiar- ists, so completely are their writings devoid of sense and reason ." " As for Kant , no single Frenchman with the exception of the ' noble ' Mme. de Stael Other cases of the interest displayed by the invaders in searching the French libraries and schools will be noted, and their reflections quoted. 71 THE GERMAN SCHOOL has ever understood any of his works," etc., etc. Therefore, on reading in the two note books, set forth in the most complete and clear simplicity ? the " ideas " of morale and of philosophy which the philosopher of Koenigsberg had formulated of yore for the use of his compatriots, the good German was plunged into a profound and admiring stupefaction. What a great pity that " this perfect master, with such a forceful personality, should be condemned to lecture to the restricted audience of a small French village ! " " Everything which fills the minds of the children during successive days appears in living form before us. Everything is well arranged. Each day has its allotted subject the maxim for the day. These are usually questions of morals, the moral law, false- hood, personal dignity, moderation, honesty, anger, pride, modesty. Such are the subjects which this ' village Socrates ' expounds to his pupils. Other- wise they are details about the Constitution, the State, the Commune and the muncipal council, etc., etc." The daily lesson is treated in three parts. Care- fully chosen moral phrases are used as the copy for the writing lesson ; then follows a dictation, a short composition or an explanation, and finally a problem the data of which refer to the maxim of the day. " Only once is there any exception to this arrange- ment, and this exception does not appear due to chance (sic !) ; that is when the master, in the -72 - AS A WAR NURSERY lesson on lying, had the entire verb : to speak the truth, conjugated.' 1 The arithmetical problem set in connexion with the lesson on War, was to calculate to how many working people an annuity of 600 francs could have been given if the five milliards paid to the conquer- ors in 1871 had been lent out at 4 per cent. " How- ever," Goldschmidt says, " the master is not a militant Socialist, because on the cover of one of the books is a strong condemnation of strikes ; he is a good patriot and a true Republican, because he dictates to his pupils that " the Republic is the final government of France." The paragraphs on the love of one's own country, on true patriotism, and on the lessons to be learnt from History, appeared so excellent to the German critic that he translated them in their entirety. In these, the French schoolmaster says to the children that " true love for one's country does not consist in slandering strangers, nor in despising those who have left France : that all nations have contributed their share to civilization : that all possess their illustrious men, their scholars, their heroes, their poets and their artists , that those so-called patriots who wanted to revive religious persecutions and civil war, are not worthy to be called French." Equally admirable are the paragraphs in which are set forth all the political catastrophes which in the space of a century the nineteenth have crushed France more than any other country. The pupils -73 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL are told to " profit by these national misfortunes ; to realize not only the exceptional qualities of the French race, but also its defects, so that they may become more clear-sighted than past generations and so avoid the return of such ills." Gold- schmidt sees, in the copied maxim written at the head of the chapter on lying, a paraphrase of the answer given by Kant to the King of Prussia, when the latter made the philosopher promise to refrain from attacking religion. " No one is obliged to say all he thinks ; but all he says should be in agree- ment with his thoughts." Finally the first lesson of 1910 commencing with these words " The conscience is the code of moral law " is followed by a dictation which, according to the German critic, is a masterpiece of enlightened and just exposition of the " Categorical Impera- tive." " The simple village schoolmaster exhibits therein a loftiness which shames the most subtle philosophers." In short, Goldschmidt is full of enthusiasm for the contents of the notebooks ; for the lessons on morals and civics which the French elementary schoolmaster showers on the little girls. He would like to quote them all. But, do you believe that he is capable of recognizing loyally and without reserve all the merit of this unrivalled teacher ? Or of admitting that possibly other French teachers give the same noble lessons ? It is certain that it passed through his mind to ask himself whether such a moral ~74 AS A WAR NURSERY and civic instruction was not that which Republican France gave to all her children , but he immediately dismissed the thought. Herr Goldschmidt is German, and as such, from the natural trend of his mind, likes to admire a particu- lar case. But his " science " does not allow him even to suppose that there are other similar cases in France, or to allow that this " lofty " instruction is " French." This '' Village Socrates " could never have learnt at a French training college, or borrowed from a French manual, the lessons which he dictates ! He sums up his conviction in these words : " All that is to be found in these notebooks, is too characteristic of an individual to be attri- m buted to general instruction." It is evident that Herr Goldschmidt of Gotha knows neither the French manual nor the directions issued by their Minister of Education. He is equally unaware of the tiresome but salutary disputes which have arisen in connexion with the manuals of moral instruction. If he had known, he would have been only too happy to have used them as arguments against the French. No, his reasons for refusing to allow them any merit are entirely different : " How can the French and the English dare to refer the Germans to Kant's theories of human dignity and moral duty, seeing that they themselves have lost all idea of the one and the other ! If Kant a German was able to rise to such noble concep- tions, the German people, and they alone, have 75 THE GERMAN SCHOOL them, so to speak, bred in their blood. Have not the French and the English constantly since the outbreak of war, violated the rights of Man by their campaign of lies ; by the proscription of the scholars affiliated to their societies, etc. etc/* On the cover of one of the note books an harangue against strikes but " naturally in favour of French industry " is printed. The schoolmaster is a good patriot, but France is governed by a set of Chauvinists. A madman has assassinated the only man in France who was not persuaded of the "justice of a war of revenge." France has sought and let loose War in order to have her revenge. The English and the French lie when they pretend that they have been forced to wage war. It is all very well for the French school- master to say to his little French scholars in his lessons on History : " Let us profit by our misfor- tunes to make us better," and to proclaim in his talk on War : " Every war is a monstrous iniquity," or again : " One of the greatest crimes is to kill or mutilate a nation. France has not become any better. Has she not baptized one of her men-of- war The Revenge ? " She has always and ceaselessly engendered hate of the German in the minds of her youth." The good critic concludes : " Has the unfortunate country but this one man (the school- master of the little village on the Meuse) with an untainted mind ? Jaures, the enemy of re- venge and this schoolmaster," he says, " accuse - 7 6- AS A WAR NURSERY France. On the other hand the German Emperor has proclaimed : We seize the sword with a clean hand, etc. etc. There is the truth." It is thus that an intelligent German avoids facts ! He has before his eyes the material proof of a moral and civic instruction of which he is forced to admire the peaceful, human and nobly philosophical char- acter. He protests with his purest scientific sin- cerity, but he is unable to prevent himself from making science lie, and from disfiguring truth. A singular state of mind which can neither be ex- plained nor excused by warlike Hypnosis. It would be wronging Herr Goldschmidt to think that he was alone in this view. Only too many of his " scien- tific " compatriots have the same mental outlook. These vain Pharisees have compromised for all time the probity and good name of German science, because they have disdained the moral lessons of their great philosophers. For science also has need of moral force to protect herself against the errors of passion and prejudice. The homage done by a " scientific " German to an unknown French schoolmaster should not be displeasing to the French. Herr Goldschmidt could have found thousands of similar notebooks at the London Exhibition in 1908 and in Brussels in 1910. The moral and civic instruction of the teacher on the banks of the Meuse is that of all the French elementary schools. Goldschmidt can strongly recommend it to his -77 THE GERMAN SCHOOL compatriots. It has been found by the French to be good, and they are determined to continue it. Herr Goldschmidt, of Gotha, little thought, when he published his article, of the startling refutation which he gives not only to the German thesis of France athirst for revenge, seeking and provoking war ; but to all the insidious calumnies which the Germans have spread about the French decadence and their moral rottenness. At the end of the war, they will perhaps realize how they have been deceived as to the real value of the French morale, and their own. * * * What has become of this innate morality of France's presumptuous neighbours ? This " colossal " war should have given them an unparalleled opportun- ity of proving it to the sceptic and jealous " deca- dents." The pitiful exploits of their army " the best disciplined in the world " have edified the world at large on this point. " It is War," they say. No, it is not the intoxication of battle : the cruel necessity of hand-to-hand fighting which has driven the soldiers of William II to dishonour themselves for all time. Those in the rear, the recruits of to-morrow, have shown themselves in their own country, especially in the towns, worthy rivals to their elders. Day by day, the war has shown the inanity of the " fundamental " morality of the Germans, and the inefficacy of their educational measures to cultivate it. AS A WAR NURSERY Whilst France and England, following the example of the American juvenile courts, created special courts for the trial of young offenders, Germany contented herself with introducing into her Code certain additional paragraphs, dealing with the repression of crime amongst minors. School dis- cipline and the various societies for the protection of juveniles were relied on, rather than police or- ganizations to rescue precocious criminals. These societies have increased to such an extent, and have shown such activity, that the statistics proving that since 1906 the number of juvenile criminals brought to justice has steadily decreased, may be accepted as correct. Statistics are, however, accommodating and youthful criminality is more difficult to root out than illiteracy. l The recrudescence, since the early days of the war, has been so sudden and so disquieting that it has been impossible to hide it. The newspapers of every shade of opinion have written about it openly. They felt it was necessary to recognize the facts and to speak of them frequently ; not so much for the purpose of pointing out their true causes, as to quiet opinion and to announce that efficacious measures were being taken. 1 The Germans claim the honour of having the lowest number of illiterates with the colours (about 0'2 per cent.). From the prisoners' letters we have been able to see, it would appear that the " examination for recruits " is not very exacting. As for the letters written by the working class women, the French workpeople and peasants write more easily and correctly. 79 ~ THE GERMAN SCHOOL As early as the month of June in the first year of the war at the approach of the summer holidays, the Berliner Tageblatt 1 gave an account of a meeting of the benevolent societies of the Capita 1 which had been summoned at the Guild Hall of Berlin to discuss the best means of keeping the scholars off the streets during the time when the schools were closed. It was then that the full scope of the ill was discovered. The boys wandered about in the streets ; went to cinematographs, stole, smoked, drank, and gave themselves up to various forms of debauchery with girls of their own age (12 to 16 years). It was asserted that the war was the cause of this shameless behaviour : the authority of the father who was mobilized was lacking and the mothers were obliged to work away from their homes or to remain weary hours before the shops in order to obtain provisions. Warlike enthusiasm had " turned the young brains." The headmaster of one school stated that during the first weeks of the war 1,500 elementary schoolmasters in Berlin had been called to the colours : the women teachers who took their places had not sufficient power ; these facts made the children irregular and restless : moreover many of the school buildings were occu- pied by the troops : the instruction was upset by the change of masters (one class had as many as six in eight weeks) ; by the grouping of classes owing to the lack of masters ; by the frequent June 25, 1915. -So- AS A WAR NURSERY collections and by war work of all sorts, etc. What was to be done ? The societies arranged playing fields, organized excursions and opened workshops. The children, however, preferred the street. The holidays ended, the Central Society for the Protection of Young People could only acknowledge the increase of the ill. Stringent measures were asked for. At another conference, on February 4, 1916, held this time in the Prussian Upper House, sad details were disclosed. 1 The band of youthful hooligans numbered in its ranks double the number of boys from twelve to fourteen years of age than of older or younger children ; and they were not all children of the work- ing classes. Certain orators tried to excuse these errors of youth by the need of activity : by the instinct of liberty, by the craving for adventure, unchained by the " glorious " war ; by mischievous books, etc. The specialists were of a different opinion. Accord- ing to them, very few cases were due to hereditary or psychological tendencies. They discovered the cause in the influence of the home surroundings and in the lack of education. The statistics given by the organizations whose 1 Vossische Zeitung, January 13 and February 5, 1916. Berliner Tageblatt, January 14, February 17, and March 18, 1916. Tagliche Rundschau, February 5, 1916. Koln- ische Zeitung, February 5, 1916. 81 F THE GERMAN SCHOOL duty it is to repress juvenile crime, and by the very numerous benevolent societies for the protection of the young which help them in their work, had led one to think that the year 1906, with 55,270 cases brought before the courts, created a maxi- mum. The decrease after 1906 is probably accounted for by a more exact differentiation between crimes and small offences, and infringement of regulations which had been made, so as not to send to the courts those cases which could be dealt with by the benevolent societies for the protection of youth. These cases were not registered any more after 1906. If the authorized estimate of M. von Liszt z is to be accepted three out of every four of the children charged are saved from appearing before the magis- trates. On the other hand it must not be forgotten that the principle of compulsory education very strictly applied throughout Germany had been extended in 1906 to the continuation schools ; that is to say that many children remained till 16, 17 and even 18 years old under school discipline. If, nevertheless, the relaxation of supervision in the few months of war had produced this surprising 1 3Q> I 79 cases in 1882 ; 42,485 cases in 1892 ; 51,000 cases in 1902 in Prussia alone. After 1906 these figures de- cline. In the last two quarters of 1914 and 1915, however, the figures for Berlin alone were 240 : 330 and 612 : 1034 respectively. 2 Berliner Tageblatt, January 14, 1916, second supple- ment. 82 AS A WAR NURSERY and distressing criminality in these children, it proved that neither the school, with its innumerable auxiliary and complementary works, nor the judi- cial and protective organizations were sufficient to have the upper hand, in a lasting manner, over the instincts of the race. This fact is realized in Germany. The Frank- furter Zeitung considered it politic to publish an important leading article on this question. 1 The big Liberal and Democratic paper wishes to put the people on guard against the alarmist exaggerations and brutal measures for repression. " Fortun- ately the situation is not of this gravity ; it would be curious if it were otherwise and if the moral forces existing in the German people had suddenly lost all their influence on the youth of the coun- try." The journalist does not attempt to deny the fact of the moral decadence of the youth. He in- deed admits that neither at school nor at home has sufficient been done to prevent it. The war has caused a scourge to break forth which has been germinating for a long time and which has its origin in the " exaggerated and ever growing subjec- tivism " of present day Germany. The " good old- fashioned obedience " and parental authority have everywhere given way before the idea of greater freedom and a more complete individual independ- ence of the younger generation. The discipline which is able to reconcile this obedience to the 1 February 5, 1916. -8 3 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL irresistible need of liberty created by modern life has not yet been discovered. Whilst waiting for the time after the war, when this " all-important problem " will be fully studied, the Frankfurter Zeitung can only commend the intervention of the supreme military authorities who apply the rigours of a state of siege equally to children as to those who contribute to corrupt them. The admission is embarrassed but it is complete. The moral crisis of the German youth is general. It has broken out on account of the war naturally with more violence in the large centres than else- where. The actual evolution of German society can nay must be regarded as aetiology. It remains to be explained why this evolution has taken place at the expense of morality. It has been established that pedagogy has failed in its efforts to prevent the crisis. This fact proves that peda- gogy had not the necessary means of action. In other words the moral instruction is insufficient, or bad. The Frankfurter Zeitung asserts, without giving the proof, that it is the same with other nations, but it adds, " the Germans have the good habit of not allowing such things quietly to follow their course." Indeed the Government does not seem at all inclined to allow the pedagogues and the societies for the protection of the young alone to arrange the problem of moral education. The generals com- manding districts and the civil authorities have -84- AS A WAR NURSERY intervened. The former have acted, rather than the Minister of the Interior and the municipalities, with a heavy hand. The General who commands at Cassel regards all young people under 18 years old as persons to be watched ; and he punishes offenders with fines up to 5 or with imprisonment up to one year. It might be a dream : a general deciding that smoking, loitering in the streets, going to cinemas or to cafes without being properly accom- panied are offences requiring serious punishment in a young man who, as soon as he is 18 years old, will go to the Front, who earns his own livelihood and sometimes that of his relations, who is a student, or a cadet officer, denotes a usurpation of sphere and a contempt for individual liberty which promises disagreeable surprises for the German citizens, as soon as the state of siege is ended. The same general has also decreed that no workman under 21 years of age may receive his wages himself, but must have them collected by a person of trust. 1 It is true that in certain towns the age limit of 1 The General who commands at Brandenburg, consider- ing that the young workmen earn too much, forces the masters only to pay them a part of their wages, putting the remainder in the savings bank. At this time of loans compulsory saving (Sparzwang) can be defended. The eagerness of the populace to " sacrifice all on the altar of the Fatherland " ill withstands, so it appears, the length of the trial. The restrictive and coercive measures taken to stimulate it are no longer of any importance in Germany. -8 5 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL " youth " is 1 6 years old. There is no need to labour the point. A certain German opinion has arisen from this brutal interference of the military authorities in the sphere of pedagogy. Several liberal-minded thinkers have drawn attention to the fact that many of the offences punished are of the number of those which there would be no idea of referring to the police in other civilized countries. They have opposed the idea of immediately passing a special law " to pro- tect the youth of the country."' The measures established before the war seem to them amply sufficient. * * * That the state of war has brought to light a deplor- able moral state of the German youth is denied by no one. Thenceforward it will be useless for the Ger- man pedagogues to boast of the inborn morality of their race, and of the excellence of their educa- tional methods no one will believe them. There is something changed in the Germans since Bis- marck's day ; and France, so decried by them, gives them to-day a proud answer. The German " subjectivism," if there is any, cannot be superior to the " subjectivism " of Eng- land and France ; but whilst in England and France it is cultivated and directed with respect, German pedagogy does nothing but fetter it with the discipline of another age. One of the most dauntless critics of school peda- 86 AS A WAR NURSERY gogy as actually practised in Germany, the " revo- lutionary " pedagogue Dr. G. Wynecken, sees in the present events a peremptory justification of his principles for radical educational reform. In his " Thoughts on the Education of the Young " he goes so far as to declare the family, the State and the Church are all equally incapable of educating the young for the good of the general community. According to him the war has shown of what youth is capable, if the yoke of superannuated and con- ventional tutelage were removed. Youth should be admired and trusted, and not constantly har- assed with mistrusting persecution. Children need guides and comrades, not jailers. The mechanical methods of the classroom and external military discipline, which only create indifferent and irre- sponsible beings, are repulsive to their natural love of liberty and action. The master, the friend and not the dictator of the class. The master and scholars should be united by a bond of mutual responsibility. It is the moment to study youth and to cease ruling the scholars with the rod. 1 Dr. Wynecken is convinced that a new school, the autonomous school will arise from these " sub- jective " ideas. The masters will be men who see in education their vocation ; whilst business men will be called in to give practical instruction. In associating with the children they will create a 1 Academische Rundschau, June, 1915- Frankfurter Zeitung, June 14, 1915- -87- THE GERMAN SCHOOL kind of brotherhood for the common good. Educa- tion has no other end than to render the youth of a country able to fulfil all the present and future needs : in other words to create strong, active and useful members of the Fatherland. This education has neither need of antiquity nor of an historical past. Useless torturing of the mind by the formal- ism of " dead things " is abhorrent to it ; it lives in and for the future. l It is hardly probable that the " activism " of a Wynecken and " subjectivism " will outweigh " militarism " or, if this word shocks, the peda- gogy of discipline and subordination in Germany. Without doubt, when the war has ended, the an- tithesis between the pedagogy, generally speaking humanitarian and the utilitarian, and political pedagogy, will have lost much of its acuteness. The frenzy of the first months has passed away. The duration of the war, the enormous sacrifice of human lives, the economic difficulties, and the 1 Without going to such extremes certain Socialists want the German school to be a " school of ' Kultur ' " (Kul- twschule) freed from the bondage of the past, which poisons the best years of youth ; and independent of historical thought. It will not be a school of preparation for the struggle for existence, but it will make the youth of the country capable of fighting for the right, and it will make the young strong for the efficient action called for by the realities of life. This is the idea expounded by Dr. Kurt Hiller in a lecture delivered at the Free Association of stu- dents for social action at Berlin (Vossische Zeitung, June 29, 1915)- 88 AS A WAR NURSERY anxiety with regard to the questions after the war, which to certain people appear less and less like the limitless exploitation of the overwhelming victory, have calmed many pedagogic ambitions and led the controversy to more reasonable questions (which have possibilities of realization). The hold of politics on German schools is, how- ever, of long date and strong. An entire change, taking into consideration the new factors, is neces- sary if they are to be freed from its sway. In Germany they are beginning to realize this fact and they publicly proclaim, in order to achieve their end, a moral and civic instruction, based on the principles of the great thinkers of the eighteenth century. The German officer who stole the notebooks from the little French village school on the banks of the Meuse would be readily forgiven if they could but point out to the Germans the path to be followed. -89- THE GERMAN SCHOOL CHAPTER IV The " Einheitsschule " IN Germany primary instruction is given in " popular " schools, and secondary instruc- tion in " higher " schools. These two classes of education have each followed their own line of development, and up to the present no effort to unite them has succeeded even to the point of drawing them nearer to each other. The " popular " school has shown itself worthy of the care which successive Governments have expended on it. It has rendered valuable services to the State. The victories of 1866 and 1870 were attributed to the German schoolmaster. Even to- day he is represented as marching at the head of the nation. 1 The primary curriculum having been augmented by higher courses of study, and by a whole system of compulsory " improvements," the primary school has become ambitious. Not only is it jealous of the excessive privileges kept for secondary instruction, but from being a people's school it would like to become the fundamental 1 See above, p. 29, note. 90 AS A WAR NURSERY school of the entire nation (allgemeine Volkes- und Gmndschule) . If we turn to secondary education we shall see that the classical gymnasium was forced in the second half of the last century to tolerate the estab- lishment of a rival on its domain, till then a holy of holies : this rival was the semi-classical second- ary, or first-grade school (Realgymnasium) which still retains Latin, but replaces Greek by modern languages and by scientific teaching of a more thorough and extensive kind ; then there is the Realschule pure and simple, a non-classical second- ary school, of higher and lower grade, which pro- vides an entirely modern course of study, and which in its lower classes borders upon the higher primary school, without however desiring to become one with it. At the time of the conferences of 1890 and 1900, the Emperor thought he ought to sanction the technical or modern movement favoured by manufacturing and commercial Germany ; he therefore declared its cultural work to be equivalent to that of the classical humanities. But his inter- vention did not get the mastery over tradition. The classical gymnasium, restored to itself, always defended and still defends its rank and privileges. At a time when the diplomas of its rivals open to youth the higher studies and the so-called liberal professions, but with restrictions and under cer- tain conditions, classical studies on the other hand lead up to everything without reserve of any kind 91 THE GERMAN SCHOOL or sort. The Universities, strongly riveted to the Government but autonomous enough in themselves, continue to protect the classical gymnasium against the oft-repeated and violent attacks of its rivals and of a certain section of public opinion. Bour- geois families, officials and the military obviously prefer the " gymnasium." The latter has even managed to maintain, in Prussia at least, its own " preparatory classes " to save its clientele from the mixing in the primary school, and from the inconvenience of passing from one mode of teach- ing to another. * * * Such was the state of things after the scholastic struggles of the end of the nineteenth century and up to the time of the war. The bulk of the army, the privates, are primary scholars. On January i, 1916, more than fifty thousand elementary teachers had been mobilized or had enlisted ; more than six thousand masters, and more than a fifth of the students of the training colleges and candidates had fallen. 1 The privilege, not long before conferred on teachers, of performing their military service as volunteers for one year, had remained a dead letter ; few have been able to break through the barrier with which the entire body of officers hedges round its caste. In the present war teachers have only made good non- commissioned officers and good soldiers. On the 1 See above, p. 39 9 2 AS A WAR NURSERY other hand the masters in secondary schools are all officers in the reserve ; the students having finished their military service of one year are at the least cadets ; and the pupils from the gymnasia and the non-classical secondary schools who have enlisted as volunteers, have been favoured with the certifi- cate which clears the way to the rank of volunteer and gives them the best chance of rising from the ranks without a hitch. Have the trenches brought together primary and secondary pupils to such a point as to put an end at last to the water-tight partitions between the two types of teaching ? Or have the secondary pupils justified, by their incapacity, or by their capacity, the universal distrust against the educa* tion which has shaped them ? Allusion will presently be made to a letter, writ- ten in the trenches by the head-master of a gymna- sium, containing such a sweeping condemnation of classical studies, his own department, that it pro- voked a storm of protests even outside the camp of the active partisans of Greek and Latin. Other members of the educational community may also have recorded their experiences while in the field. They will have drawn inferences on the reforms to be effected in the education of future generations and deduced certain social principles whose equality in the presence of duty, danger, or the election of leaders, etc., will have suggested to them the line to be followed in the future. 93 THE GERMAN SCHOOL But we have reason to believe that the contro- versy on the " Unitaire " primary school was re- kindled by persons not at the Front. The vital importance of the struggle, the social phenomena taking place before their eyes, the anxieties which will face Germany after the war, and above all the steps taken by the Government profoundly to modify the existing organization of schools all these circumstances were certainly more than enough to call into play the critical judgment of the pedagogues and politicians still living in their homes. The few comments from the Front of which we have any knowledge have been suggested to their authors by the perusal of the newspapers. We know that the " men in grey " at the Front have been overwhelmed with periodicals. * * * We have already seen that under cover of the Defence of the Realm the uniform military prepara- tion of young Germans has for its aim the central- ization of the empire founded upon the army. As the preponderating share is to be taken by the schools in this irresistible influence, was it not a unique occasion to attempt a radical remodelling of public education in Germany, in such a way that all the youth of the empire should hencefor- ' ward receive the same primary, fundamental and national education ? Such is the idea embodied in the Nationale Einheitsschule and of the Deutsche Grundschule. 94 AS A WAR NURSERY This idea of a primary school (in the strict sense of the word) unique and common to all children without distinction of social rank, is not new in Germany. For instance, this idea has been realized in Bavaria, under the name of the universal people's school (Allgemeine Volksschule). During the first four years of compulsory school life, all children, whether of Ministers of State or of workmen, are obliged to attend the public primary school, at all events in theory. It has not been proved that free education has profited by this to the detriment of the officially recognized schools. No injury has been caused either to the secondary or to the primary system, whether " middle " or " higher." The Einheitsschule tends to the same ends as the Allgemeine Volksschule but its object is more clearly defined. It is an equally ancient conception. It is the outcome of the conception of a homogeneous system merging into a single organism the divers orders of public education. To this homogeneous structure it is expedient to have a common ground- floor (einheitlicher Unterbau). Into this ground- floor all pupils would enter, and there they would sojourn ; some would return to ordinary life after a course of six, seven or eight years, and others would mount to the upper stories. But all the German states have not yet been able to construct a building thus arranged. The three orders have grown up independently of one another, sometimes even to their mutual detriment, so much so that 95 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL attempts to draw them together have been brought up short by impassable partitions that nothing seems able to throw down. The uncompromising attitude of the academic parties sometimes verges upon open hostility. We have heard supporters of the primary system utter this party cry, " Primary education for primary scholars/' and we have heard them insist on the self-government of all primary schools of whatever kind. Then again University professors have dared to describe as " barbarian hordes " those teachers who demanded the right to be prepared for their future functions in the Universities. 1 f At the present moment Prussia, the leading state of Germany, has not yet succeeded in passing the comprehensive organic law on public education as a whole, which had been prepared for more than a century and was regarded as the carrying out of [the constitution. Is Prussia disposed at least to realize the partial progress that has been made in the direction by Saxony, Bavaria and the Duchy of Baden, among others, by declaring the compul- sory primary school common to all children ? Now, before the attainment of the organic unity of public education, admitting of close relations between the different orders and contriving natural 1 See La preparation professionnelle des instituteurs dans les universites in La pedagogie dans les pays etrangers, by V. H. Friedel (Paris, published by G. Roustan, 1910 ; P- J 34)- -96- AS A WAR NURSERY transitions, as it were, from one order to the other, an Einheitsschule as foundation of the system is impossible. This rule applies to each of the Ger- man states taken individually. It is even more true that the realization of the deutsche Grund- schule, the fundamental and national school for the whole of the imperial confederation, can only be- long to the distant future. Should it ever become an accomplished fact, the present war would only mark the first stage of the reform movement. Let us confine ourselves exclusively for the moment to the Einheitsschule. The question has two aspects. It is at the same time pedagogic and socio-political. But as pedagogy has no value except in so far as it studies and works for human society and politics, the two points of view become blended. 1 The shrewdest among the pedagogues, such as W. Rein, who quite recently has broken another lance on behalf of the Einheitsschule, have been obliged to borrow their best weapons from the ar- senal of social and political demands. The object for which they are fighting is equal rights in respect of instruction and education. Every child has the right to be instructed and brought up according 1 It would appear that the partisans of the Einheits- schule have not always a very clear notion as to the object of their demands. 97 G THE GERMAN SCHOOL to his intellectual and moral abilities. It is " peda- gogically " unjust that some should only have at their disposal a small primary school, while the chances of fortune or of birth mark out others for more highly privileged schools. It is not true that town-bred children are more highly developed than village children, nor that the children of the rich are more healthy and of a higher moral calibre than those brought up in an industrial centre. On the contrary if this is really observed to be the case these apparent differences must be admitted to be the result of an unequal distribution of instruc- tion and education. It is the same with the difficulties experienced by even the capable masters in blending the differ- ent individualities of a class so as to make them produce good work in common, especially at the most important stage of their work, that is to say, the beginning. The weak indulgence as to the promotions from class to class, the delays caused to good pupils by the dunce that cannot be left behind, in a word, all the "pedagogic injustices " known to exist in the present organization will not all these be lessened, if not entirely eliminated, when all children are taught together according to the same scheme and by the same methods before entering, some on ordinary life in the world, others into a school of a higher grade ? And as competi- tion and the natural esprit de corps of the children are of such powerful pedagogic value, more gener- AS A WAR NURSERY ally satisfactory results can and ought to be obtained, especially when even the masters themselves feel encouraged by the thought that they are in truth the educators of all the nation. From the social point of view, this school which will be at once unique and general from the outset, will break down, we hope, the partitions separating the different classes of society, as it will likewise abolish those erected between the different kinds of education : it will carry on for ever, and for the greatest good of the country, the fusion that the war has effected in the trenches. After the blood- letting in the trenches, the country will be in need of all kinds of talents. It is of the first necessity that no one, however humble his origin, should ruin his destiny as the result of an insufficient or un- attainable initiation ; nor should the place of such a one be taken by wealthy or well-born incap- ables. It is with these arguments, which we have heard already, and to which the war has added an incon- testable value, that W. Rein and other pedagogues, both in theory and in practice, attempt to back up the demands of the Einheitsschule. They have on their side an imposing majority of the primary teaching staff. At the last congress of German teachers at Eisenach (Whitsuntide, 1916) the question of the Einheits- schule dominated the whole discussion. Herr Tews, one of the most active members of the Association 99 THE GERMAN SCHOOL of German Teachers, and one listened to with the utmost attention, had paved the way to this discussion by a pamphlet. The four hundred and seventy-six delegates t representing one hundred and twenty-eight thou- sand, four hundred and three teachers (50 per cent, had been mobilized) were invited to demand the unitaire school, in the first place, for " ideal " reasons, and in the second in order to satisfy professional and political interests. For a long time teachers have been complaining of the " preparatory classes," and other superfluous institutions which carry off the " good " pupils. In the new order of things which will follow the war, the functions of the teacher will be essentially important. They ought in future to direct their efforts to the setting up of the unitaire primary school to a still greater extent ; they ought to aim at an education of the empire, directed by an authority of the empire. This is, we see, the Einheitsschule acting as the bait of , the unique and general, fundamental and German primary school of the centralized empire. The female teachers, met together at Hanover, stated their desires with more subtlety and less political mental reservation. They gave their assent to the report of one of their own body on the necessity of transforming the primary school into a school of the intelligence (Begabungsschule). This is another way of justifying the institution of the common school by making it necessary to pick out 100 AS A WAR NURSERY and encourage the most highly gifted children of the lower classes. * * * This then is the theory. It is a seductive one by reason of the generous and humane liberalism which inspires it. How will it be in practice ? The school medical officers, who in Germany examine each child on its entering school and during its school life, have corroborated a discovery which has long been the despair of all conscientious mas- ters, namely, that all children are not equally fitted, either physically or intellectually, to keep up with the normal programme of the class to which their age assigns them. The causes of this unfitness are many, and the child itself has no control over them (heredity, social sphere, etc.). It produces re- sults from which the child is the first to suffer (overwork, loss of time, classes to be gone through again, despondency, etc.). So a uniform and com- pulsory education for the whole scholastic contin- gent is therefore a pedagogic absurdity. If the syllabus is kept at a level to suit the aver- age child, a thing not always easy to bring about, one runs the risk of injuring the more gifted chil- dren whose upward impetus is paralysed. Only those of middling powers are being catered for. The least capable are certain to be failures. Ulti- mately it is society that loses. Society does not get out of the rising generations all the powers there lying dormant. On the other hand it sees 10 1 THE GERMAN SCHOOL on an increasing scale the loss caused by the social non-productiveness of a large number of indivi- duals who, with pains and care adapted to their natural temperament, might have been able to play their parts on the stage of life as " common useful actors." It is in order to obtain in pedagogy more phy- siological and social desiderata that round the primary school have been created, on the one hand, classes for abnormal and backward children who have not been able to keep up the pace, and on the other hand preparatory classes for higher instruc- tion. A most interesting experiment for the rational grouping of these chapels of ease within the national and free primary schools has been made by the town of Mannheim. Herr W. Rein has instanced the experiments of this city as an example of a unitaire primary school. It is as follows. At the age of six all children whose parents wish to make use of the public free primary school are registered for the first of the eight ordinary or nor- mal classes. Already at the end of the first year a selection is made. The children in permanent need of instruction specially adapted to them will have been noted. They are placed in the classes known as " auxiliary " (Hilfsklassen), which are classes not of abnormals, but rather of the back- ward children. Teaching in them is confined to four grades. It only includes subjects within the 102 AS A WAR NURSERY capacity of these, " minus habentes," who are improvable to a degree which will be useful in their future way of life. Little theory but much handwork and practical work is taught ; general work is reduced. The children easily improvable by a temporary treatment have also been picked out. For these Fordcrklassen have been organized, that is to say, finishing classes, equal to the normal classes, beginning from the second year and consequently graduated so as to represent six or seven stages. They are provided for children who by reason of illness, lassitude or any other fortuitous cause have momentarily been left behind. Finally, children looked upon as normal follow the ordinary syllabus in the classes constituting the groundwork of the system. In this system we merely see the rational adapta- tion of so-called parallel classes, which are found necessary in all over-populated scholastic groups. It is an understood thing that the auxiliary classes (Hilfsklassen), with their special syllabus, their short duration and their special staff can have less interchange with the finishing classes than the latter have with the normal classes. A " back- ward " child does not go through his classes over again with children younger than himself ; this would often discourage him and prevent him from making up for lost time. He passes for a time into the finishing class corresponding with his age and 103 THE GERMAN SCHOOL rejoins his comrades of the normal grade as soon as he has made good his losses. In this manner the waste proved to exist in the cut and dried organization of education in common is reduced to a minimum, and the pupils give the maximum of work of which they are capable. On the other hand, really gifted and capable children, who can advance further than the ordin- ary stage, are not riveted irretrievably to the nor- mal syllabus. For the advantage of those whose parents mean to send them to a secondary school, or who seem likely subjects for encouragement to enter such a school, supplementary classes of " preparation " have been organized. This pre- paration holds out to them the prospect of pre- senting themselves at the regulation age of nine for the examination of admission to any classical gymnasium or semi-classical school. With this end in view the preparation will have brought the child up to the standard required in the sixth class of those establishments. In Baden, this type of school has long been without preparatory classes. The heads of secondary establishments have, it seems, given a welcome to pupils thus prepared by teachers. In like manner, there have been grafted on to the primary classes during their last two years courses of modern languages, commercial drawing and manual labour, for the benefit of children who show particular aptitude for any of these special 104 AS A WAR NURSERY subjects and who desire to acquire them in view of their future walk in life. It is to be observed that the classing of the chil- dren's intelligences is made in a very natural manner, according to the work and power of the children and never without parental consent. The latter are always consulted when the teachers are anxious to put a child into one of the classes outside the normal syllabus. The masters -do not encroach upon the rights of the family ; they are merely their advisers. What has been attempted at Mannheim 1 is the experiment of a system of free and universal primary schools, where pupils and parents, without distinction of social rank, may find what they require and what suits them ; i.e. a school con- structed organically to suit the needs of an intel- lectual, moral and physical pedagogy, and grouping around a normal nucleus accessories which will be helpful to the weak and useful to rising talent ; in short, a school in accordance with nature, with reason and with justice, and one which is at the same time the real and unique basis of already existing higher instruction. 1 Dr. Sickinger has published for the Society of Teachers at Mannheim a small treatise on " the rational organization of primary schools in the large towns, in particular at Mann- heim." He has reproduced the general outlines of his treatise in the Vossische Zeitung, May 7, 1915 (4th supple- ment ) . 105 THE GERMAN SCHOOL All this, object the adversaries of the unitaire school, is pure idealogy to which there is no indis- putable answering reality, either present or future, either in pedagogy or in political or social life. The experiments are far from being conclusive, it will be impossible to generalize from them. The more the teachers defend the primary school "of their dreams " because they hope it will return to them, not only a better class of pupil, but also the rank which they consider themselves entitled to hold in society, the more the teachers of secondary education fight against them. The for- mer cling to their elementary preparatory classes, 1 elementary, no doubt, but not " popular," differ- ing in substance and method from the Volksschule, and organized for more highly developed children than the children of the working classes, 2 whatever may be said to the contrary. Above all, let no one dream of infringing on their own " higher " domain ! To wish to unite the secondary to the primary would be to lower the one without raising the other. Primary teachers are going too far in claiming to 1 The communication made at the forty-third annual meet- ing of the Philological Society of Berlin by Dr. Hubatsch, director of the semi-classical gymnasium Schiller of Char- lottenburg, in order to refute the dissertations of the par- tizans of the Einheitsschule , gives the prevailing tone in the secondary centres (Tdgliche Rundschau, January 3. 1916). 2 The statements and the statistics of the director, Dr. Hubatsch, cannot explain away this characteristic of the elementary classes. 106 AS A WAR NURSERY be able to determine whether any given pupils of theirs possess the ripeness necessary for passing into a gymnasium. It has fearlessly been affirmed, that the unitaire primary school, as organized, for instance, by Dr. Kerschensteiner at Munich, has given " anything but cheering " results. In virtue of an axiom extremely typical of satisfied conserva- tive minds, a school's duty is to adapt itself to existing social conditions and by no means to create new ones. Politicians claim that not only the unitaire school will not do away with social differences, but that it is even in the interest of the social classes themselves, each to evolve according to its own nature. Professor Dr. J. F. Schmidt, titulary of the chair of pedagogy in the University of Berlin, has opposed Herr Rein with more serious arguments. 1 Like his colleague of Jena, he acknowledges the need of at last bringing about the complete union of the divers orders of education. But he sees a real danger in the general unitaire primary school, which would form the foundation of it. Such a school would be in reality a " teaching " school (Gleichheitsschule). Now, real unity, the only indispensable unity, rests upon the national education of future citizens. This education does not require for its groundwork a : 1 In a lecture given to the Comenius Gesellschaft on February 25, on the problem of the national Einheitsschule (Vossische Zeitung, February 26, 1916), and in zfeuilleton of the same paper of March 23, 1916. 107 THE GERMAN SCHOOL unique primary school of instruction. We must not confound education which is moral and social with instruction which develops individual powers. If the latter, in its most elementary stages, is made uniform, and equal for all children, we are creating a fictitious and temporary unity, which would be as injurious to the primary school itself as to the whole body of public education. Once the higher grades are reached, the breaking up would become apparent and confusion would follow. Who would think of depriving secondary education of its liberty and of its real character by building it up on the necessarily summary foundations of levelling primary education ? For in adapting itself to every understanding, such instruction could not be permitted to pass beyond a certain minimum level. In the name of a social postulate, illusory enough it is true, one would destroy, on the one hand, the present rich bloom of primary education, both middle and higher, and on the other hand, secondary education would be forced for the future to restrain its require- ments in order to adjust itself to a primary mini- mum ! Most assuredly every one recognizes the imperious necessity, both patriotic and national, of not letting any intellectual force be lost by the untowardness of circumstances. But we must take care not to fall into the other extreme, and not to rear up a " mass of intellectuals with water on the brain," by compelling all gifted schoolboys to 108 AS A WAR NURSERY become students. This is what would happen if masters of levelling schools were called upon to appraise the talents of their " good pupils," without taking into account that they would be encroaching on the rights of the parents. Then there is a further danger. The most in- telligent members of the working classes would be lost to them. Parents are so ambitious for their little ones and masters so ready to oblige ! Have we then still to learn that the " brilliant scholars " do not always fulfil in after life what they seemed to promise at school ? The unitaire and levelling school would soon become a nursery for nonde- scripts ; persons who have stepped out of their social class. On the whole, Herr Schmidt, who is nearer the court than Herr Rein, and who does not appear to be in favour of the experiments made in South Germany, all the same desires the unity of the school, but it is to be an interior and organic unity, not based on a scheme, and which would include all public education, while leaving to each order its own individuality and its freedom to develop. The tie which would bind them cannot and ought not to be instruction of intellectual faculties, but education " by ethics and tending towards the ideal of the German nation." Schools ought all to be Bildungsschulen, that is to say, establishments for education and culture. It is the interest of the State, an interest over-riding every other, to 109 THE GERMAN SCHOOL give all the help possible to children not favoured by fortune, but able to offer moral surety in return for what is offered to them. These are the children whom the State must aid to make their way un- shackled. * * * It will not be necessary to supplement the opin- ions of Herr Rein and Herr Schmidt by recording the ways of thinking of less important lights ; to the arguments of such men as Rein, Kerschensteiner, Natorp (of Marburg), Brahn (of Leipzig) and Schmidt they have only added remarks dictated by a pugnacious self-interest which could never influ- ence the decision of the Government. For any one familiar with Prussia, the nature of this decision could not be in doubt for one minute. The Ein- heitsschule has no chance of succeeding in any shape or form. For the Administration the results of the reform would in reality be more political than pedagogic. Ever since 1848 the Liberals, the Demo- crats and Socialists of Germany have cried up a reform of this kind as a means of closer social connexion. The southern and central states have made some concessions. Prussia remains stubborn. At the sitting of the Chamber of Prussian represen- tatives of March 16, 1916, the Socialist deputy Hoffman energetically pleaded the cause of the free, neuter, unitaire primary school. As may well be imagined, he claimed the establishment of such a school as a mark of gratitude for the enormous no AS A WAR NURSERY sacrifices made by the working classes during the present war. Outside his own party, he met with nothing but sarcasm and distrust. The Socialist motion was rejected. " The Moor has done his duty, the Moor can go," he said bitterly, with Schiller, to define the attitude of the prevailing body towards patriotic Socialists. * * * As to the reforms which fuse into one organic and pedagogic system all orders of public educa- tion, it has already been pointed out that Prussia has been waiting for them for a century. The King of Prussia who called Germany to arms against Napoleon had no time to sanction the plan worked out by G. von Humboldt and Siivern, in accordance with the ideas of the great thinkers and pedagogues of the eighteenth century. Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany, will have other things to think of after " his big war' " than to accomplish a reform to bring about which the con- scious friends and foes of the unit air e school and the sincere politicians of nearly all parties have united together at a moment of dire patriotic distress. * * * Will nothing then remain of the stir created round the Einheitsschule ? Must teachers give up for lost " the greatest of school reforms " (according to them) which would " open the way " for talent, and which would make it possible to extract from the nation the living forces which she needs in order THE GERMAN SCHOOL to compensate for the flower of the citizens swallowed up by the war ? Germany and Prussia pretend " to have learnt " by this war how much " strength " lay concealed in the " people." Pedagogues and politicians call upon the Government to let them strike out freely, and to open the road to careers and offices to such of the disinherited as are capable of entering upon them. The Emperor or his Chancellor have re- peatedly shown themselves inclined to help. But the Administration does not recognize things done on impulse. Who will make the selection ? How can the chosen few be assisted to " break through " ? By means of what precautions can the overcrowding of higher studies be avoided : how provide against the forsaking of mechanical trades and the confu- sion of classes, etc. ? And in another order of ideas, what do those think, who up to now have been the beati possidentes of privileges ? In March, 1916, the Prussian Minister allowed these questions to be discussed in full in the Press and in the Chamber of Deputies, and he promised to think them over. He made it known that al- ready, according to law, 10 per cent, of the pupils in secondary establishments had been relieved of the costs of study, and that since the war this pro- portion had been exceeded. In its own interest, he added, the State is giving up more than three and a half million marks in school fees. In addition there are numerous scholarships, which are not given AS A WAR NURSERY away " like alms." Pedagogues who are well- informed are less optimistic in their views. Too many of these scholarships are either bestowed by favour, or else they are of no intrinsic worth. The well-known Berlin pedagogue, Adolf Mathias, has asked in strong terms that the scholarships for study, endowment, etc., should be centralized and that their distribution should be equitably organized. 1 They must be bestowed on merit alone, they must be sufficing, and prolonged until their object is attained, and they must be pitilessly denied to those who deteriorate in the course of their schooling. As to the facilities for transition from the primary to the secondary school, the Liberal journals have announced 2 that the Minister has decided to abolish the entrance examination to the secondary sixth for pupils not coming from the preparatory 1 Berliner Tageblatt, February 17, 1916 (2nd supplement). Zum Thema : Entwurzelte Jugend. 2 Vossische Zeitung, June 6, 1916. Der Aufstieg der Volksschuler (ist supplement). Berliner Tageblatt, June 27, 1916. Schulpolitischer Fortschritt, by Dr. Max Brahn, of Leipzig. Ibid., July u, 1916. Aufstiegswege fur be- gabte Berliner Gemeindeschulkinder, by the municipal in- spector Dr. L. H. Fischer. This functionary proposes either to organize preparatory classes side by side with the communal schools, in view of the secondary schools, or to join the latter to the semi-classical schools of the town, or, in fine, to create special secondary schools for pupils leaving the primary schools. For girls the upward move- ment would be more awkward to manage. Herr Fischer's schemes would only bring the children of the lower classes to the semi-classical or normal schools. 113 H THE GERMAN SCHOOL classes, and to authorize primary pupils declared to be qualified by their headmaster and their in- spector, to enter it after their third primary year without further formality. The one reservation is that they may be sent back to the primary school should they prove to be insufficiently prepared to hold their own in the secondary school. On the other hand the primary " preparatory classes " would be invited to place their sj^llabus on the same level with the popular primary classes. These gentle means would lead, it is thought, to their disappearance through want of nourishment. 1 In other respects nothing is changed in the statu quo. But it seems that the Liberal papers have begun to rejoice too soon. 2 The Tdgliche Rundschau* whose reactionary spirit is well known, announces, in fact, that " well- informed circles " were unaware that such a decree was being formulated. Of course the Minister would not waste his time in bringing to light a decision of 1837 ( ) regulating the admission into the sixth class of the gymnasia : he desires " to make the 1 " The idea of suppressing the preparatory classes, and of forbidding the creation of private schools to take their places, in order to force all parents to send their children to the public primary school, and thus open to all social strata the entrance to higher schools, meets with obstacles which it would be difficult to overcome." Commencement of the article by Herr Fischer quoted above. 2 " Ein schulpolitisches Meisterstiick, says the Radical Berliner Tageblatt. 3 July 6, 1916. 114 AS A WAR NURSERY terms of admission more uniform so that they would fit in with the present syllabus of the secondary schools. For there would be considerable diffi- culty in uniting the primary school to the secondary." To begin with, the diversity of the primary schools themselves would be an obstacle. There are in fact some who spread their syllabus over periods of six, seven or eight years, whence the irregularity of the standard of teaching after the third year. We do not know if the partisans of this little reform are taking their wishes for realities. One thing is certain ; the ministerial decision will not make any great change. It will scarcely prove to be more than one of those makeshifts, " which are at the bottom of all German school organization.'' Doubts have already been expressed as to the ''selection" of the beneficiaries created by this measure 1 . The German pedagogues are not acquainted with the system of competitive examinations in force in Latin countries, and they do know how ticklish a proceeding election is. An admirer of Fichte has invented a whole order of things which is here summarized as being a curiosity. 2 " We shall begin by checking the mortality among infants. We 1 Dr. Max Brahn, among others, in the article quoted from the Berliner Tageblatt. 2 Felix, Baron von Stenglin, in the Vossische Zeitung of September 21. The article is entitled Deutsche Erzie- (German education). 115 THE GERMAN SCHOOL shall diminish degeneracy and depravity. Healthy children, both boys and girls, will be brought up to be efficient (Tuchtig) in every way. The idea of ' one year's service ' for women is quite feasible. 1 The boys will all be taught in the same popular school, or at all events in accordance with a common syllabus which on principle allows them all to pass into higher schools. Every year a selection of the most highly gifted will be made. Poor but promis- ing subjects ought to have it in their power ' to attain to higher work/ provided they come of honourable parentage. ' ' The State, who needs them, will bear the expenses of their education and their keep, in boarding houses specially provided, and till the time when they are nominated to some public employment. The State will even make compensation to the parents for the loss of what their children might have earned since their four- teenth year. Naturally the number of the chosen few will be limited, in order to avoid overcrowding, confusion of classes and impoverishment of intel- lect in the working classes. Rich dunces must likewise be cast back into the masses, where they will " become regenerated." And thus " in quicken- ing active relations between the different social classes/' the exhausted stock will recover new sap. " Heroism, the spirit of sacrifice and of modern 1 The Press of 1915-1916 has devoted many articles to this subject of martial womanhood. See below, Chap- ter VII. 116 AS A WAR NURSERY organization have revealed a ' strength ' which must absolutely be perpetuated and increased : after 1914-1915 there is no future for Germany without further progress." The author of this dream future for Germany knows that the main conception of his system is taken from the French Revolution. The coun- sels of Fichte were not listened to. For the nineteenth century has only brought to Germany a partial realization of the schemes of the patriot philosopher. Baron von Stenglin would like the subject to be re-approached " with method/' i.e. by creating " favourable conditions " ; for he has " faith in an unsuspected power of imitation " on the part of Germany if only she can " unchain her forces." 1 A politician of note, von Zedlitz, and Neukirch, leader of an important fraction of the Conservatives of Prussia, considers a selection possible, but always on the condition that it should be most severe and that it should only admit to higher studies poor but exceptionally gifted children. But he foresees a strong opposition on the part of the drones by which you are to understand the sons of the rich and of people of standing, who would not like to be dispossessed of " their " professions and forced to take up others not so much looked up to. 2 1 Berliner Tageblatt, June 12, 1915 (abstract of an article by von Zedlitz in the Post). * In Germany a man is taxed socially, according to his 117 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Herr von Zedlitz knows the forces of prejudice among his own party. He is so imbued with them himself, in spite of his apparent concessions, that he makes an exception of " officers " in his scheme of the emancipation of the less fortunate. This reservation, as also the precautions recommended for the selection, are significant. Officers and wards of the State would form a staff that no social de- mocracy could break up. Men capable of thinking would be subject to a servitude even more complete than it is at present. * * * In our opinion it is an outsider who has struck the right chord in the discussion about the Ein- heitsschule and the ministerial promise relating to the facilities henceforward to be granted to talent. At the same time this writer expresses his regret that no one has thought of professional and artistic careers. 1 " That is all as it should be. It is the principle birth, and for some time according to his fortune, his public functions and according to his " academical " titles. Aristocracy of nobility and fortune ; officialdom ; certifi- cated intellectualism. We hope that after the war "personal worth " will become the determining factor in the "selection" of the social elite. Die soziale Wertung der Berufe (The appreciation of professions from a social point of view), by Professor Dr. Eulenburg (of Leipzig), Ber- liner Tageblatt, June 10, 1916 (and supplement). 1 Fritz Stahl, Von (Lev Werkstall zur A kademie (From the Workshop to the University), in the Berliner Tageblatt, July 2, 1916. AS A WAR NURSERY and so far the unique result produced by the grand sentiment of community in the first stages of the war. All partitions separating Germans from Ger- mans had to fall, just as in the army there were to be no longer parties nor rank. Since then, the daily routine has reasserted its rights, and we must see how many or how few of these flowers of fancy will reach maturity. The beautiful idea of unity in education is perhaps better as an idea than as a reality. In any case it is very difficult to realize, perhaps even impossible. The one essential is doubtless that the gifted child should have a free path, and that the barrier of social class and of poverty should not make the " ascension " impossible. In this way life will open in a widely different manner before the child of the lower classes. Everything depends on the free and humane putting into execution of the measures taken for his welfare. * * * In truth, the measures taken by the Administra- tion, if at all resembling what was announced by the Radical press, will be all that is left of the latest pedagogic and political joust for the unit air e school. Prussia is not yet ready to become Liberal. 119 THE GERMAN SCHOOL CHAPTER V The War and Humanistic Studies HOW is it that in Germany, from the very first months of the war, the " higher " (i.e. the secondary) schools, and especially the " classical gymnasia/' have been attacked with a violence and an animosity hitherto unknown in the scholastic conflicts ? Headmasters and teachers, 1 students at the Universities, 2 collegians of the higher classes 3 1 There is hardly any difference between the gymnasia and the non-classical secondary schools as regards the number of teachers who have been mobilized. One hun- dred and eighteen masters have gone from the non-classical secondary school of Konigstadt'in Berlin: ninety-four have gone from the Ascanien gymnasium ; eighty from the Helmholtz classical secondary school. In Berlin the per- centage varies from thirty to fifty-eight. We have not sufficient data to enable us to determine the exact share of the classical gymnasia and the non-classical or semi- classical schools of the provinces (Vossische Zeitung, June 20, 1915. Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, April 4, 1915). Frankfurter Zeitung, September 14, 1915-1916 40 per cent. 2 See above, p. 39 note i, The number of students who have enlisted is 56,000. 3 According to sixty annual reports relating to Berlin and the neighbourhood, it is supposed that on an average 30 per cent, of the students between the third superior 120 AS A WAR NURSERY had hastened to join the army as officers, non- commissioned officers in the reserve, or as simple volunteers. It was said that there were enough of them to form several army corps. No grievance had been formulated against them indeed the contrary was rather the case. Whence then this sudden furious craving to " overturn completely " the type of school which had produced them ? This is a question which must have sug- gested itself to the readers of the leading German newspapers when they had read the war news and passed on to the other intelligence supplied by their paper. Wilhelm II flattered himself on having estab- lished a modus vivendi between " the Ancients and the Moderns." On two occasions he convoked them to a conference at Berlin in order that they might settle their differences. A Rescript, which he signed on board one of his warships in 1900, announced that " as far as the culture of the intellect was concerned," the classical gymnasia and the non- classical secondary schools were of an equal effi- ciency. Each type of school was thenceforward to develop on its own lines and to put every effort into the task of producing loyal and useful citizens for the Empire. class and the first superior class have enlisted ; that is to say those belonging to the five highest classes of the second- ary schools (Vossische Zeitung, June 20, 1915). In many cases the first class is entirely without pupils. 121 THE GERMAN SCHOOL This compromise robbed the classical gymnasium of none of its privileges. It is now, as in the past, the gate to every career. It can count on the protec- tion of the Universities and the favour of the upper classes as well as of all right-minded people. This regard may even have been increased by the " perse- cution " to which it has been subjected. The non-classical secondary schools have likewise pros- pered, thanks to the industry and commerce of the country which they keep supplied with an army of active and well-disciplined servants. Their ambi- tions were however combated by too formidable a number of prejudices. They also desired to see their pupils able to hold posts under Government without needing further qualifications. Their demands grew in exact proportion to the growth of the material forces of the Empire ; and when the government of Berlin gave the sign for the general upheaval, not even the commands of the master furnished a reason for further restraint. The dispute is one which could have been put off till the end of the war. A few " heroes of the rod," touched by the " devastating madness " of the "brave warriors" 1 at the front, might have been allowed to brawl, and little harm would have ensued from the agitations of professional innovators who were anxious to find an opening for hitherto unsuc- cessful reforms. But as it was, confusion reigned in 1 The words between inverted commas have been bor- rowed from the German political documents. AS A WAR NURSERY every department of national education before the war was many weeks old. Prussia was especially affected because her organization is especially finick- ing and hide-bound. In order to avoid closing the schools, the Administration went to the length of putting women in the places of the masters who had been mobilized. This was even done in the secondary schools. 1 Such a thing had never been seen before in Germany. Public opinion took alarm at the increase in juvenile crime, with the natural conse- quence that the nation, being in a state of nerves, began to call the educative value of the schools into question. Persons well qualified to speak gave agonized expression to their fears for the future of the race and of the Fatherland. The excitement aroused by the war rekindled political passion in spite of the truce in the strife of parties which, like so many other things, had been ordered by the Emperor in his first call to the nation. The peda- gogues, who are usually a peaceful and well disci- plined race, were among the first to be carried away. The military authorities had called up the young men and pointed out to the educational authorities that the duty of inaugurating the military training of schoolboys lay with them. From the outset, a whole afternoon of the scholastic week had to be 1 Frankfurter Zeitung, September 14, 1915. Berliner Tageblatt, October 15, 1915. Frauen in Berliner Gymna- sien, Vossische Zeitung, December 5, 1915. Die Lehrer- Kollegien im Krieg, by Prof. Dr. Hildebrandt. 123 THE GERMAN SCHOOL devoted to this intruding " subject " which received support from high-placed personages and enjoyed at the same time the favour of the populace. Of course it went without saying that the subjects to be cut out of the programme were the " useless " ones, those which were mere " luxuries," those which were dubbed " ideal " or considered to be " too far removed from the national needs of the moment." This constituted a direct attack on the classical humanities. " In his trench, amid the thunder of the guns," the headmaster of a gymnasium suddenly felt himself drawn to demolish the antiquated institution over which he had once presided, and he drew up a new plan in conformity with " the great German actual- ity." Here we see, no doubt, the example of Louvain. His letter appeared in an educational review which is regarded, rightly or wrongly, as the mouthpiece of the Administration. 1 A colleague echoed his sentiments in a somewhat louder strain in an equally reputable daily paper. 2 According to these wild reformers secondary education is nothing but " superfetation " and " in- coherence," a wretched forcing down of the intellect, 1 Monatsschrift fur hohere SQhulen. 2 The author owes this information to an article by Oberlehrer Dr. Rommel, entitled Das Gymnasium eine Ruine ? and published in the Vossische Zeitung for October 3, 1915. Dr. Rommel alludes to the articles entitled Unsere jungen Griechen und Romer which appeared in the Kolnische Zeitung, Nos. 371 and 451 (1915). 124 AS A WAR NURSERY cursed by pupils and parents alike." As for the classical gymnasium, all that can be said of it is that it is " a crumbling ruin, patched up here and there, having long outlived its usefulness. It is in fact an anachronism." It must be "swept away" and replaced by some really German institution which will " be able to supply the needs of the present day." This might be some kind of " school of non- commissioned officers and teachers of gymnastics, without Latin, Greek, or foreign languages, and teaching nothing except an immense amount of physical culture flavoured with a little science." * * * One can imagine the effect produced by sallies of this kind on the general public just when their heads were being turned by the " technical " successes of the " brave " armies. In the Radical Berliner Tageblatt 1 one of its regular collaborators, Fritz Mauthner, dwelt with a certain raciness on the supposed common sense of the man in the street. How many subjects he has been forced to study during a lamentable number of years which might have formed the best period of his youth ! And how tiresome, useless and even false were these subjects, which were as quickly forgotten as they 1 October 7, 1915. On January 26, 1916, the same paper published a similar article by Paul Harms, entitled Die Schule nach dem Kriege. " The sole function of the school is to train citizens who will be useful to the German Empire : this may well be done without Greek or Latin." _ 125 THE GERMAN SCHOOL were painfully learnt. Like Wilhelm II, Mauthner has no very comforting recollection of the " cram- ming establishment " : " Pity for the little ones ! listen to Montaigne, Rousseau, Fichte and Pestalozzi. Have done with classical antiquity, with history, or rather with ' stories/ scrap collections of ridicu- lous legends and non-proven facts which do not interest young people. The classical gymnasium has had its day. It has rendered great services in the past but it is now decaying. The world has gone ahead, and the realities of the moment have an imperious claim on us. Children are the future of the people, and the schools are the future of this future. Let the State authorize the teachers to bring up happy children in a common school ; to teach things and not words ; to exercise a prudent justice which will make the attainment of a higher degree of learning or of a responsible position depend entirely on natural gifts, without fearing that the son of a day-labourer may become an attache at an embassy. The State must not have the right to make examinations in Greek and Latin the test of a man's ability to fill a public office." From his bed in hospital, Franz Werfel, a young poet wounded in the war, made answer " with passion " to the facile " sarcasms " of this " free thinker "* He also endured " the vexations and the 1 On October 27, 1915, the Tageblatt inserted the reply, but merely out of deference, and without endorsing the poet's opinions. 126 AS A WAR NURSERY tortures " of the classical school for nine years. '* The details of the things taught have vanished, but the synthesis has remained." Do people, he asks, wish to " americanize " the brains of the young, " to dry up their dreams, and to turn boys of fifteen into makers of machinery, into dentists, or into surgeons ? " What is needed is a cure for the " immense psychological innocence of educators which might be better described as their ignorance of the rising generation and their inability to train it/' The journalist has politely made his bow to this generous idealism. His only protest has been to disclaim all desire to preach a basely utilitarian " pragmatism." But he knows that at this time of patriotic enthusiasm he has on his side the world of business, practical politicians, and nationalist peda- ^ gogues. One of the latter l relates, with righteous indigna- tion, that he heard an engineer and a chemist, both Germans, hope for the end of the war " in order that they might live in comfortable and easy circum- stances and draw a large salary. The first hoped to achieve this by returning to the factories of Poutilow, and the other by going back to England." " It is necessary for the good of the Vaterland and of the countries which will form with it the future " Mid- 1 Kolnische Zeitung, July 17, 1915 : Staatsburgerliche Aufgaben der hoheren. Schulen, by Fr. Hahn, Oberlehrer at the Gymnasium at Mulheim on the Rhine. 127 THE GERMAN SCHOOL European Union/' that German citizens shall be taught and educated in a purely German fashion. Such at any rate must be the procedure if the object is to produce a civic spirit which will make it from henceforth impossible for Russia to hold sixty million roubles' worth of bonds in Germany, as was the case in 1913. Finally, it is time that German civic teaching should become the pivot on which all the teaching in " superior " schools, and even in the Universities, turns, so that no German can again become a traitor to his country by working abroad for its enemies. 1 The readiness with which these attacks were echoed by public opinion terrified the Friends of the Classical Gymnasium, an association of philologists which receives powerful support from former pupils already high up in the world of science or the Administration . They protested in the following terms : "It is true that the war has borne irrefutable testimony to the moral and intellectual forces of the German nation which it is the duty of the German school to preserve and to increase. It is however 1 It is well known that the German Government has reminded all Germans, and especially those in America, that they will be guilty of high treason if they work in the munition factories or in any others which are supplying the Allies. 128 AS A WAR NURSERY equally certain that these forces which have been cultivated for centuries, are based, in part at least, on the culture of the Ancients. It is especially the fruitful afflux of antique thought which, together with Christianity, has produced what is known to-day as ' the German way ' (deutsche Art). The value of the classical gymnasium lies in the fact that it is a place where this thought is cultivated. The abolition or the curtailment of the gymnasium at a time when the greatest of national events is taking place would only be justifiable if the young men it has sent out to fight had proved themselves inferior physically, morally, intellectually or perhaps patriot- ically, and if the educative treasures of antiquity could be replaced by others. "The opponents of the gymnasium have not yet proved this to be the case and will soon be forced to give up all idea of ever doing so. The supreme stake of the present war is the national culture of Germany, which owes its particular character to the cult of Antiquity. He who seeks to diminish or destroy the gymnasium is depriving our culture of one of the essential conditions of its existence. In common with everything which has become a reality in history, the gymnasium is subject to the law of evolution. In the future, as in the past, it will therefore remain susceptible to new experiences (Erkenntnisse) and to fresh needs as they arise. For instance, the recent ministerial order relative to the reorganization of the teaching of history was hailed 129 - i THE GERMAN SCHOOL by it with enthusiasm. But its essential character, namely, the return to the ancient sources of our culture, must certainly be preserved if our nation is not to be debarred from the understanding of its past and its present. The Friends of the Classical Gymnasium further declare, with perfect impartiality, that they give unreserved recognition to the three types of secondary schools ; they will not raise their hand against them and in no way desire others to do so." The protest is a dignified one, but the embarrassed and at the same time conciliatory tone adopted reveals only too plainly that the authors felt a poignant anxiety. They realized that the moment and the object of the attack were equally serious. 1 This is not the place for a detailed examination of the main arguments which have already been marshalled against the classical humanities. Detract- ors who make it their business to inveigh against the humanities have recapitulated these arguments from habit. Those of a cleverer type have harped on points relating to the measure, the modality and the opportuneness of classical teaching under present 1 The Frankfurter Zeitung (September 30, 1915) merely reproduces it without comment, but underlines the phrase relating to national culture. The Vossische Zeitung (Sep- tember 26) inserted a communication entitled Angriffe gegen das Gymnasium (attacks against the gymnasium). This article, which was contributed by some Oberlehrer (assistant masters), describes the attack as unjustified, inopportune and unconsidered. 130 AS A WAR NURSERY circumstances. According to them, the classical gymnasium has profited but little from the earlier recriminations inasmuch as it has not protected itself against fresh attacks. Latin and Greek still have the first place in the time table. In all esti- mates of the pupils' work * it has still been the custom to attribute to them the co-efficient maximum of " principal and obligatory subjects.'* The teaching has retained its grammatical and philological character. The masters remain attached to the pseudo-humanistic tradition which aims at " preparing young men for life by teaching them nothing which is not directly useful in life. 2 Being 1 themselves University men, they train their pupils with a view to entering upon higher studies. These were vulnerable points in the defensive position which the gymnasium had been driven to adopt during the last twenty-five years, and the Radicals 1 ZUY Neugestaltung unseres hoheren Schulwesens, by Dr. Georg E. Burckhardt, in the Kolnische Zeitung, November 8, 1915. Herr Burckhardt demands a living instruction, given by teachers who are capable of impart- ing a national German education whatever subject they happen to be teaching : he asks that all subjects provided for in the curriculum shall be looked upon as equivalents, and calls for the requisite reforms in discipline, in records kept of the pupils, in the promotions and leaving examina- tions. In short, the writer desires a " human " gymnasium made for the pupils instead of the " conventional dogma " which has been elaborated for their subjection. 2 An axiom attributed to Oscar Jager, a pedagogue who is well known as a defender of the classical gymnasium, THE GERMAN SCHOOL did not fail to levy their attacks against them. They hope, under cover of political passion, to rid themselves for good of an institution which the Conservatives are struggling to save in the interests of their caste and their pretended superiority. Persons in a position to judge of the matter became aware that the very principle of humanistic education was in danger. The German humanists of the early nineteenth century had built up the school and the gymnasium in accordance with a sane theory of teaching which required them to train a man for himself above all, to give him a moral personality and an intellectual individuality by means of lessons best calculated to develop his natural faculties. Antiquity, that is to say Hellenism, with its moral and aesthetic quali- ties, and Latin with its logical structure and its grammar, seemed, at that period, the best able to supply the means of producing men in the complete and ideal sense of the word. 1 During the nineteenth century, other influences, whether scientific, realistic, social or political, 1 Die Schulpolitik des Neuhumanismus und ihre Be- deutung fur die Gegenwart, by Prof. Dr. Budde (Hanover), in the Vossische Zeitung, August i, 1915 (supplement). The same author has published a pamphlet entitled Krieg und hohere Schule (Langensalza, 1915), in which he seeks to prove that in the future, Deutschtum must be the pivot on which all secondary education turns, inasmuch as it is superior to antiquity and to all modern languages and cultures. 132 AS A WAR NURSERY deflected German pedagogy from this generally humanitarian aim. The secondary school, and especially the classical gymnasium, was peculiarly exposed to these outside influences and perpetually obliged to counteract them in order to defend its " ideal." The attacks of the present time are the logical consequence of this evolution. As it is ' impossible to go up stream again, the efforts of the wisest pedagogues are now being directed to save the fundamental principle of humanistic teaching, and indeed of all sound teaching, by substituting German " Kultur " for classical culture, according to the taste of the hour. What an anachronism, nay, what an unpardonable heresy it would be to bring up young Germans to the worship of ancient Greece ! Has not scientific history revealed a Hellenism far different l from that which the last century was pleased to idealize, ', in order to supply children with models of perfect man, perfect citizens, heroes, thinkers, writers and artists ? Antique culture is but the " root " of German culture ! 2 " We Germans have no use for a 1 Was spricht gegen das Gymnasium ? by Oberlehrer Dr. Kurt Kesseler (Vossische Zeitung, November 21, 1915, 6th supplement). Dr. Richard Fritze (of Kiel) replied to this article by saying that Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Demosthenes remain what they are, that Greek Art will for ever be the " fountain of perpetual youth " to German Culture (Ibid., November 27, 1915). 2 This is one of the ideas of the famous pan-German historian Karl Lamprecht. 133 THE GERMAN SCHOOL ' root ' as we have the flower and the fruit in our own culture ! " What is the use, cries another, of boring young men with grammatical rules and difficult reading now that trains carry one in all comfort onto classical soil, photography reproduces the ancient monu- ments, and translations enable one to read ancient authors with profit ? The study of Greek has been so much cut down that it can no longer lead to any- thing. As for Latin, its educative value in the training of the mind has been exaggerated. A reaction has set in. Specialists qualified to judge speak of it as of an antiquated dogma. 1 We now possess other subjects which demand " intellectual gymnastics " and which have a precision of their own : as for instance mathematics. And as there is no further imperative demand for " formal education," and people are clamouring for a training for life based on moral idealism (eine in einem sittlichen Idealismus wurzelnde Lebensbildung) . 2 It is not necessary to borrow from other ages and races that which the German people possesses in such great and excellent abundance. Athens and Rome with their " culture " have been relegated, more or less respectfully, to the Museums of Antiquities. Germany and its culture will take their place. An increasingly large number 1 Formate Bildung, by Prof. Dr. Budde (Hanover) in the Kolnische Zeitung, February 17, 1916. 2 Budde, Formale Bildung, cit. 134 . AS A WAR NURSERY of persons have, since the war, begun to walk in the footsteps of the Emperor, who " with remarkable in- sight," at the conferences of 1890 and 1900 l asked for " a more decided nationalization of secondary educa- tion." Sincere friends of the humanistic gymnasium now admit the necessity of turning the "classical gymnasium " into a " German gymnasium." They ask that it shall produce citizens of the German State, capable both of undertaking scientific labours and of filling posts requiring initiative and trust. But all do not go the length of claiming that educa- tion in the future must renounce its true function, which is the training of men, in order to train merely German men and women. 2 They have an " iron " conviction that German culture has assimilated all the valuable essentials of antiquity and of Chris- tianity ; 2 but they do not carry their nationalist 1 Budde, Formale Bildung. 2 Die deutsche hohere Schule der Zukunft, by Dr. K. Horn (of Frankfurt a. M.) (Report by Dr. Budde, in the^| Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger of June 3, 1916). " If Horn really means to say that it is not men that we wish to train in our upper schools, but German men and women, he is being blinded by exaggerated nationalism to the highest aims of education " (Budde). 3 Das " deutsche " Gymnasium by C. Grunwald (Head- master at Friedberg N.M.) in the Vossische Zeitung, Novem- ber 26, 1 915. This headmaster is a partisan of the ancients : " Three persons have become one in us : The Greek, the Christian and the German." "The Greeks are not our models but our forerunners." " The duty of the gymna- sium is to introduce elements of antiquity into the mind and thence into German culture." " The French and the 135 THE GERMAN SCHOOL presumption to the point of wishing to sever all the links which bind German culture to the ancient and the modern world. Germany is turning her back on antiquity, to whom she owes the most perfect masterpieces of her classical literature. It is not hard to guess what fate her upstart nationalism will mete out to the culture of the modern nations, those implacable foes of Germanism and its world-embracing mission. The study of French, English or Italian is declared English have no German gymnasia, which cannot be imi- tated, any more than one can imitate our officers, our officials, or our merchants. The unfortunate sympathies of America show how essential it is to learn foreign lan- guages in order to understand the mind of our adversaries." These quotations will indicate the tone of the whole article. Similar suggestions are made by Albert Espey in his book Die Schule des neuen Deutschland. Winke und Ratschldge t zuy Vertiefung des Unterrichts (Berlin Concordia, 1916. The school of New Germany. Hints and counsels for the deepening of teaching). " Only as much Greek and Latin will be taught as will enable the pupil to understand Greek and Latin terminology ; the rest is the business of the Universities. The more the time devoted to the teaching of living languages, the more customers Germany will have and the better will she be able to know her enemies. The whole of the teaching must be living, biological given by a homogeneous teaching body (trained on a Germanic basis at the Universities) ; and such teaching must produce men with sound judgment men of iron who will not transform the Christian element into sentimentality," (Berliner Lokal* Anzeiger, March 17, 1916, supplement). -136- AS A WAR NURSERY to be unpatriotic and superfluous, and therefore harmful. Every hour devoted to these languages is lost to the mother tongue. How can one to-day justify the fact that in a public school of the Empire eight hours a week are devoted to Latin and two or three to French or English, when the mother tongue is treated like a Cinderella ? It has been proved by means of " new " statistics, that the use of German is as widespread in the world as that of English, and that French, in spite of some slight increase, is exceeded by the other two in the propor- tion of three to one. 1 World commerce will of course be conducted in German every one knows that. As for " culture/' " legends " and " delightful folk-songs," not to speak of " manners, customs and political institutions/ 1 there are no such things except in Germany ! 2 The contribution of other countries, and especially of France, is limited to corrupt literature, disorderly pot-houses, words of a parasitic meaning, ridiculous fashions, etc., etc. 3 Let it therefore be resolved 1 These statistics have gone the round of the German and Austrian press (Neues Wiener Journal, August 21, 1915). 2 It was left to a woman, Frl. Kathe Schirmacher, a doc- tor of the University of Paris, and author of a thesis on Voltaire, to formulate these arguments with the greatest rancour. The lecture she gave at the Coliseum of Kiel, as in deed all her hypergermanistic propaganda, was severely condemned by the Berliner Tageblatt of November 20, 1915. 3 French literature and French art long ago became a daily necessity to a section of the German press. Frl. Kathe 137 THE GERMAN SCHOOL that young Germans shall learn no more smatterings of French and English the stock-in-trade of a waiter ! The German Mother-tongue, German dig- nity, German morals, and German culture will all benefit by such a determination. The banishment of the French and English tongues is chiefly significant on account of the spirit which has caused it. 1 We should have liked to think, Schirmacher declares that " He who buys a French novel is disloyally encouraging the rival of a German author." In spite of this it should be noted that at a picture sale in Berlin a few months ago, works by French impressionist painters were sold at prices which have never even been approached by those of German masters. The cafes of Berlin are inferior to those of Paris, and they are patronized by a different class of person. Finally, at the very outbreak of war, the Deutscher Sprachverein (Society for the promo- tion of the German language) entered into a ridiculous partnership with the police for the rounding up of foreign words used in commerce, in advertisements, restaurants, offices, etc. The only parallel to this proceeding is to be found in the grotesque Austro-German campaign against Paris fashions. These facts would furnish several chapters on the psychology of the Germans during the war. 1 E.g. Prof. Dr. H. Gaudig, a member of the Higher School Council, in his Ausblicke in die Zukunft der deutschen Schule (Leipzig, Teubner, 1913), adjured his colleagues in teaching "not to subject the boys to an apprenticeship to foreign tongues, which are severe in their demands and furnish little enjoyment. They are a source of danger to the culture of Germany, our gentle country (heimzart). " The place of Deutschtum is with Christianity, in the Holy of Holies ; everything foreign (das Fremdtum) must remain in the porch (Frankfurter Zeitung, June n, 1916: Das Deutschtum und die Schule, by R. Muthesius). It should - 138- AS A WAR NURSERY before the war, that the hereditary prejudice against French, compounded as it is of hatred and jealousy, had been in some measure blunted. We know now that it has persisted and that there is added to it the arrogant contempt of the parvenu. A movement is on foot to banish French from secondary schools, whether for girls or boys ; or at most, etwas franzo- sisch will be optional. English is treated with a little more respect, in spite of the intensity of the odium Britannicum crystallized in a phrase from henceforth historic, " God punish England ! " English will be wanted in commerce. In the course of the present educa- tional campaign teachers have been heard to pronounce judgments on British " culture " and literature which the hypnotism of the war is not sufficient to excuse. 1 Learned philologists have uttered the oddest ideas on countries in which they have lived, and to whose literature they have devoted long years of be noted that the editors of the paper have announced that they do not share the author's views. Of course the Ger- man newspapers have registered and commented on the answers made in France to inquiries (e.g. in Opinion, Renaissance, Petit Journal, etc.) as to the expediency or inexpediency of teaching and learning German in France in the future (Frankfurter Zeitung, October 6. Kdlnische Zeitung, October 7, Vossische Zeitung, November 23, 1 See the study on the Propaganda allemande jugee par des Allemands in the Mercure de France of February 15, 139 THE GERMAN SCHOOL study it is certainly true that foreign nations have remained very foreign to them. The utilitarian point of view has called forth some extraordinary proposals. In the Upper House the representative of the University of Breslau, Prof. Dr. Hillebrand, proposed substituting the languages of Germany's new Eastern friends for those of her Western enemies. All the representatives of the other Prussian Universities and a certain number of distinguished personages signed this motion, " which was well received." 1 A Bavarian deputy, actuated by the same senti- ments, has broken a lance in favour of the Flemish tongue. 2 It will be said that these are annexionist proposals, but they are certainly typical of the educational point of view. Let us be just. Those who have laboured in Germany for the improvement of the teaching of living languages have not all been blinded by national fanaticism to the point of burning all that they have revered. In this respect, the ideas of Dr. Arnold Schroer, professor of English at the newly established commercial academy of Cologne, deserves 1 Vossische Zeitung, May 25, 1916: The Vorwdrts of June 20, 1916 (supplement), publishes, with marks of ap- proval, some extracts of a leading article from the Rheinisch- Westfdlische Zeitung, which describes this motion as premature, indiscreet and wanting in tact. 2 Munchener Neueste Nachrichten February 3, 1916 (Sitting of the Diet of February i). 140 AS A WAR NURSERY some attention. A study of them will enable one to form a just idea of the hold of the national spirit over the judgment of experts. 1 Herr Schroer insistently demands that foreign languages, whether ancient or modern, shall no longer take precedence of the mother tongue. Teachers of English and French should also be qualified to teach German. Only the elements of foreign languages need be taught, wherever or what- ever the particular school may be. If this element- ary teaching is sound, each pupil will be able to perfect himself in a given language according to his, need or his tastes, that is to say, he will be able to understand a literary work with the aid of a diction- 1 He has set forth these ideas in two voluminous feuil- letons of the ultra patriotic Kolnische Zeitung (June 26, 28 and 30, 1915, and October 31, November 3 and 5, 1915). The titles are Die modernen Weltsprachen nach dem Welt- kriege, and Gymnasium und Sprachunterricht nach dem Weltkriege. In the same newspaper (e.g. on August 5, 1915) a certain Dr. Otto Sarrazin makes a violent protest against persons who dare to put advertisements into a paper asking for "governesses who speak fluent French." The Berliner Local-Anzieger (of June 14, 1915) gives a report of a lecture given at the Central Teaching Institute of Berlin by Dr. Janell. The lecturer weighs the opinions of persons who wish to eliminate all enemy tongues from the curriculum of the secondary schools, as well as of those of others who wish, on the contrary, to add to them Rus- sian, Italian and Japanese " in order to learn to understand these nations better." His conclusion is that English alone should be retained in the gymnasia (from the 3rd class onwards) and in the non-classical secondary schools. 141 THE GERMAN SCHOOL ary or to learn to converse. It is neither possible nor desirable that a German should know a foreign language well enough to appear anything but a citizen of the German empire. It is true that German culture cannot be isolated from English or French culture any more than one would wish to disconnect it from antique culture. It is both possible and proper to teach as much of foreign culture as is necessary for the better comprehension of national culture, even by means of summary instruction, provided it be living and intense and that it be linked up with lessons on the mother tongue, on national history, etc. English, which is spoken by five hundred million human beings, is more important than French, which is the language of a bare eighty-eight million. English should therefore be begun in the gymnasium in the lower classes while French should be kept for the higher ones, where it might even be made optional. In general, the tendency has been to exaggerate the study of living languages during the last thirty years or so. The " neophilologists " have helped to " disgust " the students with such study. Fortunately for Germany, the recent movement towards the improvement of the method has produced a vast supply of excellent teachers, and of excep- tionally good school-books, and a great deal of practical experience. The circumstance is a lucky one, as it is not probable that Germans will be able to go to England and France in the near future to - 142 AS A WAR NURSERY study the language : nor is it likely that genuine English or French readers or " assistants " will care to come to Germany to furnish " material for observation." In short, Herr Schroer does not preach the banish- ment of English or French from the domain of secondary education. What he demands is their entire subordination to the teaching of German, and the " exclusion of everything foreign except the bare elements of linguistic study, especially in the classical gymnasia. It is evident that a knowledge of foreign nations and of their civilization seems to him to be of a very secondary importance for the,* general culture of his compatriots. The classical philologists are lamenting that their heart (das Herzstuck) is being torn out of their body by the merciless curtailment of Greek and Latin. The neophilologists think that they are being but ill repaid for the help they gave but lately to the " moderns " against the " ancients " by spreading and perfecting the teaching of modern foreign languages. They resent being checked in their impetuous advance at the very moment when the German began to be at home on the steps of the world. Both however are ready to sacrifice their professional preferences on the altar of national " Kultur." They have been persuaded that the . " highest stake " of the present war is this same 143 THE GERMAN SCHOOL unique, glorious and unrivalled culture. It is to save German culture that the " brave soldiers of the Emperor have taken up arms against its Latin and Anglo-Saxon rivals and against the barbarian Slavs/' The schools would fail in their most sacred duty towards the Fatherland if, in face of the criminal attacks of enemies, they did not make the German language the pivot on which the whole of scholastic education turned. But the schools which have up to the present shown the greatest indifference on this point are these very classical gymnasia ! At the beginning of 1916, the union of German teachers (Deutscher Germanisten-Verband) presented a memorial to the Prussian Government on the urgent need for the reorganization and reinforcement of their teaching in the secondary schools. In their capacity as specialists, they ask that linguistic teaching shall be penetrated through and through by the past and present life of the Fatherland, in its lower stages by comparison with the local dialect of the pupils, and in its higher stages by comparison with the speech of earlier centuries. The right use of the mother tongue, whether in speaking or in writing, will be greatly facilitated by such a proceed- ing. Declamation and readings from national litera- ture will be given in such a way that the individual tastes of each pupil will receive proper development. The result of this will be that the young will be led to love and admire the riches of German literature in all its stages from the legends and naively popular 144 AS A WAR NURSERY songs down to the complex creations of the poetic art of the Middle Ages and the present day. The teachers of German language and literature deny that their demand for a larger place in the curriculum for their subject shows any desire to injure teaching of ancient or modern languages by their colleagues. They look upon an extra hour a week as an " appropriate and appreciable " gain. The number of hours devoted to German grammar, literature and composition is not, in their opinion, a matter of the highest importance, inasmuch as a clever teacher will be able to exercise his pupils in the use of the national language in whatever lesson he happens to be giving. But enthusiasts look upon the demand of the specialists as " too professional," much too timid, and as having little connexion 'with the grandiose affirmation of Deutschtum in the present war and with its providential mission. " Is it conceivable that the teaching of the mother tongue should be confined to three hours a week, when the same time is given to lessons in every language and twice that amount to dead languages ? It is just the comparative, historical and philological method which disgusts the children. The utilitarian point of view should take precedence of all others. Non scholae, sed vitae. At no time in their previous history has it been the duty of Germans to culti- vate their language, and their right to spread it all over the world ; for the German tongue is the 145 K THE GERMAN SCHOOL glorious symbol of the nation's culture, and the essential instrument of its power. To concede to the teaching of German a somewhat larger place in the time tables of the gymnasia and other schools would be of little use. What is needed is an entire recon- struction of the educational system, not on the lines indicated by specialists, but in accordance with the dictates of ripe experience in the domains of psycho- logy, pedagogy and politics. Such reconstruction will, sooner or later, be found to be absolutely neces- sary." 1 Now these psychological, pedagogical and socio-political factors have been clearly brought before the public in thousands of " war composi- tions " which have been collected to form part of the war exhibition of the new pedagogic museum at Berlin." 2 1 The above paragraph forms the conclusion of a criti- cism of the memorial of the German professors by Prof. Dr. Gramzow : Neugestaltung des deutschen Unterrichts, in the Vossische Zeitung, June 14, 1 916. 2 The Central Kaiser Wilhelm II. Pedagogic Institute (see above p. 30). In May, 1915, there were in the exhibi- tion 7,000 compositions dealing with 1,500 " war subjects," written by the children in 151 primary schools (Vossische Zeitung, May 12, 1915). The Headmaster of the Training College at Buda-Pest, Herr Nagy, sent essays from 150 Hungarian schools of all grades (Ibid., August 5, 1915). The Neues Wiener Journal (May 21 and June 5, 1915) speaks of similar experiments made in the Austro- Hungarian capitals. The pedagogue Plecher has done the same in Munich (Berliner Tageblatt, June 2, 1915). Dr. Kober has made some very just observations on the relative value of these " war-compositions " (Kriegsaufsatze] and on the 146 AS A WAR NURSERY The secondary schools are well represented. There are essays from Germany, Austria and Hun- gary. Sometimes the subjects have been set by the teachers, and sometimes the choice of subject and the method of treatment have been left to the pupil's discretion. German pedagogues imagine that these composi- tions have revealed interesting " facts." We fear that these childish outpourings on the war can furnish us with no criticism which will throw fresh light on the war, its causes, its vicissitudes and its consequences, nor on the methodology of essay writing, nor on pedagogic psychology, nor on socio- political education. We are ready to believe that when the elementary schoolboy is asked " How do you picture your life after the war ? " he is express- ing his true and personal feelings in replying that he wishes to be a farmer and live in the country " be- cause he will then be able to satisfy his hunger." Equal sincerity is no doubt shown by the boy who says that he wishes to enter the army, " because when I leave it I shall be given a post in which I can rest," and the many children who look forward to learning a trade " in order to earn money which one can spend." All these children of the people express sentiments which are curious, although strongly inspired by the conditions of the moment. But to allow a caution with which conclusions must be drawn from them (Vossische Zeitung, June 2, 1915: Vom Kriegsaufsatz). 147 ~ THE GERMAN SCHOOL pupil in a gymnasium to write a long essay, lacking both arrangement and style, on Hindenburg's l strategy or on one of the Chancellor's speeches in the Reichstag, is to commit an error which is both pedagogic and psychologic. Compositions of this kind reproduce impressions which are ill-assimilated, false and artificial. The " Programmes " (annual reports) of the gymnasia complacently mention the " war tasks " (Kriegsarbeit) performed at the com- mand of the authorities in order to " enable the pupils to share in great events," such as the celebra- tions of victories (Siegesfeiern), lectures on the war instead of morning prayers, etc. The youthful * brain has been stuffed with impressions and apprecia- ! tions which are beyond its power of comprehension. As for the reading in schools, teachers of German have been reproached with paying insufficient atten- tion to the initiative and individual taste of their pupils. It is supposed that these youths are more interested in a vigorous speech of Bismarck's than in the purest tirades of classical literature. This is perhaps a fallacious presumption based on a few exceptions. The Administration nevertheless recom- mended, some years ago, that " pages " of contem- porary history, politics and literature should be read. These recommendations have recurred to people's minds since the war broke out. The German bookseller has shown himself worthy of his 1 Vom Kriegsaufsatz, by Dr. Kober (Vossische Zeitung, June 2, 1915 and Frankfurter Zeitung, December 20, 1915). 148 AS A WAR NURSERY reputation. In a few months war books were literally swarming. 1 One may be taken as an example. Prof. Dr. Hans Muhl has made a collection 2 of select passages for use in secondary schools. In the first part, Bismarck and his contemporaries themselves expound the foreign policy of the Empire as then constituted : in another " the new Germany under Wilhelm II is described by the great thurifers of the Emperor. The last, which is entitled The War, is composed of speeches by Bethmann-Hollweg, of articles on the cause of the conflagration, on the culpability of England, etc., etc. It is easy to recognize the spirit which guides the " choice " of passages agreeable to the Administra- tion. For the Minister of Education is on the watch, we may be sure of that. By a decree dated May 18, 1915, he has warned the schools against 1 Vossische Zeitung, March 26, 1916. A headmaster has taken the trouble to review all the scholastic literature produced by the war, as well as all the descriptions of the future organization of the schools. The same writer has also discussed all the school-books on history, geography, German, arithmetic, religion, i.e. which have been inspired by the war. Among them are many bad ones, and, says the author, " they must be very carefully chosen if they are to help forward the " culture of patriotic thought " (Vossische Zeitung, June 7, 1915). 2 This collection, which has received much support from the Press, is entitled Lesebuch zur Weltpolitik (Reading- book on world politics) [pub. by Cotta, in Stuttgart]. (Koln- ische Zeitung, December 12, 1915)- 149 THE GERMAN SCHOOL collections " hastily made up of passages of French or English origin," " products of the lying Press of our enemies on the origins and the vicissitudes of the war, boundless insults offered to the German army, to its leaders, to the German people and to the dynasty." 1 Moreover the " Central Committee for the suppression of deleterious literature (Schund- liUeratur) has thought it necessary to inaugurate an active campaign against doubtful war-literature (Kriegs-schund-littemtur). According to Samuleit of Neukolln, himself a headmaster and one of the lecturers of the said Society, the series of stories (of which there were over ninety thousand different fasciculis) and the innumerable and perfectly silly stories for girls vanished in a day to make room for " war-serials " published by the same firms. Nearly a hundred of these were in existence a few months after the outbreak of war. And " the waves of this mud are ever rising and poisoning the heart of the young." " Teachers will be hard put to it to stem this torrent." The evil must be a serious one, as is evinced by the fact that the generals commanding various districts and the Courts of Justice have been obliged to interfere. 2 1 Vossische Zeitung, July 9, 1915. 2 Vossische Zeitung, March 26,1 916. The traders who are responsible for these works are the same persons who used to flood the foreign markets with their productions. Their energies have in no way abated now that they are obliged to confine their attentions to their own country. 150 AS A WAR NURSERY Persons who suppose that a greater latitude in the choice of essay-subjects and in reading will increase the pupils' interest in their German lessons, will find that they are making a serious mistake. The transi- tion of tutelage to the cult of free personality which is one of the reproaches levelled at the secondary schools, is not itself without danger. " Subjectiv- ism " has been denounced since the beginning of the war as " one of the most dangerous dissolvents " of " old German discipline." It is also to be doubted whether the Administra- tion will succeed in deriving any genuine patriotic, national and civic benefit from the martial excite- ment which it has itself aroused in its schools. Excellent results are however expected by the authorities from the teaching of history. * * * On September 2, 1915, there appeared in Prussia some fresh instructions on the teaching of History. The Minister for Education, having ordered at the outbreak of war that the " grandiose " events of the moment l were to form the subjects of history 1 Every effort has been made to achieve this end. The pupils have been called upon to take part in all kinds of war work, such as collecting for loans, collecting gold coins, and bringing together old copper utensils, etc. They have been appointed to help with the driving in of nails into the statues and symbols of war, with field work and gardening, and to take their part in military exercises. Every school organized " celebrations of victory " (Siegesfeiern) to which the parents were invited ; THE GERMAN SCHOOL lessons, finally decided that from henceforth Prussian and German history of the last fifty years should form the bulk of the historical teaching in secondary schools. In so doing the Minister makes use of the name of his imperial master. And indeed it is true that by his ordinances of May i, 1889, and February 13, 1890, Wilhelm II settled the question in favour of the nationalists, who deemed it more important for a good German to understand the development of German power under the Hohenzollerns than the Peloponnesian war or the campaigns of Hannibal. The Emperor desired that " young men should no longer be conducted from the Thermopyles to Ross- bach and Vionville by way of Cannes, but that they should go from Gravelotte back to Montinea and the Thermopyles by way of Leuthan and Rossbach." The schemes of work for 1892 were drawn up to suit these requirements ; to-day this " inversion " is an accomplished fact. Children in the sixth and fifth classes will be told stories from history so as " to open their young minds to ideas of heroism and of the greatness of history. Ancient history will be taught in the fourth class. In the two parts of the third class and in the first year of the second, the subject will be German history ; in the upper second and in class iB. the subject will be general history up to 1786 ; and finally in lA. the pupils will be finally, it seems that the headmasters were not niggardly in the matter of giving whole holidays (Schulfrei) (Ber- liner Tageblatt, September i, 1915). 152 AS A WAR NURSERY taught the latest German history. The Minister has realized that this redistribution will greatly over- load the later years. He has therefore allowed the teachers a certain latitude so that they may organize (i.e. limit) their teaching of ancient and modern history so as to give as much time as possible to contemporary Prussian and German history." This ministerial decree met with a fairly good reception, coming as it did at a moment when over- excited national sentiment is doing all in its power to forward the struggle for world-wide domination. The fact remains, however, that some very sensible criticisms of this new order have been formulated. Prof. Eduard Meyer, 1 who occupies the chair of Ancient History at the University of Berlin, is far too good an official to look upon this new adminis- trative measure as involving a curtailment of his subject ; on the contrary, he hopes that from it will result " a more scientific use of ancient history," as well as " the enfranchisement of the classical gymnasium." "This type of school, being over- whelmed with privileges, used to attract too large and too much mixed a crowd of pupils : it was becoming democratic. In order to live up to its pretentious claim to impart ' general culture/ it was obliged to teach everything without really studying anything. Not only was the standard of work constantly on the decline, but preparation for* 1 In the Vossische Zeitung, September 19, 1916 (4th supplement). - 153 THE GERMAN SCHOOL individual scientific work with a view to further work at the University had become impossible. The rules stifled all individuality and all life." Herr Meyer therefore thinks that the authorities are right to limit the teaching of certain periods of history, with a view to dealing exhaustively with national history. But pedagogues must not forget to illustrate " the growth of German culture " by explaining the nature of its " connexion with the past, with antiquity, with the Middle Ages and with the Renaissance " : in other words, they must set forth the " political development which is the very essence of all history." " Care must also be taken not to become ' one- sided ' like the English, by making history exclu- sively national. The History of Germany can only be perfectly understood by linking it to a simulta- neous study of the great historical evolutions of her neighbours. This is what the Government ought to have pointed out without regard to the tendencies of the day." By his violent propaganda against the English people * and his aversion to democracy, Professor Meyer has proved that he does not desire French and English history to be taught in order to arouse the sympathies of the pupils in favour of these two nations, but to make them understand " how German culture has asserted itself in the struggle of the 1 See the Mercure de France, February 15, 1916, p. 577 and following pages. 154 AS A WAR NURSERY nations among themselves." As far as he is con- cerned, the " tendencies of the day," which are negligible to the Parisian Government are, it seems, tendencies towards a future peaceful collaboration among nations, and not those nationalistic tendencies which he himself has helped to create. Dr. Muhling 1 thinks, with many of his colleagues, that it would have been advisable to wait till after the war to undertake the remodelling of the teaching of history. For, " apart from the inopportune confusion which the practical application of the new order will certainly cause, it is to be feared that the over-excitement of the moment will falsify the spirit of it. No one can blame teachers for lacking the objectivity which is nevertheless so necessary in instructions where they cannot avoid speaking of politics, whether party politics or foreign politics." As early as 1893, the first Congress of German historians, held at Munich, interpreted the imperial ordinances on the same subject in a sense which rejects all bias and all proselytism on the part of the teachers. " Historical teaching " said the Congress, " does not aim at preparing children for public life by a systematic cultivation of definite political opinions ; it aims rather at giving future citizens enough historical knowledge to interest them in the study of history and ta arouse in them a desire to participate in it." Herr Muhling appeals to the 1 In the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, October 3, 1915 (ist supplement). 155 THE GERMAN SCHOOL feeling for justice, " which was ever one of the noblest qualities of the German character." The schools must educate good patriots, not " fanatical parti- sans." The Liberal Frankfurter Zeitung, 1 in a leading article, had likewise pointed out the dangers which might possibly arise from the teaching of quite recent national history. " Did not the headmaster of a gymnasium interpret to his pupils a speech made by the Chancellor in the Reichstag in August 1915 ! " Teachers need a vast amount of tact to prevent their teaching of contemporary history from degenerating into an education of political opinions. This class of instruction needs just as delicate handling as does that in religious subjects. The political element cannot be eliminated from it. Now it is possible that the personal point of view of the teacher may shock the Administration as well as the pupils. From the pedagogic point of view, it is absolutely necessary to leave men who have left school the right to choose their own party, the school having previously taught them to appreciate tolerance, the alpha and omega of all civic teaching I History has not the stability of the exact sciences, such as mathematics, but is by its nature problematic : hence the fact that its educative value consists in showing exactly how appreciation of events can differ in different individuals or nations, even when these events are quite recent. 1 Of October 2, 1915. -156- AS A WAR NURSERY Thus the principal innovation as well as the chief N ) danger in this remodelling of the teaching of history in the Prussian secondary schools is, in the minds of some, the liberty left to teachers and schools, and, in the minds of others, the " capital " importance given to contemporary national history. It is true that this liberty permits specialization. Classical schools will be able to give more prominence to ancient history if they like. No one, not even the Administration, will henceforth have cause to com- plain of the non-observance of the uniform regula- tions brought about by " that growing democratiza- tion which is the enemy of all responsibility." Finally the higher classes in the gymnasia will prepare boys properly for the fruitful liberty prevail- ing in the Universities. Herr E. Meyer is also of this opinion. Still, that does not alter the fact that there is great danger in allowing teachers of history too free a hand in regulating the instructions to be given on recent and contemporary history. The war propa- ganda has shown how fragile were the notions of justice and impartiality cherished by German professors of the highest repute. All have not the same talent, or the same tact, as they are never tired of showing. The period after the war will be, for Germany, a period of re-grouping, of sharp political struggles, of violent discussions " on the virtues and the power of the race whose triumph has been cut short by a jealous and perfidious - 157 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL coalition of hereditary and irreconcilable enemies." We need only read the Lokal Anzeiger and the Frankfurter Zeitung to see that if the Germans themselves think it necessary to issue a warning against chauvinistic deviations and patriotic proselyt- ism in the very schools, it is because they are acutely aware of the dangers thereby entailed. We on our side are convinced that this danger is very real, unless the commotion is profound enough to bring back the Germans to a more sober and equit- able estimate of the character of other nations. No one would complain if this result were achieved. * * * The agitation fermented around the classical gymnasium will not succeed in " sweeping away " that institution. As heretofore the latter will find other Willamowitz-Moellendorfs he was " War- Rektor " of the University of Berlin in 1915 and these men will use their brilliant powers of persuasion to defend the cause of a threatened Hellenism, before learned bodies and in fashionable assemblies. The Universities and the Administration will protect it out of esprit de corps. It will continue to be the favourite school of the well-to-do classes and the " right-thinking " public. A few formal con- cessions will be made to reformist pedagogues, to agitated nationalists and to that section of the public which looks upon the gymnasium as an antiquated institution, " far removed from the world and its realities, and not unlike a prisoners' camp where a AS A WAR NURSERY life of brutalizing routine is endured far from the lights of the civilized world." 1 The classical gymnasium will thus inspire fresh confidence, thanks to the extension of its lease. The regulating of historical teaching is the first of the sacrifices made to the taste of the hour. It is one of those sacrifices which a Prussian Administra- tion would make without compromising itself. It is political rather than educational, and it is this fact which most interests us as foreigners. In conjunc- tion with the military education imposed by the Administration of the war, it will contribute to the " nationalization " of the secondary school. What more could be demanded before the end of the war ? The Minister for Education will continue his " patch- work " (Flickwerk). He has avoided the pitfall of the Einheitsschule (standardized primary school based on ideas of equality) by promising facilities for admission to the secondary schools to the element- ary scholars. He has not dared to lay hands on the " preparatory classes " of these establishments. All the other matters the Administration prefers to leave to the future and to its collaborators. Something has already been done by these colla- borators. A certain number of " privy councillors," 1 Prof. Hildebrandt of Berlin thus sums up public opinion in the article of the Vossische Zeitung quoted below on p. 60, note 2 . 159 THE GERMAN SCHOOL aided by University professors, by headmasters and by teachers in secondary schools twenty-three tried officials in all have compiled an imposing volume l in which they set forth the " possibilities " of partial reform on which the public and the Administration may some day be able to agree. This collection of the " 23 " has been analysed and commented on without bitterness in the Press. 2 The ardour of the opposite party has abated. The Minister has been able to have the schedule of the movement drawn up by his actual collaborators, without in any way involving his administration in the matter. Councillor Norrenberg, the editor of the volume, takes pains to point out that he has imposed no particular scheme of work upon his colleagues. The latter treat any given subject according to their 1 Die deutsche hohere Schule nach dem Weltkriege Beitrage ziir Frage der Weiterentwickelung des hoheren Schulwesens gesammelt von Dr. J. Norrenberg, Geh. Oberregierungsrat (Leipzig, Teubner, 1916). (The Ger- man secondary school after the world-war. Contribu- tions to the future development of secondary teaching, etc.) 2 By Prof. Hildebrandt (of Berlin) in the Vossische Zeitung of December 25, 1915, under the significant title Die kunftigen Schulprobleme (School problems of the future), and in the Kolnische Zeitung of March 4, 1916, by Prof. Moldenhauer (of Cologne) under the title of the work itself. The Frankfurter Zeitung of March 12, 1916, announces a similar collection which will be issued by the well-known schoolmaster Dr. Wychgram, Educational Councillor of Liibeck. This work contains opinions of a less officious character. 160 AS A WAR NURSERY ability and express their own ideas. Sometimes they contradict one another. This does not obscure the fact that the opinions set forth are largely those of the Administration. These contradictions furnish an excellent proof that it is difficult to satisfy every one as well as the State. In bringing forward his book, the editor appeals to the " confidence of the public." No one is better aware than he of the causes of the general mistrust with which parents and pupils view the " high " school and its teachers. He reveals them without more ado : they are excessive regulations, annoying discipline, exaggerated tutelage in and for everything, over-elaborate records of progress, too many details in the work, etc., etc., etc. In short, the meticulous working of the educational system which puts into the background " the general and moral culture of the pupils " and " their training with a view to a voluntary and joyful subjection to the law." This last point is worked out in an introduction by Councillor Reinhardt, formerly headmaster of the gymnasium at Frankfurt-on the Main and famous for his work on the " reform " of the gymnasia. The school, says Herr Reinhardt, should be an image of society. The pupil there learns his trade of citizenship. If he is accustomed to be free within the limits imposed by the necessities of the school, he will live his life in the world without seeking to escape from the control of the organizations which constitute the State. Work in the German national 161 i, THE GERMAN SCHOOL school should be organized with a view to the require- ments of public institutions (staatsbewusst). 1 Train- ing in physical valour, with a view to military service, must exist side by side with mental training. Both are fundamentally German. The " national " leitmotif dominates all the contributions to this collection, though all are alleged to be independent one of another, even the very professorial dissertation of Dr. Lisco, of Schulpforta, that celebrated centre of classical study. The subject of this essay is the unique efficaciousness of Latin Grammar in the logical training of the mind. Prof. Neubauer, writing on " historical and civic instruction " 2 merely develops the leading ideas in the ministerial decree analysed above. 3 " Deutsch " is the title given by Prof. Dr. Sprengel, of Frankfurt, to his study on the teaching of the mother tongue in the classical gymnasia. The very 1 The " State idea " did not exist in Germany at the time of the Reform, which produced the public school ; after the Napoleonic wars an attempt was made to realize it, and in the course of the last fifty years it has become crystallized. It is thus that the object of the modern German school is being determined in a perfectly organic manner. 2 Dr. Hahn's article, already quoted (on p. 127 above) is entirely devoted to pointing out the necessity for special civic teaching in secondary schools. The arguments of Dr. Hahn reveal a low nationalism. His lack of " politi- cal " spirit was commented on by a number of German authors even in the first year of the war. 3 See above p. 151 and following papers. 163 AS A WAR NURSERY brevity of this imperious title is significant. " Not only can German literature, both ancient and modern, boast of unique treasures which amply suffice for the education of the national spirit, but German art is also rich enough to enable us to do without models furnished by other countries from France to Japan. 1 The question of modern foreign languages is treated by Councillor Engwer, who knows and appreciates France, and by Herr Morsbach, professor of English in the University of Gottingen, a man whose judgment of the value of the English language and civilization does not appear to have been obscured by the grotesque Anglophobia of the Ger- man masses. Both are endeavouring to dissuade their countrymen from continuing a rash and fruit- less struggle against the civilizations in the middle of which Germany has always lived and from which she cannot escape : civilizations from which she has derived and will continue to derive inestimable benefits. On the other hand, the writers entreat their fellow-Germans, for the sake of their own dignity, to give up " their mania for aping everything which comes from abroad simply because it is foreign." " The best way of resisting the ascend- ency of one's neighbour is, first, to become well acquainted with him, and secondly, to cure oneself of one's own laziness or incapacity to react." Here, surely, we find a reasonable Nationalism, and one 1 See above, p 137 note 2 . 163 THE GERMAN SCHOOL which must be acceptable to any Government that is conscious of its duties and has the interests of its country at heart. The chapter on " teachers of the Catholic Religion and Religious Education " was confided by Coun- cillor Norrenberg to Dr. Rauschen, of the School of Catholic Theology at Bonn. This device may be due to a desire to convey a warning to certain clerical centres at the Court famed for their uncompromising- ness and their nationalist agitations, especially since the war. " Religious instruction also should contri- bute something to the development of national feeling by concentrating the attention of the young . on the German Church, on the particularities of its forms of worship, on its saints and theologians, on its Orders and Congregations. But its chief object should be to teach toleration." Of course training in courage, in view of armed service (Wehrhaftmachung), occupies a large place in Councillor Norrenberg 's compilation. The nation has accepted the inauguration of this kind of training at the hands of the military authorities. " The secondary schools must not only free themselves from the reproach of having neglected physical education, but they must also create a model which must be thoroughly German in character, in method, in breadth and in the reality and scientific excellence of its practical application." " Biology and Hygiene " are recommended by Dr, V. R. Haustein of Berlin as substitutes for the AS A WAR NURSERY theoretical teaching of Natural Science in the curriculum of secondary schools from the sixth class upwards ; these subjects are to serve as an introduction to the education of the race in physical valour. " Gymnastics and German games -no English sports are to be taught by assistant teachers who have acquired the facultas docendi in physical exer- cises at the University." Such is the dream cherished by Dr. Neuendorf, headmaster of a non- classical secondary school at Mulheim on the Rhine and discussed by him at the conclusion of his import- ant contribution on the physical education of the young Germans of to-morrow. And as public opinion had accused the teachers of being " innocents " in the matter of pedagogy, the headmaster of a gymnasium in Diisseldorf has written a special treatise to Councillor Norrenberg's book on " the training and perfecting of teachers in secondary education." We cannot but see that the advisers of the Minister for Education and their collaborators are making a frank attempt to go half-way to meet the desiderata suggested by the war to public opinion and to teachers. A treatise on " the importance of resi- dential schools for boys " (Knabenalumnate) in the light of the new education problems is highly charac- teristic in this respect. The author is Dr. Borbein. Boarding-schools are not popular in Prussia. The few secondary schools which undertake the entire - 165 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL charge of children are of ancient foundation, and enjoy an excellent reputation both socially and educationally. The idea has been revived with some persistence since the war. In order to replace the elite now engulfed in the general cataclysm, a " selection " is to be made among poor children and the war orphans, and the " gifted " among them are to be enabled to pass to higher study and to higher opportunity (Aufstieg der Begabten). 1 Now, these boarding- schools can and will be used as nurseries for future officials, scholars, and officers, with even better results than the primary elementary standardized and common school (Einheitsschule) conjoined with the secondary school. It is certainly striking to see Prussian Germany come back to an idea which can boast of the patronage of the French Revolution. Only in this case the move has not been made by a democracy which has just shaken off its fetters and thinks it right to take upon itself the care of the latent national forces, but by a Government composed of men of one caste who are anxious to maintain their position as rulers of the State. * * * To sum up : the Prussian Administration is asking for credit. 2 It will not abolish the classical 1 See above, Chapter IV, p. in and following pages. 2 Its need for credit is all the greater on account of the far more important matters which will engage its atten- tion after the war. This is a point which Paul Harms in 166 AS A WAR NURSERY gymnasium. " Let no one therefore ask it to eliminate from the curriculum the very subjects which give this type of school its ideal value and its superior character." In return, it will turn the gymnasium into a really national school, a training place for citizens of the German State, able to defend it at the point of the sword, to administer it, and to further the growth of its material power and its moral and scientific glory." These are no doubt fine promises for a Prussian Government to give, but it will be interesting to see whether they will be capable of keeping alive in the Germany of to-morrow, exhausted and vanquished as she will be, that fanatical nationalism which has precipitated her towards the present catastrophe. Prussia and Bismarck between them led the German people along this fatal road. As early as 1882, Constantin Frantz pointed out the dangers which would thus be incurred both in the field of foreign politics and at home. 1 Prof. F. W. Foerster, of the University of Munich, has been publicly disowned for having forcibly pointed out, since the war, the fatal consequences of the movement both for education and for the future of the German race. The Austrian poet, Grillparzer, had predicted the result in this tragic the Berliner Tageblatt of January 25, 1916, tried to bring home to over-zealous reformers. 1 Deutsche Weltpolitik (German world policy : Chemnitz, 1882). THE GERMAN SCHOOL phrase : " From humanity via nationality to besti- ality." 1 The Germans have been pleased to arouse the " sacro egoismo " of the European nations in opposi- tion to their aggressive nationalism. Some persons have pleaded in their newspapers for a " return " (Umkehr) and a " new orientation " (Neuorientir- ung}. The question is, will Germany ever consent to such a thing ? Greek Antiquity, even more than Christianity, seemed to be a common ground on which the nations might meet, for Greek Antiquity is the root from which sprang the civilization of them all. 2 The recent attacks on the classical humani- ties and the earliest official and officious results do not promise well for the " future humanism " of the Germany of to-morrow. Let us continue to watch her schools and the teaching given in them ; the system pedagogy thus revealed will prove a sure barometer whereby to gauge her policy. 1 Von der Humanitdt durch die Nationalitat zur Bes- tialitdt. 2 In June, 1916, de Berzeviczy, the President of the Academy of Science of Hungary, gave a lecture to the Viennese Union of " the Friends of the Classical Gymnasium in Austria," on the theme, " Humanism and the World- war." It will be the mission of the humanities, and especially of the Greek humanities, to reconcile the civil- ized nations after the war (Vossische Zeitung, June 13, 1916). 168 AS A WAR NURSERY CHAPTER VI The Political Role of the Universities AT the end of July 1914, while an enthusiastic crowd was gathered in Unter-den-Linden to await the fateful nod of the " All-highest War Lord," the professors of the University of Berlin had met together to appoint a new Rector. They too showed anxiety. But it was only anxiety to learn whether William II had not at the last moment flinched from facing the consequences of his decision. They knew his temperament with its mixture of impulsiveness and timidity. The clamour of the mob from outside re-assured them. It was the call to arms. " The flash of enthusiasm," says a witness, 1 "was caught up by the learned conclave. Those of long standing, and who had seen 1870 and even 1866, were not the last to show a burning zeal. The University of Berlin lived through moments to be mentioned with pride side by side with the memorable days of the wars of freedom." German professors are never weary of comparing 1914 with 1813. To give an idea of the eagerness of the Volunteers of 1915, hastening to join the colours, 1 Vossische Zeitung, July 28, 1915. 169 THE GERMAN SCHOOL they instance how Niebuhr had described the rising against Napoleon. The historian had compared it " to crowds who rush to the bakers' shops in time of famine." This simile could not fail to impress those who were present at the daily " Polonaison " l danced by the populace of Berlin, since 1914, in front of the pro- vision shops to secure food. There have been years, especially in the Universities, when all were bent upon calling back to memory the " glorious " epoch of liberation. It was an episode in history more easy to avow than the trick of the telegram from Ems, and its romantic vein lent itself to the patriotic staging set up everywhere in view of the world-wide preponderance of Germany. Nevertheless, the Germany of the twentieth century, united and free, rich and powerful, was in no way a reminder of the same Germany crushed and beaten by Napoleon. The Empire newly restored to life knew no shackles except the resistance of the free nations against the foreign sway. Wilhelm II is said to be as irresolute and as enamoured of peace as was his ancestor a century before. But while history has imputed it for righteousness to such men as Fichte and Boeckh that they aided Frederick William III to rouse up his energy so lately sapped by humiliation, it will on the other hand severely 1 This expression has been invented by the Berlin papers to describe the movements of the crowds formed up before the provision shops. AS A WAR NURSERY judge their successors and imitators, who, ruled over as they are by a monarch who is a weak politician, have left the generous impulses of the German people towards a liberal and peaceful emancipation to languish in Prussian prisons. It was Bismarck who riveted the last links of the chain which has enslaved the German Universities to the policy of the Hohenzollerns. Since 1870 they have exerted an intense political activity l in order to consolidate and aggrandize the Empire knowing it to have been called into being by an act of violence, and to be only maintainable by a like means. Their scientific activity has certainly en- abled them to forge engines of war both unheard-of and barbarous. But their crowning crime is to have fashioned, by dint of learning and method, the incredible state of mind which can speak of " scraps of paper," and to have overthrown 2 throughout a whole nation the elementary notions on which modern society is founded. The German Universi- ties, zealous in the service of Bismarck and Moltke, have employed all their resources in preparing the 1 Staatsbewusste nationale Stimmungsmache. The news- papers use a term which lends itself better, i.e. Brunnen- vergiftung, " poisoning of the wells," in order to denote the action of troubling the springs of thought and of inflaming public opinion by " infamous reports " and by imagination calculated to produce a desired effect. 2 University men of repute have discoursed on these subversions of traditional values, Umwertung der Werte, Umlernen, etc., but in a sense denoting " progress." THE GERMAN SCHOOL violent attack of Germanism against the Latin, Anglo-Saxon and Slavonic world. The dangerous tradition of Deutschland iiber alles in der Welt is the work of their professors. The military party had need of this superstition in order to retain their power over the Government to drag the nation with them towards the bloody quarry. The effect produced in July, 1914, by the official impostors of " the Fatherland attacked," was their first " war triumph." Ninety-three intellectuals, for the most part professors of Universities, were found ready in October, 1914, to fling the following formidable lie in the face of the civilized world. "It is not true that Germany caused this war. Neither the people, nor the Government, nor the Emperor desired it. On the German side the impossible was attempted in order to prevent it. Of this the whole world has authentic proof. How many times has not Wilhelm II shown, during the twenty-six years of his reign, that he was the pro- tector of the world's peace ? Our enemies have acknowledged it often themselves. The truth is that this same Emperor, whom they now dare to look on as an Attila, has for many lustres been the object of their mockery only on account of his unshakable love for peace. Only when a superior force, long on the watch near the frontier, fell upon AS A WAR NURSERY our country from three sides, only then did the German people rise as one man." It matters little that among the signatures there were some of noblemen of small importance ; that the compliance of certain of them was obtained by surprise ; that shame got the better of others. Every one knows how great is the influence of Harnack, 1 Willamowitz-Moellendorf, and a dozen others, like them, all illustrious professors and well- known courtiers. Harnack understood by the very language of the leaders that the signatories spoke in the name of all their caste, and that the uncon- ditional abdication of German science in favour of the policy of the Government and the military camarilla was final. German science has been, from this moment, an object of suspicion. The humanitarian idealism which won sympathy on account of the brutal repres- sion it suffered in the course of the nineteenth century, and especially in 1848, has now been " un- learnt " ; objectivity, the inexorable discipline of scientific methods, even honesty, are less than ever the monopoly of trans-Rhenish learning. Science, held captive by a creed even more exacting than the Christian faith, has become as cruel as was the latter 1 If the theologian, His Excellent Herr von Harnack (a native of the Baltic provinces like Kant, whom he in- vokes), is not the sole author of the manifesto, it would appear that he collaborated in its composition. The tone of it towards the end is sufficiently pastoral. 173 THE GERMAN SCHOOL during its most acute paroxysms of orthodoxy. The German people are " the chosen " of the " old Teutonic god," to spread the gospel of its " Kultur," either by gentle or violent means. Its mission is to save Europe and the world, by its virtues, physical, intellectual and moral, from the decrepitude of effete civilizations, and to preserve it from the Slavonic menace and the Asiatic peril. " Take our word for it," cried the ninety-three to their hesitating col- leagues and to the astounded world, " we will pledge our name and our honour to prove our saying true." Germany took them at their word. She grasped the sword made ready for the crusade of blood. But the world has rejected the imposture. * * * Towards the middle of July, a sinister agitation was afoot in the lecture halls of the University of Berlin. The students seemed to be looking some- thing steadily in the face. Meeting each other in the corridors, the question asked was no longer : '* Are you going to enlist ? " ; but " Where will you join up ? " At the other end of the empire, at Tubingen, that peaceful Swabian University so dear to theologians, the students' quarters resounded from the time of the Austrian ultimatum with war songs dating from the war of liberation. On the 26th, their Austrian comrades were called up, by telegraph. The tumultuous demonstrations in favour of war then reached the street, and were continued in front of the dwellings of the rector, the AS A WAR NURSERY burgomaster and the military commander. The uproar by day and by night was so great, that the " Philistines " who were still " hoping " (i.e. that nothing would come of it) were obliged to request the authorities to put a stop to such patriotic orgies. Both students and professors had stolen a march on the civilians. The " intellectuals " felt no surprise at the course of events which coincided with their desires. To them it will for ever be impossible to invoke the excuse of patriotism at bay : ( ' right or wrong, my country. ' ' They attempted every- thing to prevent German ambitions from " sticking in the mud of peace palaver." They were only waiting for the signal. " Large sections of society greeted the crime of Sarajevo as the God-sent oppor- tunity." x Certain University men of distinction whom Wil- helm II admitted to his table managed to turn to good account what they had observed of their host in moments of intimacy. They knew him to be inconsistent, fond of bold strokes (witness the journey to Tangiers), but drawing back at once before the consequences of his impulsive acts. They found fault with the " staunch love of peace," not only by pamphlets more or less anonymous, or by accusing foreign caricaturists of " making fun of him," but above all by exaggerating the dangers, exterior and interior, which according to them this 1 Liebknecht, speaking in the Prussian Chamber on March 16, 1915. - 175 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL lover of peace would draw down on the empire in days to come. Their scientific demonstrations (Kultur-historische Untersuchungen) on the reality of the culture-bearing mission of the German race, did but nurse and encourage the innate megalomania of Wilhelm II and at the same time point out to him his duty. And then were they not also the natural allies of the army, whose aspirations were blended and one with their own, and have they not always worked together for the unification of the German counties, " for the Emperor and the Empire " (fur Kaiser und Reich) ? The minds of the " select few " were as completely prepared as was the military organization. The phantom of the empire at bay was created by the same theorists who had invented and preached the " inevitable " expansion of " Deutschtum." By signing, " in good faith," as they would fain have us now believe, the call to arms for the defence of the violated Fatherland, they have shown themselves to be the accomplices of a political and traditional expedient which was meant to gain over the " philis- tines " and the populace, and still more to enable Germany to make the greatest and most merciless use of the anticipated victory. * * * One had got into the habit of seeing nothing more in the German Universities than the univcrsitas litterarum et scientiarum, in which masters and 176 AS A WAR NURSERY studious pupils accumulated, with pedantic care, even the most trifling facts which might help to widen human knowledge. Their copious and elaborated methods were taken as models, and the professors' independence of thought and speech, and their freedom in research and instruction, were much vaunted. But sufficient attention was not paid to the close union between the Universities on the one hand and the directing hierarchy of the Universities. The preponderating influence assumed by the University of Berlin on the federal states especially since 1870 has been only too often forgotten. It was in no way the intention of the Hohenzol- lerns, when laying hands on the elementary and secondary schools, to allow their Universities to live as republics. Rather, they endowed them with their names and their patronage. Being poor, though playing the part of Maecenas, they assured to them, together with all sorts of honours, the munificence of the public funds. Without neglecting the moral power of the Church (Bismarck for having attempted this was forced to go to Canossa) they made that of the Universities even greater. They will therefore be more docile in justifying the policy of their prince and more national in paving the way for it than the Catholic Church has shown herself at certain periods. The King is de facto the Grand Master of his Universities. He makes a point of seeing that only those who think as he wishes shall teach therein. The right of professorial colleges to receive 177 M THE GERMAN SCHOOL into their body colleagues of their own choosing is subject to royal sanction. Bismarck obtruded upon them appointments against which the most indignant remonstrances remained powerless. Before him, Prussian Governments had not scrupled to send to prison masters from the higher scholastic institutions who thought themselves free, by right of office, to profess opinions contrary to those of the authorities. Except for this subjection to the Emperor, the King and the Government, the Universities are free and made much of. Financial considerations are never an obstacle, when it is a question of attracting some specialist by offering him the stipend he demands, of splitting up the classes, or of stocking libraries and collections and of increasing the number of laboratories. There lies the secret of the innumerable and rapid practical applications of science by which the army profits as much as does industry and trade ; and here lies also the cause of the extravagant publicity which has served to spread abroad and exalt Deutschtum both within and beyond the German frontiers. The governing body of Berlin have never made a mystery of the political mission of their Universities. After Jena the Prussian treasury was empty and the resources of the country exhausted. None the less Friedrich Wilhelm founded two Universities, one AS A WAR NURSERY at Berlin in 1810 and one at Breslau 1 a year later. The name of Fichte alone would have justified the founding of the Berlin University. The influence of Breslau on the political dealings of Prussia in relation to Russia and Austria has ended in the enterprise which is now the objective of the armies on the eastern front. Bismarck created the University of Strasburg even before he had given a constitution to the annexed country. He placed it under the immediate patron- age of the Emperor. He desired it to be grand and imposing. The most distinguished lights of German science were sent there, tempted by stipends which would have seduced the least patriotic among them. Opposite to the University, he erected the imperial " burg " (citadel) and close by it the Parliament. As far as the Landesausschuss was concerned on July 14, 1876, the Alsatian deputies, in great humility, dared to express their uneasiness at the charges thrown on the poor local budget by the construction and upkeep of the University buildings : they were answered from the ministerial bench, as follows : " The University has not been founded for Alsace- Lorraine, but in the interests of the empire." This was stated, moreover, in the foundation title deeds, and emphatically repeated, inter pocula at the solemnities of the inauguration, in the presence of the highest personages of the empire. The small 1 By the incorporation of an ancient foundation (1701) with that of Frankfurt -on-the-Oder. THE GERMAN SCHOOL nation of Alsace-Lorraine has resisted this high- handed Germanization, in spite of or rather because of the zeal of the apostles of the University. The Stadthalter of Strasburg and the Central Government at Berlin, might have saved themselves the trouble of calling into consultation the j urists of the University and of listening to the philologists, historians and theologians, who, with a great re-inforcement of ancient documents, fixed and decided the best manner of alienating the original population. The political aspect of the Strasburg University has proved a lamentable check-mate for the Germans, unless they see in it a success, in so far as it has kept alive their particular hatred of the hereditary enemy of the west. On the eve of his departure for the front, July 14, 1914, Wilhelm II insisted on having the writs signed appointing the professors to the latest new-comer among German Universities, that of Frankfurt-on- the-Main. The citizens of this ancient free city, patricians of finance, commerce, and local manufactures, had been inspired by civic patriotism to assure to their city the prosperity to which they themselves owed their wealth. With the surplus of their fortunes they had founded institutions everywhere spoken of as models of their kind ; for instance, the Rothschild Library, the clinics and laboratories where Ehrlich carried on his research, the Academy of Economic and Commercial Sciences, etc. Their independent and local existence does not seem to have hampered 180 AS A WAR NURSERY the development of these foundations. But the centralizing spirit of the Germans of the empire can in no wise tolerate anything which calls to mind the particularism of old times, and still less the indivi- dualism of the English or Americans. Thus a" politically minded burgomaster conceived the plan of bringing together the scattered elements so as to form a University, ostensibly to strengthen them by union and by giving them the standing indis- pensable to the glory of his town, but in truth to open the Frankfurt institution to the influence of other German Universities. The pompous cere- monies of the opening were put off till after the war, in order to allow the Emperor to come in person to consecrate this new centre of. science to the service of the empire and of his House. Scarcely had the German armies possessed them- selves of Belgium and Poland than the military commanders Von Bissing and Von Beseler turned their attention respectively to opening the University of Ghent, and to reorganizing that of Warsaw. The occupation of these countries being prolonged, alas ! the lieutenants of Wilhelm II have been able to carry out in part the orders they received from Berlin.' The means which they employed to gain over the more intelligent population of the invaded countries, going from hypocritical promises to constraint by violence, 1 prove conclusively that a University, 1 For these very German methods the equally German phrase is Zucker und Peitsche (sugar and whips). 181 THE GERMAN SCHOOL according to the German conception, is only a political instrument for slavery and domination. * * * "The University of Berlin camped opposite the Kings palace is the intellectual guard of the House of Hohen- zollern." So exclaimed Professor du Bois-Reymond of Berlin, in a speech made on August 5,1870. This duty of guardianship Bismarck, and after him Wilhelm II, have divided among all the Universities of the empire and even those lying beyond it. The exchange of professors and students that the Univer- sities of German formation and language continue to arrange among themselves across the political frontiers, has facilitated this expression. No country in the world has established the " radiating " system of Universities on so methodical a basis. The centre is at Berlin. The professors, honoured with the title of privy councillors of State, both ordinary and extraordinary, received at court and influential in the higher administrations, give the tone to their colleagues of Leipzig, Munich, Tubingen and Heidelberg, etc. As far as the Univer- sities are concerned, particularism Bismarck's night- mare has ceased to exist. The influence of imperial professors makes itself felt in Austria Hungary, in German Switzerland and beyond throughout the Balkans and as far as Constantinople. The serfdom of Austro-Hungary is complete, thanks to the defenders it has found in the professorial chairs of the Dual Monarchy. A 182 AS A WAR NURSERY whole gang of German doctors have been labouring, since war began, at the organization of the Univer- sity of Constantinople. Concurrently with this expanding, the German Universities increase their strength by concentrating their operations. At this moment there may be observed in Germany a tendency to incorporate with the real Universities, the academies and schools for special study (Hochschulen), technical schools* schools of mining and of forestry, agricultural colleges, veterinary colleges, commercial schools, colonial institutes, schools of tropical medicines, of naval architecture and the like. There was a time when these establishments were regarded with a certain disdain by University men. But now that the admission to these schools has been made dependent on the possession of the leaving certificate of a secondary school, and that they have obtained the privilege of conferring a Doctor's Degree, a marked junction has been effected. Even before the war, certain of the Universities, Berlin and Leipzig for example, had incorporated with themselves the provincial higher schools, even when they lay outside the seat of the said Universi- ties. This arrangement was desired for educa-] tional and government reasons. The Universities strengthen their theoretical teaching of pure^sciences by institutes of practical science, while technical schools complete the student's practical knowledge by instruction. -183- THE GERMAN SCHOOL But Germany does not centralize for reasons of economy, so as to avoid paying for the same thing twice : she does it to increase the output of her strength and to have it well in hand in case of need. 1 The services rendered by the practical schools are made the most of in favour of this concentration. 2 In this we see the principal source of the subsequent might of the empire solidly concentrated. The Faculties of the natural sciences with their annexes of laboratories, institutes for research 3 work and practical schools, will furnish the instrumental force. To the Faculties of philosophical and historical science will be added institutes of a like nature, 4 in order not to let intellectual and moral force fall into decay. The two forces dovetail into each other, their action is mutual. This is " Kultur." Thus is fulfilled the prayer of the too famous Professor Lamprecht, of Leipzig, the historian of Wilhelm II and the prophet of Pan-Germanism. His cry was " Let the Universities endeavour to feel their 1 Unsere Hochschulen, und die Auforderungen des 20 Jahrhunderts, by Professor Reidler (1898). 2 Zusammenfassung des Hochschulbetriebs, by Dr. E. Uetrecht (Tdgliche Rundschau, September 25, 1916). 3 The extra-university institutes, such as the "Wilhelm II foundation " and the imperial dependencies of the great industries may be classed with these bodies. 4 For instance, the twelve institutes of historical, philo- logical and geographical sciences, etc., etc., founded at Leipzig by Lamprecht. 184 AS A WAR NURSERY way more speedily towards the new end in view, inevitable because founded on German culture" Of this said " Kultur " the Universities are the factories. The management is entrusted to the professors. All that they do and produce there, in apparent liberty, is done and produced for their employer, the State. The individual is benefited by " Kultur," but only on condition that it is through the medium of the State. There is nothing democratic about it. The individual is human matter to be thoroughly kneaded into shape (durch- kneten). The typical German, individualistic and idealistic, has too long been left to himself and has therefore remained the despised " Hodge " in spite of the part he has played in history and in the civilization of Europe ; he must have his place in the sun, respected in every part of the globe to which he is pleased to go, and must be able to speak with authority. For he has the right so to do by virtue of his " Kultur," which also will permit him to achieve these ends~with strength and ability, since it teaches him to submit unreservedly and " joyfully " to the order and discipline which, thanks to the army, the State has set up so as to be strong in his stead. The army is the last word of that " Kultur," which the German Universities seek to spread abroad. Science, which is the essence of all culture, of what- ever sort, allows itself no other form of expansion but in nationalizing itself in the service of the prince. -185 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL " To knead human material by a scientifically exact instrumental force, having nevertheless within itself its own life and movement, as represented in the highest degree of perfection by our army. This is what has been obtained by the guiding collabora- tion of German science, which has innoculated the entire body of the nation with the stimulating lymph of a more emphatic and clearer consciousness of itself." 1 " The seeds which the German Universities have nourished with so much care have grown up to full stature during this war. The ancient spirit of love for the Fatherland which showed itself during the wars of freedom has ever since been cultivated in the Universities. In the management of the present war, modern military teaching unites with this spirit, with this consciousness of ourselves and this power of action : it is the mobilization of all science." 2 There are two estimates of the work accomplished by the German Universities. Both are founded on the experiences of the war. The first was drawn up in July, 1915, by a member of a University for the readers of the Liberal Vossische Zeitung. The second is likewise from the hand of a University man, who addressed himself in September, 1916, to the orthodox 1 The Vossische Zeitung, July 12, 1915. Deutschlands Hochschulen im Kriege, by Franz Servaes, collaborator of the Vossische Zeitung, the accredited organ of the higher teaching body. 2 Dr. E. Uetrecht, at the beginning of the article in the Tdgliche Rundschau already quoted. 186 AS A WAR NURSERY Nationalist readers of the Tdgliche Rundschau. One would take them to be from the same pen. The Universities are proud of having furnished the army with " scientifically exact instrumental forces " in a supreme degree of perfection. Big guns, submarines and airships are, most certainly, scientific marvels and worthy of admiration, but the patriotic spirit of Germany has irremediably compromised itself in association with " a modern military tech- nique " which makes use of the diabolical measures of asphyxiating gases and liquid fire. These resources are not found on the spur of the moment. The fact of employing them of set purpose, without necessity and in the face of promises given, shows that the other preparation, the intellectual and moral preparing, must have marched side by side with the instrumental preparations. " Kultur " makes up a homogeneous whole. It makes one shudder to think how greatly the concentration of all higher tuition will enable the training of cultivated minds to be intensified in order to help forward the egoistical aims of an irresponsible Government. The Universities and high schools for special study take " the human material to be kneaded " from the flower of the nation. They prepare students for the higher and middle ranks of the Administration, for the magistrature, for the higher professorships, for the ministry, for liberal professions and for important employments in commerce and industry. -187 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL Rare indeed are the young men who on their arrival at the University do not become enrolled in one of the numerous associations, which are linked together and spread from one University to another, forming a sort of vast Masonic Covenant. Nothing remains of local recruiting, except the memory which is preserved in the name and device on the banners of some of the oldest of these associations. The spirit of particularism, of old times, has disap- peared from among the youth of the University. Nevertheless groupings are to be seen, as in all society, and these are determined by social position or by the employment of their affiliated members. There are Universities which receive none but noble- men ; certain are for the rich, others for middle- class citizens ; there are some for the studious, and others for members of this or that religious body ; but none acknowledge themselves as poli- tical. In all of them staunch friendships are made for life. And over them all waves " the ancient banner of patriotic love, as in the time of the wars of liberation." The younger members, at the outset of their curriculum, knowing the initial year to be in any case lost to their studies, make this their year of military service and thus keep up the general enthusiasm. Old members, who have made their way in life, come every now and then to carouse with their young " brothers," and assure them of their solidarity, but also to remind them that the 188 - AS A WAR NURSERY country is counting on them. Bismarck and the Emperor never failed to keep up this tradition. No old student has ever disowned the colours of his corps- The young students on their side the present members do not forget their honorary members. It cannot be said that a political or civic spirit, properly so-called, is formed in these associations. But patriotic spirit, national, nay even nationalistic spirit, and unreserved and disciplined loyalism, are all fostered by them. That is all that the Govern- ment desires. Its most cultured adversaries have never on that account been the most formidable- Bismarck got the better of Windthorst, who, in the opinion of many Germans, was his superior as a politician. In 1914 the Socialist " doctors " were the first to throw away their principles, and to drag their party, which was before committed to an irreducible opposition, into the train of an Emperor and Govern- ment in whose eyes they have never been anything but " enemies of the country." In the German " war literature " the Universities take the leading part. The daily press has at no time published so many articles of political bearing signed by " doctors " and " professors both ordinary and extraordinary " of all branches. The Censor has nothing to say against them. Those who have neither written nor spoken in public lose all esteem ; they have stifled their science and their conscience by sheltering their want of courage behind the " civic truce." 189 THE GERMAN SCHOOL The others have applauded the acts of the Govern- ment. The historians by profession have gone the farthest astray. 1 Eminent lawyers have propped up the theory of " scraps of paper " by impudent sophisms. They have, by artful " interpretations " as false as they were shameless, justified the violation of Belgium, the monstrous crimes of the soldiery, and the flagrant failing in respect of treaties. By their showing, Germany alone has respected inter- national law. On the other hand, in University centres there has not been the smallest manifestation of moral rectitude or of objectivity, or of liberty, all so much vaunted, which might be regarded as a protest. No authorized minority of intellectuals, not even an individual of unquestioned position, has stood up to object. 2 We could have said as much. The Parliament remained free. Some rather violent opposition speeches of a censorious character were made there. But even in the yells of impotent rage uttered by the Socialist minority, most of whom have not enjoyed a University education, we should seek in vain for one single mention of a University man 1 The criticisms of " J 'accuse " by the German Univer- sities fully reveal how prejudiced are the minds of their authors. 2 The novel Inferno, by E. Stilgebauer, appeared at Basle and has been forbidden in Germany : The appeals of Remain Holland have had deceptive echoes. See below, p. 208, the opinions of Prof. F. W. Foerster. 190 AS A WAR NURSERY having had the courage to make his voice heard on the side of right, justice and humanity. From Christian pulpits ministers of God have sanctified the barbarous excesses of the war by quotations from the Bible. The German bishops have disdainfully rejected the appeal of their Belgian brethren for Christian forbearance. The deputy pastor Dr. Traub, of Diisseldorf, a Liberal (!), in a publication bearing the significant title Eiserne Blatter (iron leaves) preaches a hatred of the enemy which has nothing evangelical about it. The teachers in secondary schools, etc., began, as early as August 1914 a campaign without precedent. 1 To them the time seems to have come finally to purge German pedagogy of any tendency that might be described as generally human. Does not German " Kultur " when enriched and purified by national progress comprehend the most precious essentials of an antique culture ? As to the arts and the literature of modern nations, Germany has much better to show. What is there to wait for ? Why not use the German national school, placed under the safe authority of Berlin, to train German men and women and to bring them up' so as to achieve military efficiency (wehrhaft und kriegstuchtig), and to reinforce the flower of the governing body by the admission into professions of the best elements of the people ? Manufacturers, merchants and landowners have 1 See Chapter V. THE GERMAN SCHOOL formally called upon the Chancellor to relinquish none of the territory occupied by the German army. Having learnt their cue in the upper technical schools they go on obeying their masters. One of them, the author of Mitteleuropa, has outlined the programme of their ambitions. Others have already established themselves at Ghent and at Constantin- ople, to prepare the commercial routes to Antwerp and Bagdad. * * * Certainly the seed sown broadcast by the Ger- man universities has yielded well. It has indeed yielded too luxuriantly and has choked off the harvest. The learned doctors of Berlin do not know what to make of it. The propaganda which they have been organizing with such care and method throughout the whole world since the first days of the war, has convinced no one of the justice of the German cause and the blessings of " Kultur." In their very midst the excesses of zealots threaten to compromise both the science and the German cause. They have sown the " dragon's teeth round the golden fleece." Let us beware of believing them willing and ready to make a frank return to the Germany of Bismarck, or of Goethe, 1 advocated by some. If we believed them we should be mistaking the nature of the nationalist pride, which has bewildered the wisest 1 It was a University man, a professor of theology, who protested publicly against this watchword. - 192 AS A WAR NURSERY of them. Let us rest content to keep a record of the denials of their political excesses which they have issued almost in the guise of avowals. A short time before his death Professor E. Siepert who taught the English language and literature at the Munich University, published in the Berliner TageUatt l a very honest article on the " duties of patriotism." The abundant war literature against England, which this learned teacher of English had seen come to light within a year, had filled him with aversion and sadness. " The false generalization/' he writes, " the partial and exaggerated judgments to be found in the much talked of book by Eduard Meyer, titular Professor of Ancient History at the Berlin University, are little fitted to enhance respect for German science." Another critic, also a University man, thus begins his report of the same book. 2 " The natural sciences and their applications, have, owing to the war, achieved results, notably in Germany, which they could not have reached but after long years in the supine development of peace. But we may remark that the abstract sciences which are in nowise so vital to the interests of the coun- try have in a like manner hastened their move- ments in order to readjust themselves anew. 3 A 1 October 30, 1915. See also the Mercure de France, February 10, 1916, p. 586. 2 Dr. B. Guttmann, in the Frankfurter Zeitung, Nov. 14, 15- 3 Umlernen, to unlearn in order to learn over again, to 193 * THE GERMAN SCHOOL new science, born of the war, is in the making and is setting to work to repaint the former image of the world according to the experience of the last fifteen months. It would appear that, on August i, 1914, the scales fell from the eyes of not a few philo- sophers, historians and writers. They instantly hastened to spread abroad their new-found know- ledge. Those who did not know it then, have now learnt how precarious were the demonstrations in the science of civilization, in spite of the exactness of the methods employed. And as the same small number of contemporary official documents have been interpreted by the learned of diverse nations in such a radically different manner, what warrant have we that in the matter of Egyptian papyrus or Moabitish inscriptions we may not be deluding ourselves with most disquieting mysti- fications ? Unhappily it has also become iear that those who have been searching after truth during their whole lives have not found in it an antidote to their own prejudices." The author of these lines would be no true German if he did not imply that he shared his disenchant- ment with all the learned bodies of the world, especially with the French and English. But he change one's method of study. The German war language has coined new terms of this type to express the new trend of the public mind and the fresh aspect of things : Umwer- ten is to put a different construction on things from what was done in the past. 194 AS A WAR NURSERY was brought to it by an overwhelming criticism of a book written by a professor who was deemed worthy to succeed the great Mommsen in the chair of history at the University of Berlin. The blow which he aims at the Berlin savant strikes all of those of his colleagues, and their name is legion, who in the matter of this war have brought German official history into grave discredit. Herr Meyer, as far as we know, has made re- search into the first origin of European civilization his speciality. On the other hand his knowledge of the English language is very small, and it is only by hear-say that he has any acquaintance with the political and social institutions of Great Britain. However, this did not prevent him, as a champion of German " Kultur " and a fervent admirer of the Prussian political regime, from writing a few weeks after, under the influence of anger, a so- called scientific and hence scathing condemnation of the social and political development of the English people. Let us await the moment when his science will justify the French and Belgian deportations by that of the Jews under Nebuchad- nezzar. Well, it now seems that the learned archaeologist of Susiana has cooled down. Not long ago, when the Prussian Minister of Education, yielding to pressure from the Nationalists, gave orders that modern German history should be taught in the schools as widely as possible, to the exclusion of other sub- THE GERMAN SCHOOL jects if need be, apprehension arose in the minds of certain historians, and to this Herr Meyer was no exception. Did they find out that badly taught national history is the surest road to that jingoism and chauvinism with which they have so often reproached their enemies ? And did they under- stand that the masters of historical criticism, by jumbling up their science with the casuistry of nationalist proselytism, are on the verge of making a disastrous political hoax of historiography and " Kultur." On the other hand, the classical philologists have been roused by the violent attacks started on every side, and often in their own camp, against the ancient classical humanities which are considered to be " too unreal and utterly useless to the German Fatherland/' Neo-philologists have been forced to protest against the iconoclast fury which insists on the root and branch proscription of the languages, the literature and the art of England, France and Italy. Those who wish to turn these much-vaunted German schools into " schools of non-commissioned officers with a little science thrown in," are not the ranters we might take them for. They are stu- dents, the true children of the Universities. And this singular state of mind has been created by the masters of these Universities. German science has stepped out of its sphere by entering on a politi- AS A WAR NURSERY cal career. Instead of leaving professional politi- cians to achieve the aims pointed out by science, the German Universities have let themselves be enslaved. It will hardly be an easy task for them to retrieve this fatal step. * * * The first Kriegsrector (War-rector) of the Univer- sity of Berlin was the celebrated hellenist U. von Willamowitz-Moellendorf, Chief Councillor of State and enjoying the title of Excellency. The person- ality of the Rector chosen seemed at once a symbol and a happy omen. His father in-law, the well- known historian Mommsen, had unveiled during his rectorship the commemorative slab dedicated by the University of Berlin to its members who fell in 1870. His son-in-law had camped outside Paris with the grenadiers of the Prussian Guard. Was he perhaps destined to celebrate a similar victory in 1915 ? As a hellenist he enjoyed a matchless reputation. His profound and exclusive learning, backed by an exceptional talent in oratory, has caused him to be compared with G. de Humboldt, A. Boekh and F. A. Wolf. His influence over the Universities of his country is unquestioned. Be- sides all this, Professor Willamowitz is one of the most noted personalities in the highest society. The Emperor honours him with particular esteem. He has the ear of the Government. For Herr von Willamowitz gladly forsakes the serenity of classic life to watch the movements of foreign countries, 197 TH GERMAN SCHOOL whose languages and institutions he knows. To that body of the learned who had so honorably acknowledged his worth, he gave the impression of labouring for a closer union of modern civilization round common classical studies, which he knew so well how to restore. An English paper lately wrote of him that the lectures he held at Oxford had done more to establish a good understanding between nations than all the political discourses of recent times. Such optimism was excessive. So the harangues of this eminent " Kriegs-rector " were expected with not unreasonable curiosity. They did not disappoint the German official and learned world. Herr von Willamowitz belongs to the country squire class. He is one of the chiefs of " Kultur." If he did not take the initiative in the manifesto of the ninety-three he was one of the first to sign it and to get it signed by his colleagues. He employed his learning, his talent, his influence and his " rectorial magnificence " to prove to the educated society of Berlin even in the churches "the justice of the German cause," "the aggres- sion of the perfidious foreigner," " the intimate connexion between science and militarism." These harangues whose " verve and conviction " and "genial arguments " are much vaunted by German newspapers, have been printed, as have many others, and are largely circulated in neutral coun- tries Now the first doubts on the efficiency of his cam- 198 AS A WAR NURSERY paign appear to come to Herr von Willamowitz from outside. He has already found l a certain section of truth on the enemy side. " Foreign Ministers," he says, " are mingling falsehood with truth when they speak of the German menace ; the Emperor has never threatened any one ; what our adversaries felt themselves threatened by, was the power, the commerce and the wealth of Ger- many." Has not one of the colleagues of Herr von Willamowitz tried to prove, not less " genially, " that " defensive " and " preventive " are synonymous, and by so saying avowed in spite of himself that Germany's so-called defensive war was a war stirred up by herself ? Quite recently another manifesto of the intellec- tuals was put into circulation. The papers had announced its publication. Herr von Willamowitz, who figured among its promoters, preferred, so it would seem, to let the matter rest there. Still more recently, Herr von Willamowitz has felt the need of explaining to the Berlin corre- spondent of the Vanguardia of Barcelona, as well as to Mr. Ricardo Leon, of the Spanish Academy, the full bearing and import of his rectorial orations, so that they might notify the same to the com- patriots and to the Latin nations of South America. His " explanations," spread abroad by the whole 1 In a speech at the Church of the Trinity at Berlin on October 5, 1915, on "The second winter of the war" (Lokal-Anzeiger, October 7, 1915). 199 THE GERMAN SCHOOL of the German Press in the form of an oiicial com- munication, are interesting in the highest degree. They are an illustration, slightly shaded off so as to fit the circumstances, of the political function of German Universities in general. Their aim is to forestall the danger of a future withdrawal of foreign connexions which might be the result of the equivocal attitude of the centres of German science. The following are the " explanations " according to the Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger, August 29, 1916. " This satisfies my own wish to give in a precise form to the representatives of Spain and the Latin races of South America some explanation of the speeches made by me, as Rector of the University of Berlin. What I have stated both as a patriot and a man of science, is founded on the philosophical and historical doctrine carefully worked out by the great German thinkers of a hundred years ago. You have the successful results of this doctrine before you : they are to be seen in the political and intel- lectual progress of Germany. Consequently, this doctrine equally holds sway in our Universities. Whatever is gained for science belongs not to any particular nation, but to all Humanity. Thus Greece in the first ages, and since her time the Church, have laboured for all, as do now all civilized nations (Kulturvolker). If, in a hundred years, Germany has succeeded in making great progress in every department of science, all nations are bound to appropriate to themselves these gains, 200 AS A WAR NURSERY so as not to be left behind ; but not because we are Germans, but in the interest of science itself. This latter possesses the miraculous power of becoming all the stronger for being lavishly used. We have done so gladly, and there is no occasion to fear that your youthful students will in the future receive a less friendly welcome at our hands. "It is one of the malicious lies of our enemies to assert that we desire to force a political and intel- lectual tyranny upon the world. On the contrary ,^ our philosophical and historical investigations have made it a recognized fact that the welfare and advance of human civilization rests on the collabora- tion of nations according to the strength and temper peculiar to each. Uniformity in the culture of the world (Weltkultur) would be a misfortune, even if the predominant culture of a people were as superior to others as was once Greek civilization, or the French civilization in the eighteenth century. English sway all over the world would possess such a uniformity. Germany is seeking nothing of the kind. It is precisely because it has cost us such heavy sacrifices to found our national State, while at the same time developing that science which rises above all national landmarks, that we have learnt to estimate the value of the national spirit of envy 1 The italicized passages are thus emphasized in the original. The author has carefully weighed his phrases. He stakes much on his play of words, thereby revealing all the more clearly his real thoughts. 201 THE GERMAN SCHOOL of every foreign nation. For we Germans may safely maintain without fear of being called presumptuous, that we know better than any one how to take delight in becoming one with the intellectual life of a foreign people. " I speak to men who express themselves in Spanish. I have therefore occasion to enlarge upon a subject which should have formed part of my second speech but which the shortness of my allotted time constrained me to leave out. When I say that old Roman rhetoric no longer suffices, I mean that I expect from Latin nations a vigorous and intellectual forward movement. Each of them possesses its own precious store of national strength, concealed under the veneer of traditional forms. While on this subject I willingly add what my celebrated colleague, Professor Morf l said to me even before the war ; he has studied at Madrid, and professionally studies modern Spanish literature including popular literature. This is what he said to me. ' In no Latin country as in Spain, at the present moment, is such a powerful and lively (frisch), intellectual push to be found.' But we ourselves are desirous in the future to share your life to a still greater extent. The University of Berlin has only postponed the solemnities in honour of Cervantes on account of the war. At the time of the Jubilee 1 One of the subscribers to the sorry manifesto of the ninety- three ; of Swiss origin, and a pupil of Gas ton Paris, whose valuable friendship he has possessed. 202 AS A WAR NURSERY of our University, we conferred on M. Cuervo the title of Doctor honoris causa, and we laid particular and eulogizing stress on the fact that having been born in Bogota, he has become a world leader by his talent for the study of Spanish dialects both of America and of the mother country. And then there is Numantia ! E. Saavedra had already fixed on the site. The accuracy of this site has been confirmed by Ad. Schulten. The Emperor of Germany has himself given funds for the excava- tions. But when doubt was no longer possible, we Germans gave way. We understood quite well that Spain had set her heart on excavating this spot of national glory, and so we busied ourselves with the Roman camps in the neighbourhood of the town. The zeal of the Spanish explorers was kindled. They \ now wield the pickaxe in numerous places. This is how German science makes it its study to awaken national competition : it does not try to stifle it. " It is a long way to South America, but technique gets the mastery over space. Let us each then contribute our quota to draw the nations together. We Germans will joyfully greet your young men in our Universities, and we are persuaded that in the union of our nations, we shall by no means only give ; we also gladly receive and learn." We must not try to find in these statements a withdrawal of the speeches this patriot made to his fellow-countrymen. Herr von Willamowitz has too much intelligence and learning not to have 203 THE GERMAN SCHOOL understood the danger of the extravagant apostolate to which the German Universities now stand com- mitted by means of long training. Does he see armed men springing from the dragon's teeth that were sown around German science ? It is by no means the first time since the Manifesto of the ninety-three that he remembers that science is international. His last defensive speech resembles the quibbling of the cleverer sort of social demo- cratic leaders persons moulded in the Universities to "recapture" the international Socialist so use- ful to German politics. Having left the rectorial chair, has Herr von Willamowitz put back on the face of German science the delusive mask torn from it by the war ? The outburst of furious hatred which in the immediate circle of the most popular and well- informed of rectors had swamped with its filth even the lowest and most ignorant strata of the German people, has caused much meditation among reflecting Germans. In the Press, the University bodies have called upon the State to close the German Universi- ties in future to foreigners, and specially to subjects of the powers now at war with Germany, and of neutral countries who have not openly sided with her. In the Prussian Parliament this interdiction has given rise to a passionate Xenophobian discussion. The mere fact that deputies have made it the subject of a parlia- mentary debate, sanctioning the measure on the part of the Government, suffices to show to what degree 204 AS A WAR NURSERY the establishments of higher education are a poli- tical instrument in the hands of the State. Herr von Willamowitz would fain reassure his inter- locutors of Latin race on this point. But he is very careful not to tell them how completely philosophical and historical doctrine has shifted its aims in the last fifty years. Nothing remains of it, in fact, but narrow-minded party fanaticism and selfish nationalism. Contrary to what Germans are in the habit of doing, when they are summing up English and French science, we have no intention of denying the progress made by our neighbours in science, nor to belittle the preponderant share in it which in their country accrues to the Universities. Certainly there are benefits to science itself in making hu- manity partake of them in the widest and most liberal measure. But the method must always be considered, and it is precisely Herr von Willam- owitz's method which is characteristic of German Universities, although in his case it is toned down by acquaintance with the habits of society. The phrase in which he speaks of the obligation of foreign nations to take to themselves German progress, in the interest of science, throws a light on all German proselytism. He asserts, it being an understood thing that his learning gives him the right thereto, or rather, what is equally characteristic, he in- sinuates by antitheses, and formulates premises, leav- ing the trouble of proving them to the public, 205 THE GERMAN SCHOOL " The old Roman rhetoric no longer suffices " ; " the valuable national force of the Latin nations is hidden under the varnish of traditional forms." We expect from them a vigorous intellectual for- ward movement. Another of his colleagues would have said how many times have we not heard it that the Latin races are prattlers incapable of action ; that their civilization is only veneered ; that there is no indication that their national powers will ever re-awaken, etc., etc. The Spanish acad- emician must have felt a little embarrassed, on account of the two other Latin sister nations, at the discovery of the " illustrious " Professor Morf on the recent literary renaissance in Spain. How happy the Spaniards ought to be to learn that Cervantes, whose anniversary has been feted every- where, in spite of the war, will later on be feted in Germany when they have time ; that the best Spanish linguist of the present day is a native of Columbia ; that without the supervision and initiative of German science, and without the money of the Emperor, the Spaniards would never have undertaken the excavations of Numantia. These facts may be accurate. But it would seem that by asserting them with a little more delicacy and a little less presumption, less risk would be run of awakening in the Spaniards the suspicion that German science is at any rate inclined to lord it over their science, and to control their plans of action. 206 AS A WAR NURSERY Every one has seen something of the same kind in German trade. And it is feared that the sum total of German progress, alias "Kultur," may end in like manner in " tyranny " and " suppression." Is it not for having withstood this danger and thwarted Germany's plans, that all the Latin, Anglo-Saxon and Slavonic nations of Europe, Spain alone excepted, are to-day the victims of German aggression ? Herr von Willamowitz invokes historical and philosophical doctrines to declare that uniformity in world culture would be a disaster. But these same doctrines teach us that such a uni- formity has never resulted, and never will result, from political ascendency, always supposing such an ascendency to be something more than a chimera. Spain once held sway over an empire on which the sun never set. She and England once divided the Americas between them. Their languages and culture prevail there to this day. It is quite prob- able that neither the Catalonian journalist nor the Academician believe that the misfortunes of South America and she certainly has undergone many and great misfortunes are due to their uniform Spanish culture, any more than that the prosperity of the Northern States, Canada and Australia, are the exclusive acts of dominating English culture. Herr von Willamowitz wants to bring about a University propaganda. He could not well say that the German professors had compromised their 207 THE GERMAN SCHOOL reputations both before and during the war. He does not breathe a word either of the clumsy insults heaped upon the foreign countries who did not applaud German action, or of the proscriptive measures schemed against foreign students. He does not name Italy, he touched upon French civilization of past times, and reveals his prejudice against England, the friend of Spain. All the rest is verbosity about "Kultur," the only theme which claims the attention of German Universities. To offer to discuss matters or to try to convert a Kulturtrdger (a culture broker) would be a waste of time. Of whatever kind it may be, political, in- tellectual, economic, or all of them together, " Kultur " has led up to the most bloody conflict of history. Spreading a philosophical and historical doctrine by fire and sword is the peculiar charac- teristic of barbarous times and peoples. * * * One University member has been found one only who has lifted up his voice to stigmatize the violent diffusion of " Kultur," and that is Prof- Fr. W. Foerster. His example is so rare that we may be pardoned if we once more quote him in reference to Herr von Willamowitz. This University professor is no less convinced of the cultural and world-wide mission of the Germans than is Herr von Willamovitz-Moellendorf, but he is equally convinced that there are other means of realizing it. Having been brought up according to 208 AS A WAR NURSERY the philosophical and historical doctrine of the German Universities, he has arrived at this con- viction by the study of the psychology of individuals and by consulting the history of civilizations. His studies have compelled the admiration even of those with whose opinions he has most violently clashed, so impressive and sincere are they judged to be. For Herr Foerster has learnt in the books of human- ity lessons quite different from those of the sovereign pontiffs of Berlin. Let the champion philosopher of Munich, who is an eloquent and skilful writer, be credited with having the same scientific weight as the overweening philologist of Berlin. The former is certainly not listened to with favour by the public, the learned world and the Government. At least one might suppose that as a professor at the Univer- sity, he should enjoy the same freedom of thought and speech. The Faculty of which he is a member has decided otherwise. They have unanimously expressed and made public their " severest disappro- bation of the professor's opinions." His colleagues have declared themselves " determined to oppose firmly " any attempt at spreading abroad these opinions among the young men placed under the authority of academical professorship. The Ber- lin newspapers exulted, particularly those of the Evangelical Union, accused by Herr Foerster of having opened the campaign (Hetze) against him. The Liberal papers have tried to prove by every kind ' of quibble, that in the proceedings of the Faculty 209 o THE GERMAN SCHOOL against one of its own members no outrage was com- mitted against " academical liberty." They insinu- ated even that this " regrettable " incident was only a reprisal on the part of the Faculty on whom the cen- sured professor had been forced by the Govern- ment ! We always knew before what to think of the independence of the professors of German Univer- sities. This incident has only been recalled in order to show that the University of Munich has made itself more Prussian than the Government of Berlin itself. What after all was the crime of Herr Foerster ? It consists in the fact that he, a German scholar, holds opinions diametrically opposed to those of his contemporaries on the policy of Bismarck and on the future of Germany ; above all it lies in the fact that he has had the courage to say this " at the moment when Germany is struggling for her very existence." But just because his country is strug- gling for life or death, Herr Foerster has thought it his duty as a learned man and a patriot to warn her of the dangers in her path, and to prove to her that the nationalist policy of Bismarck, the excessive centralization and the militarism which is its essen- tial condition of being, are turning Germany aside from her true destiny. Herr Foerster believes in the power of intellect and of moral worth. It is thanks to this power that the Catholic Church holds sway in the world. The Holy Roman Empire of Ger- 210 AS A WAR NURSERY manic origin once united under its "federative" system nations of the most diverse type, because this Empire represented a civilization. There was no need of unifying them, otherwise, or of doing violence to them. In other words Herr Foerster has had the courage to condemn a dogma as being contrary to philo- sophical and historical doctrine and dangerous to the vital interests of the German people the dogma namely of Prussian patriotism, traded upon by Bismarck and the Government of Berlin, for the consolidation of the empire with the help of military power. Consequently, he condemns the Univer- sities who have made themselves their instru- ments. These examples suffice to illustrate the political functions of the German Universities. The war has revealed their nature even to the most un- believing. Large is the number of foreign scholars and political men who even a short time ago were grateful admirers of a German alma mater, but who now turn away from a type of learning which is full of danger for humanity. Even in Germany a few minds have felt the need of a new departure (Neuorientirung) . They exhort their contemporaries to unlearn in order to learn anew (Umlernen). Their appeals have little chance of being understood 211 THE GERMAN SCHOOL in the humanistic sense, so long as the militarist Nationalism of 1813 and 1870 has not been definitely shipwrecked in the catastrophe provoked by it in 1914. * * 4 To however great a degree of perfection the ordering of higher education in Germany may have been brought, foreigners have learnt through this war how questionable is the association with its irresponsible power which lies hidden under a show of humanitarian impartiality, and of what challenges to scientific truth its most illustrious teachers are capable. The outburst of hatred of the foreigner, which has reverberated from the Univer- sities to the very thresholds of the legislative powers, will be a warning to them. During the second year of war, the German Universities lost half, and even as much as two-thirds, of the students belonging to neutral countries. 1 Let us be ready to receive all those who have shown their sympathy with us. Let us prepare to offer to the others the implements of work which a skilful and active propaganda bid fair to secure to them in Germany. For many reasons, as soon as the war is finished, it will be towards England and France, towards their Univer- 1 There were only 119 Americans as against 300 in time of peace, 42 Asiatics as against 180, 220 Swiss as against 310, 5 Danes as against 10, 44 Greeks as against 104, 32 Scandinavians as against 43, 26 Dutch as against 32, 212 AS A WAR NURSERY sities, their technical schools, and their art institu- tions, that a vast band of youthful foreigners will turn. It is for us to see that they do not again take the road to Germany. 213 THE GERMAN SCHOOL CHAPTER VII The War and the German Woman THERE was a time when the poets beyond the Rhine voiced the heart of their countrymen in glorifying the virtues of the German woman. The German young girl, the betrothed, the wife, the mother and the housewife had not their equals in the world. Germans of the present day have no use for such sentimentalities. Hermann and Dorothea are " back numbers," like Goethe himself. Imperial policy, the affairs of the world " Kultur " and the army demand virility, nothing but virility (Mann- haftigkeit}. Woman has taken a back seat. In- trepid debaters have revealed to us of how little account they are in the upper grades of military society. Novel writers have shown sympathy towards heiresses who have lost caste, towards middle-class misunderstood women, and towards unhappy working-girls. l Doctors and social ref orm- 1 Gabriele Reuter has begun an interesting series of types of German women, which appear as a fly-sheet in the Vossische Zeitung (December, 1915). German women continue to ignore those of different social standing from their own. The feudal idea has recovered the upper hand. 214 AS A WAR NURSERY ers have united with the feminists in a campaign of rehabilitation which showed how precarious the social position of the German woman had become. "Kultur" has her " Walkyries." Frau von Bismarck would have wished her husband to raze to the ground the modern Babel on the banks of the Seine. Women Doctors of Philosophy and other blue-stockings affect the same arrogance as their brethren of the stronger sex. * More than the society woman and the worker, the middle-class woman, anxious to make some figure in the world, believes herself called to contribute to the glory of the Fatherland. Who has not met the Fraulein possess- ing a diploma, ridiculously dressed in " Reform- kleid" (rational dress), richer in pretensions than in capability, and proclaiming the militarist or pan- Germanic sentiments of papa, officer, professor or official in some public department ? In Germany one willingly consoles oneself for one's own imperfections by belittling one's neigh- bours. What have they not said of French, English and American women ! However, sensible men and women have had the courage to look around them, in their own capitals, in their industrial towns, in the great and small garrisons, in the country-side. Infant mortality continues to increase. An omin- ous moral perversion prevails among those in easy circumstances. Social and family wretchedness is 1 See on this point the opinion of Fraulein Thirmacher, P- 137- 215 THE GERMAN SCHOOL great in the homes of the working people, who, however, earn more than sufficient wages. They have concluded from this that woman did not know how to fulfil her part as wife, mother, and housewife, and, as ever in such cases, they asked the Public Authority, the State, to intervene. 1 The war has brought an unexpected justification of their claims. The wounded and the sick are infinitely more numerous than the authors of the catastrophe had feared. The hecatomb engulfs, without reckoning, precious lives. Myriads of orphans lack care. The sudden transition from easy to narrow circumstances has disorganized number- less homes. The inexperience of the women, which it was desired to deny officially, burst out in every direction. The Government had to create organiza- tions of which the nature, amplitude and circum- stance reveal the depth of the evil. German officialism objects to the employment of women. But " Necessity has no law ! " It has been necessary to have recourse to them to drive motors and horsed vehicles in the postal services, in public conveyances, for sanitary work and public order. What an innovation ! Newspapers spoke of 1 Doctor Rott, Director of the Department for Infant Welfare in the Empress Augusta Victoria Hospital, accuses women of " indolence and inexperience " ; especially in the poorer classes women marry without any knowledge of housekeeping, and without understanding the care of a child. 216 AS A WAR NURSERY it as a revolution. In the towns, as well as in factories and in the country-side, the feminine worker was suddenly sought. On the other hand the employment of the middle- class girls and those of a higher class (the German tongue distinguishes between " Mddchen " and " Tochter," girls and ladies), proved a lamentable failure. They were hardly any use in the workshops or for the packing soldiers' parcels (Liebesgaben) . Those who were the most enthusiastic for the war showed themselves the least capable of rendering good service. The Red Cross and other administra- tions discharged them, and the women told in the newspapers of their vain efforts to obtain employ- ment. 1 Not every one who wishes can become a Deaconess (Schwester). But there was need, in the poor households, to fill the place of the mothers who were working away from home, and who wasted long hours waiting their turn at the provision shops. 1 For example the Tdgliche Rundschau, November 29, 1916 ; even the regulations dealing with the " civilian mobil- ization," the levying of the whole people, rejects the women " who cannot do physical work." After a year's existence, the " Women's National Work " (National Frauenarbeit) of Berlin numbered 1,400 benevolent contributors of both sexes. The Managing Committee principally carries on pro- paganda, and is lavish with good advice. The twenty-three auxiliary Committees help the authorities in distributing war charities, obtain work for the women, and direct workshops. It is hoped the institution will survive the war. In December, 1915, only one Report had been received from the provinces. 217 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Innumerable orphans claimed immediate care. In the communal kitchens and in many helpful tasks, rendered necessary by the hard times, girls of good family could have made themselves useful. Alas ! these various works were not to their taste, or were beyond their capabilities. " The War has illuminated with a crude light on the one hand a spirit of boundless sacrifice and good will, and on the other the infinite insufficiency of feminine aptitude." 1 f< The great judgment of the War on women's education," says one of the leading feminists, 2 "is a peremptory condemnation of all mediocrities." Were they then so mediocre, those wives of the men called to the colours, who knew neither how to manage, nor how to economize, nor how to look after their children ? Or those others who should have been welcome helpers in the hospitals, in the houses of the poor, and in charitable institutions ? What anguish for the future ! To-morrow the State will need a great many new forces. It is for the women to reconstitute the population. Whether 1 Das weibliche Dienstjahr, by L. Niessen-Deiters (Koln- ische Zeitung January 17, 1916) (Marginal notes of a lay- man) ; the leaflets of Frau Elizabeth Gnauck-Kiihne, Dienstpflicht und Dienstjahr des weiblichen Geschlechts, "Obli- gatory Service and year of service of the female sex," by Frau Helene Lange, Die Dienstpflicht der Frau (women's obligatory service). 2 Helene Lange, Kriegslehren fur Frauenbildung (teach- ing of the war for the education of women), Frankfurter Zeitung, December 24, 1915. 218 AS A WAR NURSERY they work or whether they do not, do they know how to be mothers ? The lower the birth-rate, the more will it be neces- sary to protect the children. " The good blood- letting," of which several German authors have extolled the wholesome necessity, has come to pass ; they little thought the flow would be so abundant ! It is therefore necessary to re-populate. For that, it is not sufficient to give permissions to the " men- in-grey " (Feldgrauen), it is necessary that the mothers should know how healthily to rear their offspring. Where have they learnt it ? Maternal nitiation is not what it formerly was. The legend- ary Hausfrau has been carried away by the rush for money and pleasure. The young girl of to-day finds employment. She wants to earn and spend. At the time when formerly she passed a useful stage in her parents' house, she now works away from home. Among well-to-do persons, the early years are spent at the boarding-school, and among the thousand and one frivolities of snobbery which have " arrived." The Backfisch (young girl) dreams of marriage when she leaves school. How many marry or have establishments secured for them at the earliest moment ? And how many become mothers prematurely ? With all the advantages of an unprecedented economic expansion German society has experienced all the disadvantages resulting therefrom. German feminists have seen the danger in which modern devel- 219 THE GERMAN SCHOOL opments placed the woman and the family. They have succeeded, with difficulty, in bringing public bodies into the path of feminine pedagogy, for national pride refuses to admit that the German woman requires assistance, and that the slow routine of German administration willingly shelters itself behind the comfortable rigidity of political considera- tions. It was the women who first called the attention of the State to the necessity of supplementing the decreasing home-teaching by means of school instruction. But it was men who discussed their propositions round the green cloth of exclusive Commissions, and before Parliaments. It is men who, in Ministerial offices, have elaborated pro- grammes and methodical instructions for general and special teaching for girls. Finally, it is men who direct girls' schools, and monopolize the lessons they themselves consider important, giving manual and domestic instruction a quite secondary place. Women have but a distant and indirect influence on the feminine education of girls. I In the primary school, the teaching of household management has only become obligatory within the last few years, and it is only given in the upper standards. The fear of injuring general instruction has prevented the authorities from giving it the place which was necessary in order to render it 220 AS A WAR NURSERY efficacious. This has been so strongly felt that in Bavaria, for example, young girls are offered an optional supplementary year devoted more specially to feminine subjects. In other states the organizing of complementary obligatory teaching equally for girls is encouraged. The programmes of the new institution and the Ministerial instructions which accompany them give a very excellent impression. But, on looking closer, one perceives that the pro- fessional teaching is given a higher place than the instruction of the future mothers and housewives. Administration or politics ? It is said that without the lure of perfecting professionalism on one side, and that of Hauswirtschaft (domestic economy) on the other, politicians would not have agreed as to the need of the prolonged obligation. If we are to believe the German feminists, the free primary school, with its obligatory extension, cannot even then suffice to give an adequate feminine education to the daughters of the people, that is, to those who need it most. It is the same with the middle-class schools. These are not schools in the same sense as our primary higher schools, doing more and better work than the ordinary school. Private initiative, parti- cular or municipal, has created them for the educa- tion of the daughters of the manufacturing or trading middle classes. They, consequently, take into account the desires of their paying patrons, and these demand teaching more professional than 221 THE GERMAN SCHOOL generally and purely feminine. When in 1910 the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction sketched for them a typical programme, to unify their teaching, it was hoped to accentuate their higher primary char- acter, and place in a good position theoretical and practical instruction in household management. These hopes have been frustrated. The middle-class school has remained the school of a certain social class (Standesschule) , with professional tendencies instead of becoming a continuation school to the primary school (Begabungsschule) for the good scholars who might have there completed, among other things, their course of domestic economy. Two years before in 1908 Prussia reorganized on a new basis a sort of secondary instruction, called superior, for the girls of good family (Tochter). It was sought to unite in one official institution the establishments, public or private, which, until then, prepared the daughters of officials and of the middle class for the careers of teachers of girls, or the University studies which had just been opened to them. A course of study, lasting ten years, the Lyzeum must ensure a good standard of general knowledge. On this common basis has been grafted three years of classes dubbed scientific, concluding with a year of practical pedagogy, for the use of future governesses and professors. Those who wish to acquire the knowledge neces- 222 AS A WAR NURSERY sary for the mistress of a household, for the mother, for the society woman, follow, on leaving the lyceum, for two years the lectures at the Frauenschule (school for women). The programme of this section is very attractive. The young women could emerge experts in domestic economy, in child culture, in relief, in hygiene, in Kindergarten, and I know not what else, if the teaching were less scientific and more practical, and if the items de luxe were more judiciously limited. The decision has not yet been taken, since 1908, to crown this original edifice by a Higher Lyceum, which would prepare the students for a final examina- tion, always indispensable for matriculation at the Universities. This preparation remains entrusted to the " establishments for study " (Studienanstal- ten), which are the counterpart of the " Real " Gymnasiums and " Real " Schools for boys. 1 The students enter them after the seventh or eighth year of general studies. The lyceums for young German girls have a definitely " Real " character. Mere imitation of the boys' secondary schools has been avoided. 1 Prussia possesses thirty-four Studienanstalten Real Gymnasiums (with Latin, but no Greek) and four Studien- stalten, Real High Schools. These are muncipal establish- ments. The Lyceums do not bestow the leaving certifi- cate. In certain German countries, candidates for this certificate are admitted in the upper classes of boys' second- ary schools. 223 THE GERMAN SCHOOL But, such as they are, they lead to everything and to nothing. Their usefulness has been compromised, from the feminine point of view, by the spirit which animates their operations. It is men, usually philo- logists, who direct them. The principal lectures are given by men, who belong to the Universities. The presumed advent of the " Lady Directress " formerly gave rise to jests. Now, feminists believe that under feminine rule there would be taught more practical hygiene and less chemistry, more domestic science and less time would be spent on the study of the French, English and Italian languages and of literature. The War has been for this famous Frauen- schule its first serious trial. The fiasco is complete. Perhaps, now, the decision may be taken to associate women in this work to a greater extent, and to give up the methods dear to men. * * * The peril is urgent, say the patriotic women. The " new Germany " needs wives, mothers, chil- dren, at once. And since the schools have not moulded them, and will not be able to mould them soon, the idea has been started to request the State to exact from all women one year of obligatory service. 1 * * * The analogy with the military compulsory service for men is evident. What deserves to be underlined 1 See above, p. 218, note i. 224 AS A WAR NURSERY is that German militarism pretends to regulate the most intimate acts as well as the most commonplace in private life. The infection has seized upon the intelligent women who impart it by reasonings of this kind to their compeers who have remained more in touch with nature. Primary and complementary education is com- pulsory both for boys and for girls. The State needs men to defend the Fatherland ; it enforces military service. Since the State has also need of women to conserve the same Fatherland, why should women not prepare themselves, equally by a time of compulsory service ? The State is authorized to disturb the lives of young men by calling them to the barracks : it deprives the general economic condition of the coun- try of innumerable energies that could be better utilized : it is for the good of the country, without counting that army discipline is an excellent train- ing for the majority of citizens. If the State claimed in the same way a fixed period in the life of the young women, would it not also be in their interest and in that of the whole community ? These reasonings are quite in the spirit of a Govern- ment which, since 1914, administers the country like barracks, which regulates, in life's smallest details, the public and private existence of each individual, and which has just requisitioned the civilian populations purely and simply for its political necessities. 225 p THE GERMAN SCHOOL The unexpected turn of this war has driven the Germans to push militarism to its final consequences. They are proceeding to do it in the same spirit which they bring to their scientific deductions. It remains to be seen if the application of this has not in store for them disappointment. Certain German feminists and not the least among them consider the compulsory service of women as a logical ideal solution. " The compul- sory service of women, in time of peace as in time of war, consists in preserving and developing the strength of the nation," says Frau Helene Lange. That means that in peace time, woman shall be a prolific and prudent mother, capable of bringing up her own children in a healthy and well-ordered home, and, besides, of helping to rear, in the same way, those of poor mothers, orphans, etc. In doing this, she accomplishes a public function. She should, therefore, be compelled to prepare herself for it in as complete a manner as possible. What is this but saying that German mothers must be the providers and the auxiliaries of the Militarist Moloch ? From the beginning of peace they will produce " men " of whom the Military Staff " will make soldiers." In war time they will constitute a contingent which can be mobilized and used for the multiple duties at the bases for which they are fitted. Hospital nurses, canteen workers, visitors to the widows and orphans of soldiers, etc. They will also be employed in certain works and functions usually 226 AS A WAR NURSERY allotted to men. So as to prepare and train them in view of " maternity " and " feminity " (the German feminists have not failed to expatiate on the terms Mutter schaft and Mutterlichkeit), they will be obliged to follow a free course of instruction, The war has brought to light the insufficiency of their benevolent preparation. In the future the Military Staff and the Government must not be embarrassed by them, as has happened this time. It will be necessary to be able to go to war with the certainty that the reaction on and the consequences for one's own country are reduced to a minimum. Women's occupations are, it is true, peace occupa- tions. But peace for the Germans is one continual preparation for war. Civilian life is, with them, subordinated to the business of war. The feminists who have begotten this patriotic proposition defend themselves, with many quibbles, against desiring to encourage war. Military hypnot- ism has given them the tone of sincerity, but hides from them the social dangers and the unrealizable folly of their thesis. Some, both men and women, have been found who are opposed to the discipline of such a public course of instruction. Others prefer, for the training of young girls for maternity and feminity, the gentle and natural school of family life, and, to complete it, the teaching of expert mistresses. 1 Supposing that the State dared 1 Fraiilein Marfa von Sacher Masoch denounces the project as a preparation in view of a future war (Vossische 227 THE GERMAN SCHOOL to impose upon the nation the enormous financial effort necessary to enlist and house in barracks the women during a settled period of their youth, at what age would they be called up ? At the con- clusion of school life ? The time is not the same for poor as for rich girls. Before they become mothers or wives ? But in " virtuous " Germany, as well as elsewhere, the heart of the girls has reasons for advancing the date, reasons which will not take into account the needs of the State. Perhaps even, persons marry earlier in Germany than in other countries. The Germans are too far from demo- cratic equality to admit the promiscuous intercourse of the barracks for even all men. So much the stronger reason for not permitting it for women. Would the poor be lodged in the barracks, while the rich were lodged and fed at their own charges, like one year volunteers'? It is well known that without parcels from home, the most robust young man would waste away on " rations " only. What would it be for young girls ? Finally the moral effect of service in common is more debatable with regard to women than men. These schemes do not take into account that it will be impossible to mobil- ize, even if only for a time, all the women who are already filling the place of the men who have been carried away by the whirlwind. In peace time, Zeitung. January 16, 1916). Frau Kathe Sprockhoff tries to refute this (Ibid., February 6, 1916). These two articles mark the extreme opposites of the thesis. 228 AS A WAR NURSERY how many are there who replace, notably in country districts, brothers who are with the colours ? And when Germany has been transformed into vast barracks, is it intended to seek outside for helots who will maintain the choice " valiant for the war " men and women, constituted according to the militarist dream ? Let us, from this strange hypnotic feminism, re- tain the fact that the German woman has not risen to the height of her circumstances. It is seriously feared in Germany that her insufficiency will retard the recovery of the country worn out by the war. The remedy is being sought. But instead of getting to the root of the evil to fight it, they await the healing properties of the war. Nothing is more significant than the frequent commencement of articles: "The War was necessary to . . .," or " War is a great master," every time dire neces- sity has forced upon the authorities some inno- vation long desired and always refused. The writ- ings of German feminists seem to breathe a sigh of approaching freedom. But the nationalist spirit, which inspires most of them, is it quite that which is required to end the bondage which men, the directing agents, have laid upon their cause, as upon many others, for political ends ? In Prussia, less than anywhere, would the Administration care to give way " to women." 229 THE GERMAN SCHOOL When the war constrained the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction to fill the posts left vacant by masters who were called up every expedient was tried until exhausted ; combining of several classes, fewer lessons, etc. Next, reservists were called upon to assist, even men holding diplomas considered insufficient in normal times, or not certificated at all, as long as they were able to " manage a class," which means, above all, to be able to keep discipline. And only then were women called upon. During the first year of the war, a hundred women professors were delegated to the boys' secondary schools in Berlin itself. This trial scheme was hailed as an " unheard-of event " ! Never before had the doors of a boys' secondary school been even ajar for them. It appears they were a success, except in one case, sufficiently typical to be mentioned. One of these young mistresses dared to complain to the hooligans that they were not respectful towards her, that they were not gentlemen, and that they behaved less well than " American boys." The unfortunate teacher had to resign her post. The Prussian Minister has even foreseen more extended employment for women after the war, at least, in primary schools. All the same, he has carefully watered the proportion. In girls' schools, the junior classes may be held by mistresses. In boys' schools, the junior classes may be entrusted to them. One-third of the teaching staff of mixed schools may be women. And the Minister expressly 230 AS A WAR NURSERY urges that in no case shall be admitted any candi- dates but those of proved physique. So persistent is the prejudice against the " weaker " sex. While admitting, under the pressure of circum- stances, and only provisionally, widowed teachers with children, and retaining in their employment mistresses married since the beginning of the War (Kriegsgetraut) , the Minister does not intend to break with the principle which excludes all married teachers from the work of teaching. The feminists have thought that the war would contribute to abolish the enforced celibacy of the women pro- fessors. It is true that they are not called upon to take vows at the beginning of their career ; a place is found for them, even though it is a restricted proportion, and in the least important posts. But if they are able to marry, they renounce their posts and the rights acquired by years of work. That is a flagrant injustice. Would not married teachers, wives and mothers, replace better than soured old maids the mother with the girls, in all matters pertaining to feminine teaching ? A reply made by a Medical Inspector l to this inadmissible heresy 1 Oberlehrererin Lydia Stocker pleads the cause of the married teacher in the Vossische Zeitung of January 23, 1916. Doctor Theilhaber also seeks to combat the pre- judice against her, sanctioned by school legislation (Ibid., March u, 1916). On the contrary the Schulinspektor Doctor Schepp, of Berlin, snubs " in the Prussian manner " his fellow member, gained over to the feminist demands. (Ibid., March 17, 1916). 231 THE GERMAN SCHOOL should be read. " Already, before the War, women obstructed public education. They bar the way to proved and deserving men-teachers. The Adminis- tration has been obliged to make a momentary appeal for their services unfortunately for the children. How dare any one compare Germany to Italy, Portugal, Spain, Servia e tutti quanti (this polite official has been unwilling to mention France), where women-teachers may marry ! It is well-known that motherhood is incompatible with the teacher's profession, and that teachers are too often away from their work. We intend," he concludes, " to educate a generation oj blood and iron. It is necessary for this to increase the masculine staff, and not allow the feminine influence to increase.' 9 Here, expressed with the typical roughness of Prussian patriots, is the reason of the mistrust of the Administration with regard to the education of the younger generations by women. The example of Prussia has gained over the other States. Is it surprising that feminine pedagogy should have found so little sympathy in Imperial Germany ? Only a secondary importance has been granted to it. Unwillingness only just escapes being hostility. Militarist pride, drawn towards education in valour in view of military service (Erziehung zur Wehrhaftig- keit), and preoccupied with the formation of citizens of the Empire in view of the political ideal of the greatest 232 AS A WAR NURSERY and most powerful Germany, has misunderstood the economic and social value of woman. " Kultur " would have it believed that the ancient German virtues connected with hearth and home are still persistent. From this arise the half-measures and delays of the Administration in face of fresh needs created by the modern evolution. To those who have recalled Fenelon's treatise on the education of the young girls, or the example of Madame de Maintenon founding the School of Saint Cyr, and to those who praised the educational methods for girls inaugurated in France, England and Switzerland, it was answered that German women had nothing to learn from outside, quite the contrary. A regular campaign was started, since the war, against the boarding-schools in French Switzerland, where many German families sent their daughters. l The execution of Miss Cavell gives the measure of German contempt for English women, so admirable in their work for the army and their toil at the base. Germany cannot boast, like England, of having found among its women of good will 85 per cent, of the workers occupied in the manufacture of war material. As to Frenchwomen, perhaps the day may come 1 Franzosische Pensionate from the Frankfurter General Anzeiger in the Neues Wiener Journal, September 30, 1915. Lucken in der Frauenbildung of the Stadtschulrat Doctor Miiller (Wiesbaden), in the Frankfurter Zeitung, Jfaly ii, 1916. 233 THE GERMAN SCHOOL when Germans will blush for their behaviour with regard to them. They have feigned to ignore their qualities as wives, mothers, and citizens. The war will have taught them to recognize these. There have been in France and England critics who have spoken of the women during the war- Not one has formulated judgments comparable to the severe condemnations that German men and women have pronounced against the German women. Feminine pedagogy is nowhere perfect. But it is to be believed that it is everywhere better than in Germany. That is what the war will have taught to us. Will it teach German feminists that their duty is to free feminine pedagogy from militarism and politics, instead of associating it with them more closely ? It is not very certain. 234 AS A WAR NURSERY CHAPTER VIII The German Scholastic Propaganda in Foreign Countries before and during the War THE absorbing power of Germany had become evident in the ever increasing number of schools that she maintained in foreign countries before the war. Exact statistics of these have never been published. 1 When, after 1870, a census of outside German elements was begun, twenty-four schools were counted in European countries. Nearly all were religious foundations. A few, like S. Peter's School and the Reformed School in Copen- hagen or the S. Mary's and S. George's Schools in London, date from the eighteenth century. Over- seas, there were scarcely more than twenty. In 1905 the figures were 1,000 schools with 12,800 pupils, and in 1907 1,242 schools with 64,600 pupils. 1 It is necessary to distinguish between properly accre- dited schools, organized and stable, and lectures for stu- dents, intermittent and ephemeral ; between the schools of ancient foundation, independent of the metropolis, and those which have been created since 1870 for the propaga- tion of Deutschtum. _ 1 Q ^ ---m_. THE GERMAN SCHOOL These figures permit one to measure the rapidity and rate of the progress. A year before the war the number of children instructed in foreign countries by Germans, in German, and especially in the German spirit, was estimated at 100,000. About three-fourths of these were sons or daughters of German parents, Austrians, or German Swiss. It is therefore a relatively important contingent of children originally non-Germanic, and of their families, that the German schools claim- to teach and maintain in sympathy with " Kultur." In these numbers the schools in the American United States peopled by Germans are not counted. Undoubtedly these schools are American schools. But, taking advantage of the great liberty which characterizes scholastic organization in the United States, the Germans have given their impress to about 4,000 schools, with 7,000 masters, and about 300,000 pupils. At least these are the numbers they themselves give. It has been estimated that there are twenty-two millions of Germans established outside the Empire. Adding to this number, on one side, populations of German origin, naturalized, but not assimilated like the fifteen or twenty millions of German- Americans in the United States, and, on the other, foreigners educated in Germany or by Germans, one understands that the subjects of William II have ceased to be " culture fertilizer " (Kultur dunger] in foreign countries, to become an active and powerful 236 AS A WAR NURSERY fermenting agency of the German penetration throughout the world. The present war has shown how German ambitions intended to profit by this penetration. In the United States the " German- American citizens " have gravely imperilled the political order of the great Republic. Bulgaria has been drawn into the Austro-German camp by a Prime Minister who was formerly a student at Heidelberg. The Turkish ally has been schooled by Germany since the acces- sion of William II. Switzerland has been obliged to take serious measures in order to protect the harmony of its citizens against the dissolving influ- ence of the German Imperialists. Briefly, the war has made the whole world feel the power of the " national " propaganda which Germany had prepared, by making her public instruction an article for exportation. * * * In 1910 the imposing German pedagogical exhibi- tion in Brussels contained a very instructive collec- tion dealing with German expansion throughout the world, notably maps and diagrams. With a view to advertisement, they were exhibited in the lecture- room of the section. Besides this, thousands of copies of a pamphlet, summing up the work of the " Society for Germanism abroad." (" Verein fur das Deutschtum Auslande V.D.A. Allgemeiner Deutscher Schulverein E.V") were distributed. This private Society was founded in 1881. Its -237 - THE GERMAN SCHOOL object is to aid the diffusion of German teaching outside the empire. It is directed by men having practical experience of foreign nations. Until last year its acting president was a former Minister of State : to-day it is directed by a former ambassador. Nearly 60,000 members belong to numerous (260) local committees : a bulletin numbering 50,000 copies, 1 and annual receipts of more than 710,000 marks give some idea of the powerful action of this Society. Needless to say that the Imperial Government largely subsidized such a precious auxiliary to German influence throughout the world. Com- merce follows language ; wherever the German language penetrates, German goods will follow. Already, in about 1875, the Empire had voted for 1 The committee of this Society publish a quarterly official bulletin, called Das Deutschtum im Ausland (Hil- ger, Berlin) ; the twentieth number is the one of the second quarter in 1914. The collection is to be found in the Peda- gogic Museum in Paris (41 rue Gay Lussac 5.). The Museum also receives the monthly bulletin of the " Society of Ger- man teachers abroad," which is entitled Die Deutsche Schule im Ausland, and which is in its third year (1914). One finds in these two collections all documents necessary for a comprehensive study of our rivals' efforts to further, in foreign countries, German culture by scholastic methods. For the present study we have used articles published on this question in the great German Press since the war began. These are partly communications made by the Society V.D.A. to several hundred newspapers in Germany and abroad. Our sources of information are therefore 'of the best. -238- AS A WAR NURSERY this propaganda a subvention of 375,000 marks. This amount not being utilized owing to the lack of a distributing agency it was reduced to 75,000 marks. There were other reasons for this deduction. Part of these subsidized schools partook of a " confessional " character, which seemed, to certain politicians, incompatible with the neutrality inherent to a State subvention. Besides, the manner in which this propaganda was administered by the directors from the metropolis, brought protests to the Home Government from the foreign Powers. It was feared that the official subsidy would assume the character of a too-direct interference by the German Government in the management of scholastic estab- lishments which, in spite of their German origin, must remain obedient to the laws of the countries in which they were situated. With the above- named private Society no such complication was to be feared. Thus, in 1895, the Government raised the subsidy to 100,000 marks ; it appears in the Budget of 1914 at the sum of 1,500,000 marks. Directed by competent men; helped by the State, and by the private enterprise of the metro- polis as much as by German or Germanophil agglo- merations in foreign countries ; efficiently sustained by diplomatic and consular agents : grouping around a German hearth the kindred elements, Austrians, Swiss, Scandinavians, without distinctions of faith, the Society for German Expansion in Foreign Countries " has known how to create and develop 239 THE GERMAN SCHOOL schools very greatly appreciated in the surroundings where they exist. The teaching methods being those of the German programmes, it was relatively easy to adapt the books and school requisites to the needs of each country. German editors lend them- selves willingly to this adaptation. When class- books used in the metropolis can be utilized just as they are, they present to the Society the obsolete editions. Where the language used in teaching must or may be the speech of the foreign country, an excellent plan for attracting the children of the native families, the German language does none the less play a preponderating part. In every way it is always German ideas which form the basis of the teaching. The great difficulty is always the choice of good masters. The Society has been enabled to recruit 150 professors with University degrees, and about i, 800 masters holding a training college diploma, without counting women teachers more or less certificated. It does not fear to enrol French or English masters or mistresses when one of these languages is taught in its schools, for the German school in foreign countries is very supple and very accommodating, and consequently very much to be feared. It is, in many lands, small and poor, obsequious and slightingly regarded, but very tenacious. Prosperous, it knows how to draw atten- tion to itself. An example : The German school in Brussels figured at the 240 AS A WAR NURSERY Exhibition of 1910 ex aeqito with the model establishments of the Fatherland. The Berlin Government had delegated several of its professors to the various international committees, where they sat with noted educationists of other great countries. At the school itself gatherings and exhibitions succeeded each other, presided over by some Excel- lence or Highness. It was a good advertisement. The German schools at Antwerp and other Belgian towns profited thereby. The staff of the Antwerp schools is particularly active. 1 The German colony of the great Belgian emporium, numerous, rich, and powerful, has largely contributed, as much in its own interest as from patriotic duty, to raise its primary, secondary, and technical schools to the level of the best establishments in Germany. 2 In all meetings where questions of programmes and methods, interests and qualifications of the staff, etc., in German schools in foreign countries are dis- cussed, the experiences and demands of the Antwerp staff are cited as examples. The scholastic activity of the Germans in Belgium 1 On December 7, 1913, the meeting of the " Association of German Teachers in Belgium and Holland," was held at Antwerp. They number seventy who work at Antwerp, Brussels, Liege, Ghent, Hoboken and Neerpelt, and at Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, and Venlo. 2 The " German General School " at Antwerp counts 812 pupils, boys and girls, and 41 masters. Its superannua- tion fund, proceeding entirely from gifts, amounts to 180,000 francs. 241 Q THE GERMAN SCHOOL has been brought to light by the sad events of the war. The decrees of Governor von Bissing ordering school attendance in the unhappy occupied districts, and the creation of the Flemish University at Ghent, are measures in agreement with the pretensions of German policy to exercise protectorship over smaller nations. Those in Belgium who, before the war, had praised such measures, to the great embarrass- ment of the Belgium Government, anxious to main- tain a good understanding between citizens of different origins, languages, and religions, were obedient to ideas sown by German or Germanizing pedagogues established in the country. We will shortly quote other example not less conclusive of the effects of this propoganda. Let us return to our organization. The Metropolitan Society for the Extension of Germanism in Foreign Countries has affiliated socie- ties in all the great centres of the empire, and even in German-speaking countries outside the empire, At Hamburg, for example, an imposing group founded in 1904 occupies itself principally with the, German schools in South America. Nearly 10,000 in cash and more than 1,000 in books and materials have been distributed by this group alone, which numbered, in 1913, 875 members. An appeal for funds, addressed to the people the same year, under the following title, " Help the German Schools in South America," brought in more than r,ooo. The efforts of the Society and of its groups tend, in the 242 AS A WAR NURSERY first instance, to interest the mass of the public in its effort at patriotic propaganda. The Imperial Government does not only help by subsidies. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Colonial Office require that all their agents should lend to the masters, pastors or missionaries all the support of their authority. Ambassadors and Ministers attend, with their families and entire staffs, the school festivals in their neighbourhood. The Ministry of Public Instruction has taken measures, notably in 1905 and 1908, to enable duly qualified masters to teach in foreign schools without prejudice to their careers. It shows that the choice of these instructors is made with the greatest care. The possession of a training college diploma or a University degree is not always sufficient . Having to instruct children who do not know German children of native families or, if children of German parentage who speak with their comrades the language of the country, the masters must them- selves know, as well as possible, the language of the country where they desire to teach. They must also possess social gifts facilitating their entrance into foreign society. Finally, only those masters who have a knowledge of the political, social and economic milieu where they are expected to " work " for German influence are sent abroad. To effect this, there is a question of creating a true special University for agents sent abroad (A uslands- hochschule). 243 THE GERMAN SCHOOL This establishment, largely discussed in the general and special Press, 1 is of a nature to call for our attention. In 1913 the Reichstag had before it a project signed by Erzberger and von Richthofen in view of the creation of this institution by the Empire. Another deputy, Doctor Hager, submitted a similar proposition to the Prussian Chamber of Deputies. These projects found support among the most important members of Parliament, especially among those representing commerce and industry. No matter if it is the " Oriental Seminary " at the University of Berlin which is to be enlarged or the other Colonial or Commercial Institutes of Kiel or of Hamburg, the idea is to found one vast institution, endowed with tuition, libraries, collections, etc., where all those diplomatists, consuls, professors, who will go abroad as pioneers and representatives of Germanism, can equip themselves with linguistic, historical, political, social and industrial information. The war has given to this project a powerful present interest. It has again been taken up by the Press, and its realization recommended as very urgent. 2 It is realized, on the east of the Rhine, that the war has arrested or destroyed commercial and social activity in most foreign countries. It is also known that the declared or latent hostility against the Germans will render its resumption after the war 1 Berliner Tageblatt, November 24 and 26, 1915, among others. 2 Kolnische Zeitung, January 31, 1917 (No 104). 244 AS A WAR NURSERY much more difficult. There is, in fine, the conscious- ness that this resumption is a vital necessity for Germany. It is therefore needful to prepare at once a staff capable of advantageously combating with the other nations, and most particularly with France. * * * The kind of schools the Germans found, or pre- ferably develop in the countries where they traffic, are " Real Schule " ; that is establishments in preparation for practical life. Without being from the point of view of theoretic studies the complete equivalent of similar establishments in the metro- polis, the German and Austrian Ministers admit, nevertheless, without any other formality, pupils from these schools to their establishments for advanced studies in pure or applied science, to the commercial high schools, etc. This favour not only encourages German functionaries and traders to have their children instructed near them, in their distant home, but also attracts the native children. Special care is given to girls' schools. Women are excellent apostles of the instruction and educa- tion they have received. Not long ago, the German Girls' School in Bucharest was seeking in France a school mistress agregee, or at least a licenciee to whom was promised a very substantial salary ! In the girls' primary schools the teaching is generally given by deaconesses. The small schools are, mostly, in the care of the pastors who founded them. But the general 245 THE GERMAN SCHOOL tendency is to free the important school, at least in as far as teaching is concerned, from their denomi- national influence. The " Society for the Expansion of Germanism in Foreign Countries " can flatter itself on having obtained fine results through the schools. It has developed, in little more than thirty years, an indefatigable ardour. It openly declares that its propaganda is directed principally against the powerful activity of the " French Alliance " and the " Jewish Alliance." One understands its regrets at seeing its work compromised by the war, and its hopes of being able to take it up again with renewed vigour after the conclusion of peace dashed to the ground. This is why it seems to us noteworthy to illustrate its projects with some examples drawn from the German daily Press of the last few months. * * * From the opening of hostilities, the Society has mobilized its adherents. It placed itself entirely in the service of the war propaganda, so as to " vigorously combat," so it is said in the report of the general assembly for 1915, l "the campaign o* mendacity long prepared by the enemies." Its principal field of action has been South America > which it has inundated with pamphlets and fly- sheets in Spanish and English. It has created for 1 Held at Munich October 2 and 3, 1915, under the auspices of the Munich group and the Bavarian Union (Vossische Zeitung, October 4, 1915). 246 AS A WAR NURSERY the benefit of the Latin Republics a bi-monthly Review entitled Guerra europea, directed by M. Lauchez y Rosal, in agreement with the " Central Union Germano Argentine," and sent from Berlin to Spain to be from thence distributed in the His- pano-Portuguese countries of South America. In the Argentine Republic the German Society possesses powerful centres. The " Germano- Argen- tine Scientific Society " feels strong enough to think of establishing itself in its own premises which it will construct with " the subsidies from the Vaterland." In 1912 the Empire's subsidy to the German schools in Argentine was 719,000 marks. Except the group of Buenos-Aires (Germania Schule) which comprises a " Real " school of nine classes, a high school for girls of six classes, and a primary school equally of six classes, and which had before the war a total of 446 pupils, few German schools in the country counted more than sixty scholars. The position of teachers in the pro- vinces, which formerly was that of servants (peones) has, it is stated, greatly improved. 1 It is alleged, on the other hand, that in many places the child- ren of German colonists willingly neglect the lan- guage of their parents, and prefer to speak Spanish. z The Germans seem to indulge in illusions as to the effects produced there by their war propaganda. The Berliner Tageblatt 3 inserted with satisfaction the 1 Deutsche Schule im Ausland, vol. xii, 1913, p. 423. 2 Ibid, p. 511. 3 September 6, 1915. 247 THE GERMAN SCHOOL laudatory mention of Germany's economic and financial organization, delivered by Senator Adolfo Davila in the Argentine First Chamber in August, 1915. The Berlin paper is pleased to underline Mr. Davila's qualities as chief editor of the greatest South American newspaper, the Prensa. " Since," it says, " this important person has chosen the tribune of his Parliament rather than the columns of his paper to proclaim German superiority, it is that the Anglo-Franco-North-American lies had closed his mouth, as also those of many of his brethren, and that the powerful success of the German arms begins to open their eyes." It seems to us infinitely more probable that the Senator's discourse did not aim so much at praising Germany as to warning his fellow- citizens against her powerful organization. The silence of the journalist is more significant, and rather implies a check to German propaganda. Undoubtedly Germany has obtained a foothold in the Argentine Republic, and she will do everything to maintain herself therein. However, the disappear- ance of her merchant fleet and the ruin of her enter- prises there, from which the much- vaunted " organ- ization " has withdrawn the best workmen to turn into soldiers, will speak to the Argentine in a language far more truthful than that of the leaflets issued by the anti-democratic propagandists of William II. In the future, the concerted influence of the United States, England, France and Italy will not, it seems, have much trouble in paralyzing German push. 248 AS A WAR NURSERY Let us note, in passing, that the Chilian Govern- ment subsidizes rather largely a certain number of German schools in the country, but that it has reduced by one half, in 1913, the subvention to the important schools of Valdivia (426 pupils). Several times, German underhand dealings in Venezuela created difficulties for us with this un- stable Republic. The Germans have been estab- lished there since the time of Charles V., who granted to an Augsburg house working privileges in that country. Numerous German explorers, of whom was Alexander von Humboldt, have brought the country to the notice of the Fatherland. The most important railway line is German. Many industries : clockmaking, pharmacy, printing, etc., as well as commerce in exports, are in German hands. German officers and soldiers have often fought in the ranks of the Venezuelans. The German language is taught in the principal schools of the country. There is therefore nothing surprising in the fact that a native writer, V. M. Ovaller, in a book entitled Ser o no ser (To be or not to be), should have thought it right to desire the victory of Germany, in spite of his sym- pathies with France and democratic England. The German Press has drawn people's attention to this work. 1 In Brazil, German scholastic action has been particularly active. For reasons which it is easy to guess the Hamburg branch of the " Society for 1 Among others, the Kolnische Zeitung of May 27, 1915. 249 THE GERMAN SCHOOL German Expansion in Foreign Countries " x has taken under its special care the schools of Rio Granda do Santa Catarina, Parana, Lao Paulo (in 1913). After having endowed them with 10,000, it has again appealed to the patriotism of its adherents for an urgency grant of 1,000, setting forth that the French Alliance could expend, in Brazil, 30,000 and the Italian Society Dante Allighiere 10,000 annually. Recent events give reason to hope that, after the war, German activities will have even greater difficulty in withdrawing Brazil from the economic and social alliance of France, Italy and England. The state of war between Portugal and Germany has had a strongly repellent effect in Brazil. Once more in the course of their history the Portuguese of the Old and New Worlds are extending their hands to each other across the Atlantic. At one blow Germany has made for herself two enemies ; two brothers, it is true, but also two democracies, which is equally important. The Germans had not forgotten Brazil in their war propaganda. But the Brazilians remained faithful to their sympathies towards France. A wave of obstinate hatred against the Germans 1 The port of Hamburg grants to Brazilian commerce the greatest facilities, to its own advantage, be it under- stood. Without these facilities, Germany would not have been able to requisition from the Brazilian bonded ware- houses of this port, in the beginning of the war, consider- able quantities of coffee. 250 AS A WAR NURSERY is passing over Brazil. On principle the people close their ears against all proof of good sense and justice. Germans are refused bread and water. Their affirmations, intended less to justify than to explain, are all contested. " We (the Brazilians) practise an insane partiality. Our newspapers collaborate in the mendacious information, the equivocal communicated items of news, and the ' shrieking ' comments of VAgence Havas, inventive and always vainglorious. Whenever this Agency, in default of news of victories, repeated the refrain of the superiority of French guns over the German ones, our newspapers embellished the account with vainglorious phrases such as ' the superiority of the Allies is prodigious ; have we not always said it ? ' etc. In the places where meals of literary news are ' cooked ' for all the papers, groups of young scribes prepare savoury strategic dishes, and show how little, in reality, we understand military sciences. Naturally Germany is totally demolished in this kitchen, where her military, commercial and indus- trial incapacity is always proved. France and England appear without blemish, like angels : they are resplendent in prodigious heroism, they are, we are most intimately convinced, the most perfect chefs-d'ceuvre of creation." These lines are a literal translation of an article entitled " Razoes seer etas " by Mr. Bugalho. The article has been reproduced in German in No. 72 of the San Paulo German newspaper, from which the 251 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Kolnische Zeitung has spread it throughout Europe (May 19, 1915, No. 539). There it occupies four large columns of the supplement ! It is impos- sible to imagine lucubrations more tactless and inept. '' Are the ' secret reasons ' for the ineradicable sympathy of the Brazilians for France known ? They are the French ladies of easy virtue. As soon as a Brazilian has approached a Frenchwoman he is irremediably acquired by France : he is made a fool of, plucked, ruined by these diabolical (or angelic) creatures ; never mind, he cries : ' Long live France ! ' There is the great secret of the super- iority of France in Brazil over the good German, serious, industrious, good engineer, excellent com- mercial traveller," etc. As propaganda, it is iniquitous and clumsy. The Brazilian journalist who pocketed the large fee of German money to thus vilify his own countrymen must have laughed in his sleeve at the simple Teutons who surely took him seriously ; none of those whom he accuses of paying with large diamonds or thousands of sacks of coffee a kiss on the shoulder of a Parisian prostitute, will have taken him in the same way. But the Germans insist. The Berliner Tageblatt (August 30, 1915) announced to us the creation of a Liga Braziliera pro Ger mania. This League has for object to combat the mendacious news made in England. A certain Alfredo Victor Frontenella has launched an appeal in the Brazilian paper La Tribuna. " Ger- 252 AS A WAR NURSERY many," he says in this manifesto, " is known and esteemed in really cultured circles, but nearly unknown among the masses. Most Brazilians were hypnotized by the attractions and atmosphere of Paris, by the theatres and cafes, by the ladies, the refuse of Paris " (sic). One guesses the conclusion. A propaganda which makes use of such means is judged by itself. Brazil has answered it as should be done. The German propaganda should not, however, be neglected on that account. The French language is more diffused in Brazil than the German tongue, but we could not excuse ourselves from speaking, in their own language, to those who do not read French. We have the advantage of truth in our war narratives. Let us sow them broadcast as, in Brazil, people are well-disposed to listen to us. Let us place before the eyes of the Brazilian demo- cracy the facts which peremptorily prove that Germany unchained the war, not to defend her independence and her existence, as the " Brazilian League for Germany " endeavours to prove, but to establish by a stroke of brutal force her dominion of the world. We do not dream of traducing the Germans by recalling to the Brazilians the nasty scandals of Berlin. Our methods are different. We can make the Brazilians see, if that were neces- sary, that France, which has such " easy-going demi-monde " possesses also an incomparable moral and a superb army, an industry and a science which can measure themselves with those of Ger- 253 THE GERMAN SCHOOL many, and many other things which that proud country is wrong in presenting as contemptible. * * * We shall say nothing here of German scholastic action in the United States. One knows what hopes the propaganda of Dernberg and his University collaborators had founded on the Germano- American populations, and to what serious checks, in the present and for the future, Germans will have to resign themselves. A new field of action has opened before the German agency in the case of the " recovered brethren " of the Baltic Provinces and in Russian Poland. Warsaw was scarcely occupied by the German troops before professors from Berlin hast- ened to open the University with great pomp, and undertake the scholastic organization of the country. As in Belgium, these manifestations will have no to-morrow. They are far from being pleasing to the people. They are none the less typical of the premeditation and actions of their authors. The war has ruined the position of the German traders and colonists in the Russian Empire. This position was considerable from every point of view, so con- siderable that many " German brothers " have preferred a momentary retreat towards the interior of the Slavonic Empire to " release " by the troops of William II. It would seem that the Germans in the Baltic Provinces, 1 " and those who have lived for centuries under Russian rule, are not in the humour 254 AS A WAR NURSERY to exchange the liberal system they have known how to extort from the Petrograd Government for Prussian militarism. With regard to the Poles, it is certain that, as a whole, they would not readily submit to the scholastic proceedings formerly em- ployed against their brethren in Posnania. It is in the Balkans at this moment that it is interesting to observe the extension of Germanism by means of schools. Since the accession of William II, German policy has looked more and more closely towards the near East : a line through the Balkans as far as Constantinople and from thence to Bagdad would lead the commerce and power of Germany on the very flanks of her English rival in India and at Suez. The river-side dwellers of the European stage as far as Constantinople were " worked " at the same time as the Christians and Mahommedans of Asia. Serbia, sworn foe of Austro-Hungary, and entirely gained by Russia, had always offered small chance of success to the German propaganda. Roumania was more receptive. The industrial development of the country, commerce, mining and agricultural improvements had attracted a good number of Germans and Austrians, especially work- men and foremen. If one must believe the German reports published since the war in the daily Press * 1 The Frankfurter Zeitung, a commercial and industrial medium, has particularly occupied itself with Roumania 255 THE GERMAN SCHOOL the French language is no longer spoken save in high society ; it has been replaced in the commercial world by German. The fact is that there exist, to-day, German schools in nearly all the great Roumanian centres. They are founded and sup- ported by religious communities, the greater number Protestant, but the German traders and the Empire interest themselves in their welfare with much solicitude. At Bucharest itself, the Protestant community maintains a " Real Schule," a commer- cial high school of four classes, a boys' elementary school, a commercial school and an elementary school for girls, boarding schools for boys and girls, and a Kindergarten. The fifty-six classes contained, in 1913-14, 2,400 pupils. The teaching was given by eighty-seven masters and mistresses, all lay, as were also the managers, and of whom more than half were subjects of the German Empire ; twenty- two of them possessed University degrees. Within the last ten years, the number of scholars has doubled, that of the professors has trebled. The leaving certificates of the " Real Schule " and of the com- mercial schools are of equal value with corresponding certificates of similar schools in Germany, Austria, and in Roumania itself, in view of advanced studies in any school, university, technical school or commer- cial academy in the three countries. This recogni- (see the Revue of Political Sciences, December, 1915, p. 423 and following). An article on German schools appeared in it on February 20, 1915. 256 AS A WAR NURSERY tion is not the only encouragement granted to this scholastic group by the three Governments. The German community which owns it, expends upon it 30,000 annually. The least gathering is enhanced by the presence of German and Austrian official representatives, and of some Roumanian high authorities, often a member of the Royal family. The German school at Galatz comprises a boys' school of six classes and a girls' school of ten classes ; it is attended by nearly 500 scholars. The German society which works the petroleum region of Cam- pina, has founded in this town a school which, in a short time, has placed itself, in regard to its import- ance, next to that of Galatz. Flourishing German schools exist at Craiova, Constant za and Braila. Elsewhere, at Jassy, at Ploesci, at Pitesci, pastors have founded small schools which are managed by themselves. In the same way the Catholic schools under the Archbishop of Bucharest are directed by ecclesiastics and the Bishop of Jassy. The German tongue is not in all these schools the teaching language, but it holds the foremost place in them all. This is what entitles them to partake of the sub- sidies voted by the German Empire. No doubt it is thought insufficiently profitable for Germanism to develop the miserable and very intermittent schools of the German colonists who came from Russia into the Dobrudsha (then Turkish) in the time of Cathar- ine II and Alexander I. There are, however, in these schools only the children of German parents, who, 257 R THE GERMAN SCHOOL through many tribulations, have preserved intact their language and their original personality. Pupils of Roumanian nationality are fairly numerous in the German schools in the kingdom. The German reports underline with satisfaction that among their number there are sons of ministers, superior officers, etc. As a matter of fact, the young Roumanians only attend to learn the German language. Attendance at a Roumanian State school alone giving an entrance to the professions, they do not follow the entire curriculum of the foreign school. On the other side, the contingent of Jewish scholars is relatively high. The reason is not, as the Germans would wish it to be thought, difficulties, for Jews, of entrance into the Roumanian schools, but the notable advantages that Jewish traders have found until now, and hope to find in the future, in Austro-Hungary and Germany. The Roumanian Administration has shown a great toleration towards the scholastic enterprises of the Germans. Itself possessing complete and well- managed educational organization and legislation, it reserves for itself, naturally, the control of foreign private schools. Doubtless the war will alter this state of affairs. The German propaganda has profoundly disturbed the Latin kingdom. One perceives that, on the east of the Rhine, notorious mistakes have been made. If the Frankfurter Zeitung, a newspaper often inspired by the com- mercial interests of the empire, has judged this -258- AS A WAR NURSERY moment opportune to recall the German scholastic work in Roumania, and to express the hope of " all men having at heart the pacific good understanding of nations on the basis of general efforts towards civilization " that it will thus continue in the future, what more characteristic indication can there be of the German fear of having compromised every- thing ! Are the German hopes any more assured in the case of their two new Allies, the Bulgars and the Turks ? The attentions of Germany towards Bulgaria are of somewhat recent date. The innumerable articles published since the war by the German Press to decide Bulgaria to array itself on the side of the Central Powers are all attuned to the same leit- motiv : Germany, and particularly her Emperor, are convinced that alone among the people of the Balkans the valiant and hard-working Bulgarian nation is capable of establishing, under the leader- ship of her eminent prince, order and progress in the peninsula : the injustice of the Treaty of Bucha- rest (1913), the work of the Entente Powers, has proved to Bulgaria that there was no other way of assuring for itself the economic and political supre- macy in the Balkans save by an Austro-German alliance. In truth, the policy of Berlin is to use Bulgaria as prison-warder so as to keep the Slavs away from " the route to Bagdad via Constantinople," 259 THE GERMAN SCHOOL In spite of the acknowledged Germanophilism of the Prime Minister Radoslavoc, and the officers and students whom the German Government has known how to attract, there is in Bulgaria no important German focus. In 1913 there were only two German schools in the whole country. One alone, that in Sofia, prospered, thanks to the active patronage of the German Minister and Consul, and especially thanks to the liberality of the Sofia representative of the Krupp firm. The other, at Philippoli, has never been able to expand, in spite of the " very laudable " subsidy of the Berlin Government. 1 It was at one time feared it would have to be closed. " There are no rich or influential Germans at Philip- poli," wrote, in 1913, Dr. Roloff in the Leipziger Neueste Nachnchten : the country is too poor to send its children to a school where they would have to pay fees. On the other hand the French schools, the Boys' College and the High School for Girls, are richly subsidized, admirably equipped, efficaciously protected by a Consul who is at Philippoli only for that purpose, for there is, in the town, neither a French colony nor commerce. The same is the case with other French schools founded and directed by Catholic ecclesiastics, both in the capital and in several important centres in the country. There was a commotion in the German Press when the Echo de Paris suggested that France should profit by an eventual revision of the Treaty of 1 2,000 marks in 1914, Queen Eleanor gave 200 marks, AS A WAR NURSERY Bucharest to secure to herself the " protection " of the Bulgarian Catholics. The Kdlnische Zeitung, the most important among the Catholic papers of Germany, repeated in its entirety the report read by Professor Bezensek, of Sofia, at the first Congress of Christian Education, which met at Vienna in 1912, at the same time as the Eucharistic Congress. This report was to prove how greatly prosperous were the non-provided schools directed by the French, and also that in those same schools instruction in the German tongue, given by Germans, played a very important part. Mr. Bezensek left the Germans to draw their own conclusions. In view of the increasing importance of Catholicism in Bulgaria, and the preference given by the Government to young men highly educated in foreign establishments, it was the duty of Catholics and of the German Govern- ment to take in hand themselves the spread of DeutsMum in the kingdom of the new ally. Will the destiny of Bulgaria be such as Ferdinand of Coburg dreams of ? It is less and less likely that it will be accomplished according to the desires of the Germanic Powers. So much the more reason for us to strengthen our scholastic effort, so as to guard ourselves against political surprises on the part of Bulgaria, as dangerous as that of 1915. At the beginning of last year, a Councillor of the German Government, Dr. Schmidt, inspector of German schools in foreign lands, inaugurated his work as re-organizer of the Ottoman school system 261 THE GERMAN SCHOOL at Constantinople. Until just before the war, it was the French model which prevailed. There were more than 500 French schools in the Turkish empire, taught by French masters or directed by Frenchmen, according to the methods and with the help of French books, in the language and the spirit of France. To-day it is Germany who dominates. She hastens to take possession of the country, as if she feared her inability to stay there. The " Ger- mano-Turkish Association " founded last year at Constantinople under the aegis of the German Embassy, subsidizes schools, 1 buys buildings and land, 2 establishes German boarding-schools and German lectures. 3 The said Association has in- scribed propaganda through the school at the head of its programme. Already the newspapers vaunt the surprising results acquired. 4 The establishments, managed for the most part by religious bodies or German ecclesiastics, have seen the number of their pupils trebled. In many cases it has been impossible to satisfy all the requests for admission. The High School at Pera, founded by the Ger- mano-Swiss Scholastic Corporation, numbered in 1912-13 600 pupils ; at the beginning of 1915 it 1 At Bagdad and Jerusalem. 2 At Haidai Pasha. 3 At Nichantach, Broussa, Konia. 4 Heading, the Frankfurter Zeitung of June 30, 1915. The Berliner Tageblatt, another organ of German commerce, and a strong advocate of the route Hamburg-Constan- tinople-Bagdad, of July i, 1915. 262 AS A WAR NURSERY had 1,000. The leaving certificates of this school admit to study at the Universities in Germany. Thus young Ottomans are attracted to advanced studies and the German higher technical schools. * * * It should be carefully noted that already the Ger- man Government has assigned to Constantinople a complete phalanx of professors to occupy the Chairs of advanced studies. The Germans are organizing themselves. While, for example, the primary school at Jerusalem (with six classes) and the " Real Schule " (founded in 1905, and qualifying for a certificate the volunteer of one year's standing) are a collective foundation of the German colony, the Protestant Community and that of the Templars. The " Real Schule " at Bagdad, founded in 1909, is an establishment of the only German scholastic society in the place. A similar society created a " Real Schule " at Aleppo in 1911. In three years the number of pupils has trebled. In 1913, there were 107 Turks and Persians among 128 scholars. The correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt, who visited this school in June, 1915, informs us that this school combines children of eight years old and young men of twenty-three. These pupils learn German. But of what use will this tongue be to them ? There is no important German colony in that region. France has strongly influenced Syria, by subsidizing countless schools. Commerce is carried on in French. In the offices of 263 THE GERMAN SCHOOL the important commercial houses, and even at the head-quarters of the German Bagdad railway, corre- spondence is carried on in French. The same writer has seen, at Aleppo, a fair-haired boy translating Arabic under the superintendence of a tonsured young master : the child was the son of the German Consul and the master a French ecclesiastic. So the visitor asked himself how German effort will succeed in overcoming the existent difficult conditions. He counts upon the disappearance of French influence and speech. Is he sure the German will prevent the Turk or the Arab from becoming predominant ? The mixture of races, Turks, Arabs, Jews, Armeni- ans, Circassians, etc., that one meets in the schools there, terrify him. He has written his article precisely to interest German patriotism and finance in this difficult work. 1 The war, we truly hope, will render vain his calculations and over-hasty efforts. Germany will have severe wounds to dress before it can listen to appeals to its liberality for far- away " ideals." * * * Germany has a vital interest in retaking and improving her position in the East and in South 1 The German society " Durer " (Deutscher Diirerbund) has launched in the newspapers an appeal for German books : this Society carries on propaganda through art, music, exhibitions, and popular lectures. " It requires a large and varied library ! " (Frankfurter Zeitung, March 6, 1916). 264 AS A WAR NURSERY America, as soon as peace is declared. She will, for this purpose, make the effort of which the war will have shown the necessity. She will avoid, at any rate in the beginning, the mistakes in tact committed in the past. She will also avoid the procedure which Dernberg formerly praised, that is to say, the use of force as the unique means of success in the countries and with the nations which do not as yet participate in the benefit of " Kultur " and German organization. The authority of the Allies, on the contrary, will emerge from this war singularly enhanced. Even now they are preparing to consolidate their ancient ties, and to effect new ones with the nations among which German rivalry has never ceased to do them an ill turn. The role of the institutions founded by clear- sighted men in England, France, and Italy to prepare the way for the commerce and influence of their countries by the help of an intellectual and moral penetration, if their action is well sustained, will be this time decisive. Doubtless, these institutions will require all the moral and methodical support of their Governments ; they will equally demand from their respective Parliaments important material help. But it belongs especially to those who will profit from the good will conquered or re-conquered, to the ship-owners, bankers, merchants and traders, to obtain for private initiative the appropriate means for the development of their activities. A staff -265- THE GERMAN SCHOOL well-chosen and fully prepared for its particular and delicate task will accomplish the remainder. The wider, freer, and more intelligent, the action of the " pioneers " the better it will be accepted, and the more fruitful will it be. ***** Since writing the above, facts have proved the truth of the forecasts contained in this volume. One by one the nations have closed their doors on Germany, and she finds that the efforts she expended on laborious propaganda have proved of no avail. It would seem, however, that Germany has realized her mistakes and is devising means to prevent their repetition. One of these is as has already been mentioned l the founding of a special university (Auslands- hochschule) for the training of the German agents professors, engineers, consuls and missionaries to be sent to foreign countries. This scheme has already begun to be realized in Prussia though different in form to the Imperial Ideal of its original promoters. A long report on this subject was laid on the table of the Prussian House in January, 1917) 2 in order to justify the demands for additional grants in aid of the development of the " study of foreign coun- tries " made by the Prussian Minister of Education. 1 See above, p. 243. 2 Kolnische Zeitung, January 31, 1917. No. 104. - 266 AS A WAR NURSERY The idea of an Imperial Institution has been aban- doned, as being contrary to the Constitution, which leaves each State free to determine its own Educa- tional Policy. The present plan does not aim solely at the preparation of the future masters of the German schools in foreign countries for their propagandist work or merely at the education of consuls or other agents for the duties they will later be called upon to perform, but is organized with the view that "the whole German nation should be trained in World Politics." Every studious German whether he is likely to serve the cause of the Fatherland abroad or to remain at home in the metropolis should be permeated with the greatness of the German world interests. The discretion of the Prussian Government not to force an Imperial Institution on the Federal States out of " respect for the Constitution " is amazing. The avowal which masks this restraint is even more so. " The war has shown, even to those who did not realize it, how great was our ignorance of Foreign Thought and how greatly we need to judge the present according to the principles of Political Science. Our Field of Action is the World. . . ." Divested of its administrative pathos this passage signifies that the Germans realize thanks to the war their failure as regards International Politics and the futility of attempting to treat International 267 THE GERMAN SCHOOL Questions according to the narrow laws of their own National Policy. The report recommends not a Central Institution but rather the decentralization of this instruction. All the universities will take an active part in achieving the aim of general culture in matters appertaining to the knowledge of Foreign Countries. Thus Koenigsberg and Breslau will deal with questions relating to the Slavonic countries : Bonn will give the preference to France and Holland, etc. All the Faculties, those of Philosophy as well as Law, will be called upon to assist in this work. The special schools of Oriental Studies such as the Colonial Institute at Hambourg and the schools at the various Universities will widen their sphere, but all educational institutions will endeavour to enlarge the scope of their instruction so that it may embrace, not only utilitarian subjects necessary to a professor, missionary, engineer or merchant, but the wider studies dealing with general questions affecting foreign countries. The Prussian reserve is in accordance with her policy. The idea of a World Empire must be created in the same way as the ideal of a National Empire has been formed. The best agents for this purpose are the universities, which the Government at Berlin thanks to the influence of the professors at the capital have, more or less, under its control. An Imperial Institute, for which the political parties in the Reichstag would, or would not, vote grants 268 AS A WAR NURSERY in aid, as the case might be, would be entirely removed from its influence. There is not, therefore, to be an ' 'A uslandshochschule," but Prussia by setting the example to the universities in the other States hope to interest the princes of commerce, industry and finance in the movement. Berlin and Minister alone will create new chairs. At Berlin the new professor will be attached to the School of Oriental Studies and will complete the philological instruction by a practical course on the Eastern World. Berlin is also to have a reader in Bulgarian. At Miinster a course of the history of Christianity in the East will be added to the Faculty of Theology. As " the study of the Romance languages has always been its specialty," a reader in Spanish is to be attached to the staff at the Bonn University. Thus does Prussia intend to solve the problem of an educational organization destined to develop in the minds of all Germans a more exact and complete understanding of foreign countries and " Foreign Thought." The Germans have certainly made progress in theory, but there are certain things which cannot be taught in the lecture room. The lamentable failure of her propaganda in the United States shows how far the German mind is from under- standing the soul of a foreign nation. Neither the professional diplomat, Bernstorff, nor Dennburg, the man of business, has been able to 269 THE GERMAN SCHOOL achieve his goal, in spite of his personal experience and the unlimited means placed at his disposal. Each failed because he was unable to free himself from Prussian methods and German mentality. Similarly, abroad, the diplomatic agents and the " pioneers " of Germany have met with the same checks for the same reasons. The nations, even those which conserve strict neutrality, are manifesting to-day, by means of a war for liberty, their displeasure. Germany has understood. She is, therefore, preparing to undergo an apprenticeship in World Politics. She still declares that " the World is her Field of Action/' Let us see to it that we are not evicted ! Printed by Butler & Tanner Frome and London 270 THE GREATEST BOOK OF THE WAR 81, 000 copies sold to date. A Student in Arms By DONALD HANKEY Fortieth Thousand A Student in Arms SECOND SERIES By DONALD HANKEY The Younger Branch Sketches of a Cadet Camp By G. E. S. COXHEAD Price 3s. 6d. net. The attention of schoolmasters is specially directed to this attractive book in which the fine effect of the Cadet Corps on growing boys is clearly demonstrated. Second Edition. A Crusader of France Letters of CAPTAIN FERDINAND BELMONT 5s. net. Morning Post. " A French Student in Arms." Third Edition. The Story of R.V.A.D. in the Great War By THEKLA BOWSER Price 3s, 6d. net. Peace of Mind Essays and Reflections. Aug. 1914 Sept. 1917 Price 3s. 6d. net. Thf Nation says: "As satisfying as the light of a homestead when we are lost at night in a difficult country." , Fourth Edition Adventures in Contentment By DAVID GRAYSON Imperial \6rno. Price 2s. 6*d. net. Daily Mail. "This most delightful book." Daily Chronicle. "It is years since I read a book so free from the literary attitude which was at the same time so permeated with true literary or intellectual feeling." Third Edition The Friendly Road By DAVID GRAYSON Imperial \6rno. Price 2s. 6d. net. The Times. ". . . a delightful view of simple experiences." Scotsman. " He has heard the call of the road as Stevenson, heard it." Uniform with "The Friendly Road " The Lowly Estate By CRANSTOUN METCALFE Author of " Splendid Mourning " Imperial \6rno. Price 2s. 6d. net. Daily Mail. "A book to treasure upon a well handled shelf." Irish Times. "These essays are worthy of a place beside ' Dreamthorp.' ' Daily Chronicle. ff ln general character it may be likened to Gissing's 'Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft' bright, warm-hearted, companionable volume of essays." ID 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 4-CX rw-i LD 2lA-60m-3,'65 (F2336slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley