11.9 The German university and Wissenschaft — Epoché
What you will be able to do Understand the German idea of the university that goes back to Wilhelm von Humboldt: the unity of research and teaching, and education through scholarship. Follow an academic career in Germany: Promotion , Habilitation , Privatdozent , Ruf , Lehrstuhl . Know the degrees before and after the Bologna reform, and the kinds of institutions where research happens. Read titles and forms of address correctly: Prof. Dr. , Frau Professorin , Herr Dekan . Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Jeder kann meine Vorlesungen besuchen, aber nicht jeder kann sie verstehen. [1] Anyone can attend my lectures, but not everyone can understand them. Bei all der Lehre und Forschung habe ich keine Zeit für mich selbst. [2] With all the teaching and research, I have no time for myself. Das sind meine Kommilitonen. [3] These are my fellow students. Ich habe morgen Vorlesungen. [4] I have classes tomorrow. Sie verliebte sich in einen Mitschüler. [5] She fell in love with one of the other students. Meine Tochter hat heute ihr Diplom bekommen. [6] My daughter graduated from university today. Prerequisites : 11.8 — you need the German school and university system from 11.4 Background , Weber's Wissenschaft als Beruf from 10.4 Argument , and the Hausarbeit of 10.5 Argument . In 11.4 Background you learned how a student moves from school to university in Germany. This lesson looks at the university from the other side: its history, its ideas, and the careers of those who teach and research there. The German word Wissenschaft , which covers every academic discipline from physics to philology, carries a whole philosophy of the university. Knowing it helps you understand German academic culture, its seminar papers and its titles, and why a German professor may react with surprise when an English speaker calls the humanities not a science . Humboldt and the idea of Wissenschaft In 1810 the Prussian state founded a new university in Berlin, today the Humboldt University. Its plan is linked with the scholar and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt, who headed the Prussian section for education for little more than a year. The ideas associated with his name shaped the German university for two centuries. Research and teaching should be united, die Einheit von Forschung und Lehre : professors should teach what they are investigating, and students should take part in the search for knowledge rather than learn finished results. Teaching and learning should be free, Lehrfreiheit and Lernfreiheit . And the aim of study was Bildung , the formation of the whole person through scholarship, not merely training for a profession. The research seminar, in which students work on sources with a professor, and the laboratory became the typical forms of this university. In the nineteenth century German universities were admired worldwide, and the new research universities of the United States, beginning with Johns Hopkins in 1876, took them as a model. Historians now debate how much of the later ideal Humboldt himself formulated, but the phrase das Humboldtsche Bildungsideal is still used in every German debate on universities, often against reforms that seem to turn study into training. The academic career The first academic qualification after the degree is the doctorate, die Promotion . A doctoral candidate, der Doktorand or die Doktorandin , writes a dissertation, die Doktorarbeit or Dissertation , under a supervisor, traditionally called der Doktorvater or die Doktormutter . The title Dr. is not legally part of the name, but it can be entered in the passport and identity card, and it is often used in letters: Sehr geehrte Frau Dr. Schmidt . For a long time the way to a professorship led through a second book, die Habilitation , which qualifies a scholar to teach at a university; the university then grants the right to teach, die Lehrbefugnis . A scholar who has completed it but has no chair is a Privatdozent . When a university offers someone a professorship, it is called ein Ruf , a call; the chair is der Lehrstuhl , and the professor holds it, usually for life, as a civil servant. Since 2002 the junior professorship, die Juniorprofessur , has offered a path without the Habilitation , and more and more posts are now advertised with tenure track. Many young researchers work on short contracts for many years, a problem that German academics have discussed intensely. Bologna and after Until the early 2000s German universities awarded their own degrees: the Diplom in the sciences and engineering, the Magister in the humanities, and the state examination, das Staatsexamen , in law, medicine and teacher training. In 1999 European ministers signed the Bologna Declaration, which aimed at a common European system of comparable degrees. In the following decade German universities replaced most of the old degrees with the Bachelor and the Master , organised in modules with credit points. The state examination remains in law, medicine and pharmacy, and in teacher training in several Länder . Critics say that the reform made study more school-like and less free; supporters point to shorter study times and easier movement between countries. Where research happens Besides the universities there are the universities of applied sciences, which now often call themselves Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften ; they teach practically oriented degrees and are not usually entitled to award doctorates on their own. Much research is done outside universities, in the institutes of the Max Planck Society for basic research, the Fraunhofer Society for applied research, and the Helmholtz and Leibniz associations. The German Research Foundation, die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft , funds projects by competition. Since 2005 the federal and state governments have funded selected universities and research clusters in the Excellence Initiative, later the Excell