HUMBOLDT and the MODERN GERMAN UNIVERSITY an Intellectual History
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HUMBOLDT AND THE MODERN GERMAN UNIVERSITY An intellectual history JOHAN1 ÖSTLING Helena Ifill HUMBOLDT AND THE MODERN GERMAN UNIVERSITY Humboldt and the modern German university An intellectual history JOHAN ÖSTLING Translation: Lena Olsson Lund University Press Copyright © Johan Östling 2018 The right of Johan Östling to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Lund University Press The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology P.O. Box 117 SE-221 00 LUND Sweden http://lunduniversitypress.lu.se Lund University Press books are published in collaboration with Manchester University Press Lund University Press gratefully acknowledges the generous financial assistance of Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, which funded the translation and most of the production costs of this volume. First published by Atlantis, Stockholm, in 2016, as Humboldts universitet: Bildning och vetenskap i det moderna Tysklands historia ISBN 978-91-7353-856-5 ISBN 978-91-983768-0-7 hardback ISBN 978-91-983768-1-4 open access First published 2018 This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence. A copy of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited Contents List of images page vii Acknowledgements viii Preface: Unter den Linden 6 xii 1 The history of the university 1 The university and historiography 1 University history as intellectual history and history of knowledge 5 The history of the Humboldtian tradition 8 The form and content of the Humboldtian tradition 14 2 Wilhelm von Humboldt and his idea 23 A modern university 23 Humboldt’s idea 35 Humboldt’s nineteenth century 43 3 The discovery of Humboldt 50 Discovering Humboldt 55 The Weimar Republic 64 The Third Reich 72 Humboldt’s shifting guises 80 4 The rebirth of the university 84 Humboldt during the years of occupation 88 Karl Jaspers and the rebirth of the university 98 Towards a vitalisation 103 Karl Jaspers and the Humboldtian tradition 108 Gerhard Ritter and the liberal university 110 Ideals under review 117 The mandarins and the Humboldtian tradition 122 The wider stage 127 The university reborn 135 vi Contents 5 Tradition under debate 140 A Humboldt for the post-war world 148 The idea of the Berlin university 152 The theoretical university 158 Schelsky and the Humboldtian tradition 162 Ralf Dahrendorf and the liberal university 170 ‘Hochschule in der Demokratie’ 179 Debating tradition 192 6 From Berlin to Bologna 207 The morphology of the Bologna process 214 The ubiquity of Humboldt 220 The Humboldtian tradition’s intellectual history and history of knowledge 223 The Humboldtian tradition and the modern university 236 Humboldt’s topicality 245 Bibliography 250 Index 285 Images 1 The University of Bologna (© Buena Vista Images/Getty Images) page xviii 2 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (© ImageRite/Alamy Stock Photo) xviii 3 A picture from the 1930 filmDer blaue Engel (© Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo) 19 4 Wilhelm von Humboldt (© Ullstein Bild/Getty Images) 33 5 Carl Heinrich Becker (© Ullstein Bild/Getty Images) 66 6 German students in 1933 (© Ullstein Bild) 75 7 The war-damaged Berlin university in 1945 (© Ullstein Bild) 86 8 Karl Jaspers (© Ullstein Bild/Getty Images) 100 9 Oxford students around 1950 (© Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo) 128 10 Protesting students in Munich in 1968 (© INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo) 142 11 Helmut Schelsky (© Ullstein Bild – Hellgoth) 163 12 Humboldt University anniversary celebrations in 1960, in the GDR period (© Keystone Pictures USA/Alamy Stock Photo) 193 13 Student protests in Magdeburg in 2010 (© Dpa Picture Alliance Archive/Alamy Stock Photo) 214 14 A photo from present-day Berlin (© Dpa Picture Alliance Archive/Alamy Stock Photo) 246 Acknowledgements This book was written during my postdoctoral itinerant years. The topic, however, I realise now, has followed me longer than that. Already as a student, I spent time in Tübingen, where I encountered an academic culture which seemed both alien and fascinating with its old-fashioned traits and the eccentric personalities of its professors. A few years later I was a visiting doctoral student at Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin, following, at close quarters, the public trial of strength regarding the university that the Bologna process had engendered. I was struck by the seriousness and historical depth of the German debate. Here, issues that in Sweden were mostly treated as if they were technicalities – the structure of the studies, the conditions for research, the nature of knowledge – became the subject of original contemplation and intense controversy. Since then, I have had the privilege of exploring the Humboldtian tradition in several scholarly environments. A first foundation was laid at the Research Policy Institute at Lund University, where I had a postdoctoral appointment financed by the Swedish Research Council. Here, as a historian, I came into contact with a multifaceted study of the institutions of knowledge and research. I attached special value to my exchanges with Mats Benner, Olof Hallonsten, Gustav Holmberg, and Anna Tunlid. Most of the work on this book has been conducted within the framework of my position as a Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, gener- ously financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. For a total of two terms, in 2013 and 2014, I was a fellow in residence at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala. The social and intellectual atmosphere that permeates SCAS enriched me in an exceptional manner. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Björn Wittrock, whose knowledge of university history and enthusiasm for my topic has been of inestimable value. My two mentors in the Pro Futura programme, Hans Joas and Jürgen Kocka, have conveyed Acknowledgements ix important insights about modern German history and opened doors for me in Berlin. During countless lunches and meetings at SCAS I have been able to discuss the theory and practice of academic life, not least with Kimmo Alho, Anders Andrén, Gustaf Arrhenius, Gian Vittorio Caprara, Rodney Edvinsson, Gunnel Engwall, Anandi Hat- tiangadi, Paula Henrikson, Petter Johansson, Barbro Klein, Virginia Langum, Dirk Meyer, Stephen Mitchell, Christer Nordlund, Jonas Olofsson, Michael Puett, Wlodek Rabinowicz, Sandra Rekanovic, H. Otto Sibum, Krishnan Srinivasan, and Kristin Zeiler. During an invaluable academic year, 2013–2014, I was able to deepen my understanding of the history of the Humboldtian tradition and the modern university on German soil. The first term was spent at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) in Potsdam, where I gained fruitful insights into the dynamic research on contemporary history that is conducted there. Frank Bösch, Maren Möhring, and Martin Sabrow were my kind hosts in Brandenburg. During the second term I was attached to the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (MPIWG) in Berlin, that extraordinary institution for the history of science at Boltzmannstraße in Dahlem. I am grateful to Lorraine Daston for her hospitality and inspirational leadership. Throughout the terms of travel and temporary anchorages, the Department of History at Lund was the fixed point in my professional existence. Here I briefly held a post as a postdoctoral research fellow, and it was here I completed this study in 2016. It is a generous environment with many good friends and proficient colleagues. It has been especially inspiring to introduce the history of knowledge as a new field at the Department in happy partnership with David Larsson Heidenblad, Anna Nilsson Hammar, and others. Our Norwegian comrades have been indispensable in these efforts: Kari Hernæs Nordberg and the incomparable Erling Sandmo, with whom good fortune brought me together at the MPIWG in Berlin. I share my interest in Wilhelm von Humboldt and his university with Peter Josephson and Thomas Karlsohn. Together, we have organised a conference in Uppsala and edited a book. It has always been very educational and rewarding to discuss the university with them, the historical university as well as the contemporary one. The distinctive features and unused potential of university history I have, in addition, discussed with Anders Ahlbäck, Henrik Björck, John Peter Collett, Pieter Dhondt, Ylva Hasselberg, Laura Hollsten, Thomas Kaiserfeld, Tamson Pietsch, Sverker Sörlin, Fredrik W. Thue, x Acknowledgements and Sven Widmalm. On a more local level, it has been as useful as it has been enjoyable to be a part of the group that worked with the history of the university on the eve of the Lund University 350-year anniversary under the leadership of Gunnar Broberg and David Dunér. Here I was able to convert thoughts about university history into concrete practice. With Martin Wiklund I have had continuing conversations about the premises of the writing of history, and with Charlotta Seiler Brylla, Kristian Gerner, Kay Glans, Barbro Landén, and Johanna Ringarp I have discussed German matters. During the years I have devoted to the fundamental issues of the university, I have come into contact with a number of experienced academics who have supported me and my research. Many of them have shared their insights about the conditions and transformational power of the academic world. For encouragement and stimulation, I direct my thanks to Carl-Gustaf Andrén, Jenny Björkman, Göran Blomqvist, Lars Edgren, Sverker Gustavsson, Alf W. Johansson, Klas-Göran Karlsson, Britta Lövgren, Kjell Å. Modéer, Thorsten Nybom, Hans Ruin, Kerstin Sahlin, Kim Salomon, Bo Stråth, Birgitta Svensson, Marianne Thormählen, Anette Warring, and Lynn Åkesson. Several people have read and commented on sections from this book.