II. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.' There are in the German Empire twenty-three universities. With a few exceptions these are constituted with four faculties each-theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. Of these exceptions, Popplesdorf has but one faculty, agriculture; Münster and Braunsberg have two, theology and philosophy; Bonn and Breslau have five, theology being divided into Protestant and Catholic; Munich has five, a faculty of political science. being added; Tübingen has seven, theology being divided, and faculties of political and natural science being added. Heidelberg has just created a separate faculty of natural science. In the summer semester, 1890, there were in German universities a total number of 29,317 students. The entire teaching force numbered 2437, divided as follows; ordinary or full professors, 1063; extraordinary or associate professors, 524; honorary professors, 63; docenten or tutors, 649; language and sword masters, 138. Thus the entire body of the universities was 31,754, or an average of 1380 persons to each institution. The annual salary which ordinary professors, or heads of departments, receive from the state, varies with dif ferent sections, faculties, and universities. In Prussia the average is as follows: In law, 6043 M.; in theology, 5718 M.; in philosophy, 5568 M.; in medicine, 5301 M. But Göttingen pays her law professors 12,600 M., and Berlin her philosophical and theological professors 12,000 and 10,200 M. respectively. To these amounts are to be added the fees collected 1 In addition to personal experience and correspondence, information has been derived chiefly from the Deutscher Universitäts Kalender, published semi-annually by Prof. Dr. F. Ascherson, Berlin; the Akademische Blätter; the Akademische Monatshefte; Kürschner's Staatshandbuch; Statistisches Jahrbuch der höheren Schulen, and the Personal und Vorlesungen Verzeichnisse of the present year. the sources are not always in accord, the results are often approximate only. As from those who attend the professors' lectures. The extraor dinary professors receive from the state about one-half the amount paid to the ordinary, while the tutors depend solely on their class-room fees. It is often supposed that foreign students are a large factor in German universities, yet there are only about 1000 foreigners in attendance. About one-third of these are from North America. It would be interesting could one determine what proportion of the 29,317 students finish the university course by taking a degree, but the German student is so mixed up with the state by service and examination, and the statistics are so imperfect and difficult to obtain, that it is quite impossible to attain any exact result. It is clear, however, that not more than onefourth of the students, probably not more than one-fifth, are granted degrees. A small but interesting element in the question concerning the uncrowned studenthood is that all who make for degrees do not make them. The question as to how large an element this is, as well as the question of the distribution of the degrees among the different grades for dissertations and examinations, cannot be answered in many cases. Out of 741 examinations held in four of the best universities no first grade degree was given, but of the second grade there were 36, of the third grade 270, of the fourth grade 153, and 282 failures. Some universities and some professors seldom or never give first grade, others give it only for original investigation which is of positive value, while others are careless in the matter. These figures are not to be taken as representative but merely as suggestive. The following table shows the numerical constitution of the twelve leading universities in the summer semesters of the years 1878, 1885, and 1890. 1878 215 100 тоб 57 120 107 110 160 136. 59 73 117 108 101 175 152 66 1329 68 1468 1649 14641 21280 In Theology........... In Law...... In Philosophy.. In Medicine 144 4409 23178 1878 150 175 179, 140 39 94 203 34' 366 86 427 140 1953 1885 600 200 332 402 85 199 598 65 699 119 592 203 4004 1890 698 295 397 290 203 245 721 91 577 150 594) 4413 1878 888 312 369 50 119 309 125 410 958 413 354 102 1885 937 303 190, 103 263 179 118 302 610 1006 389 145 1890 1235 305 231 213 305 197 133 327 936 1497 453 330 1878 1185 422 584 93 1885 1856 497: 503 87 1890 1664 424 350 144 4545 6162 This table, for the most part, explains itself. I may mention a few points which it suggests but does not make entirely clear. It is evident that the growth of the universities in numbers is remarkable, but when all the universities are considered, the advance is still more striking. The attendance on the universities has doubled, while the population of Germany has advanced about sixteen per cent. In the last twelve years the universities have added nearly fifty per cent. to the number of students. This alarms the Kaiser, who agrees with Bismarck that the danger of Germany lies in the existence and rapid growth of a "learned proletariat," "candidates for hunger," as they are termed, and this is one of the arguments he urges for un-humanizing the Gymnasien. That such a class exists, and has existed for many years, there can be no question; it is a large factor in journalism, and is responsible in part for Germany's large annual output of books. But our table shows that Göttingen has sixty students fewer than ten years ago, while Breslau has lost 114 students in the last five years. The small advance of Berlin in this latter period will be, perhaps, more noticeable. The attendance at Berlin during the past three semesters was, chronologically, as follows: 6187, 5731, and 4781. This means that Berlin has lost 1406 students very recently. The fact is often overlooked, that Berlin has each semester from 1800 to 2000 nominal attendants upon lectures who have no more connection with the university than with the theaters which they attend, and it is seldom noticed that Munich has much larger numbers in jurisprudence and medicine than Berlin. I asked a well-known professor how he explained this numerical superiority of Munich to Berlin and Leipzig. He replied: "They have in Munich a professor who draws more students than any other in all Germany-Professor Beer." Berlin's attractions are different. They lie not altogether in the faculty of the university but in the city itself. Berlin is the nerve-center of social, material, and imperial Germany, and her libraries, especially the Royal, are in every possible respect superior to any others in Germany. As Berlin is the nerve-center, her university feels most the reaction, in attendance on universities, which has taken place in the last three years. That there has been an effectual check on growing numbers there can be no question. The total number of students in each of the last six semesters is as follows: 29,190, 28,923, 29,491, 29,007, 29,317, and at present (1891) 28,711. The rapid growth began in 1870 and continued to 1887. Erlangen is the only university that makes noticeable headway against this recoil, although Leipzig in the present semester has five students more than ever before. Glancing at the table, it is seen that in the last twelve years there has been a large increment in the teaching force and in the number of students; the absolute gain in the former being 320 and in the latter 8537. Moreover, while theology has made an absolute gain of 2450, law of 1753, and medicine of 4369 students, philosophy shows a loss in twelve years of 57, and in the last five years a loss of 1148 students. The difficulty of accounting for this condition is augmented by two important considerations. (1) Almost the entire increase in the teaching force in the last twelve years (I speak of professors), has been in philosophy. In 1878 the faculties stood in the following proportions and relations: theology 8, law 13, medicine 21, philosophy 51; and in 1890 they stand 8, 12, 21, and 60. Thus, while the faculties of theology, law, and medicine have remained about the same in the larger universities, the philosophical faculties have each added about nine members during the last twelve years. (2) While theology, law, and medicine are professional and clearly defined departments, philosophy covers any phase of knowledge which remains after these departments are subtracted. Thus we find in the universities, which have four faculties, the following sub-divisions under philosophy: philology, Oriental, classic, and modern; philosophy, including history, pedagogy, geography, and political science; natural sciences, including mathematics and astronomy; and art and archæology. Considering that the philosophical faculty comprehends all the natural sciences, supplies nearly all the teaching force of the Gymnasien, and covers the curriculum of the best American colleges, it is somewhat difficult to account for the falling off of students in this department while they have continued to increase in the three other departments, and while nearly the whole increase of professors has been in the philosophical faculty. The increase in the teaching force can be partially accounted for by division of labor and the introduction of new chairs in geography, political economy, and natural science. The diminution of students is due in part to the overcrowded condition of the teaching profession and to the present low condition of philosophy and philology. The faculties of philosophy are large and strong throughout Germany, but in the last few years there has been so rapid a decrease of students that at present the ablest professors complain of the small number of their hearers. Dr. J. Hutchinson Stirling is at much pains to show that philosophy ends with Hegel. This is admitted by many German professors, but in a sense very different from that which Dr. Stirling urges. The speculative period of German philosophy is dead, says Professor Jodl, and we believe there are not many who dispute him. Nevertheless it appears to have been Hegelianism rather than Hegel that “ disgusted |