PAGE TEN

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

SY I-; IY, FEBBI UARY 22, 13?5,


SVNfiAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1925

H1igher Education Ino.Germany,
to And .Its War-Changed onito
A Digest of Student Life in the Gay Days Before Grim War Made'
Education There a Struggling Function
Although it Is far from my task or to learn that their parents could no romantic mystic, Novalis, declared in
intention to tell a fairy tale, allow me longer send the monthly allowance on his famous fragment, "Christianity
to begin with a "There was once."[ which to live. Fortunes and incomes and Europe", written in 1799, and
Indeed, there was once a care-free, were wiped out by the depreciation of j often cited in these days, "spiritual
joyous, overjoyous student life in the mark. Need and even hunger forces governed the European world,
Germany. Days and nights and whole showed their hideous faces and forced when belief and love as the more
semesters of the first academic years many a gifted young man to give up beautiful blossoms of her youth hung
of a German student passed as an end- his academnic plans. Those who stay- over Europe which have since, alas,
less celebration of freedom, academic ed had to work their own way through given room to the less finer fruits
freedom, and youth. The streets of and had to do it mostly by the work which are knowledge and possession."
the small old university towns like of their hands, for there was a large A sociology of the German student
Tubingen, Marburg, Heidelburg and over-supply of brain-workers -and in life would have to recognize that the
so many others echoed and re-echoed post-war Germany mental work was cohesive impulses within these two
the songs about students' glory. The badly paid. These hard necessities categories are much stronger than in
little windows of the small houses brought forth the working student, a that big body in which the general
reflected "te flames of torch-light pro- type long familiar in the Anglo-Saxon German student body is organized to--
cessions in honor of a learned schol- countries but unheard of in Germany, day, the Deutsche Studentenschaft,
ar's jubilee or of the newly-elected as in most of the other Continental founded in 1919, a fact that cannot
rector magnificus. Songs of the wan- countries. astonish anybody who has some
dering students greeted castles and Rapidly founded organizations, oft- knowledge of the pluralistic structure
ruins on the hills and barges slowly en helped by foreign funds, furnished of our modern world in. which the old
gliding down the rivers and streams. employment for students on the farms forces show all the powers of the
The German student could, or believed during the harvest season, in fac- strangling grip - of a doomed man.
he could, afford those splendid years tories and coal and potash mines. The Deutsche Studentenschaft ,is an
of dolce far niente. It was not nec- Finally in the summer semester of attempt of bringing together all stu-
essary for him to follow a strict pro- 1922, 42 per cent. of the university dents into one big powerful body in-
gram, outlined for him by the faculty, students, 62 per cent. of those study- volving a declaration of the autonomy
and attend lectures and seminaries, ing at technical colleges, and 88 per and self-government. of the "academic
tt .least not in the first ones of his cent. of the future mining engineers citizens", so far as their own sphere
eight to ten semesters of study. For had become working students. Self- goes, and under thetr own constitu-
those who became members of stu- help organizations in nearly all uni- tion. It is well worth reminding the
dent corporations, by their own free versity towns, with the "Wirtschaft- foreign reader that the German uni-
will or by father's will, who in his shilfe (Students' Co-operative Eco- versities always, even, under the old
university days had been a member of nomic Association) as their center, regime, enjoyed. a certain autonomy
the same corporation, it seemed of far opened dining-rooms, work-shops, and that there .existed some sort of
greater importance to attend all the sale-rooms, loan banks, and tried their special jurisdiction, over students.
strictly codified activities of his cor- best to bring the working student This new national body comprised
poration, which pretty well filled up through those years of. hardship. It the local committees at the several
his days and part of his nights too. is only too obvious that very often universities. These are recognized as
These corporations are essentially their help must fall short In face o porations by the atelaws. Te
pre-war institutions. Their history the prevailing distress. c membership is compulsory for every
goes in many.cases back to pre-Napol- As the gloomy picture of the times German student, who .ha -to- pay a
eonic times, and their rules, often to a has been painted often enough by for- small fee for it each semester.. For-j
stranger of a ridiculous strictness and eign observers, I may better be allow- Ieign students share neither in the
pedantry, are everything else than to point out what the German stu- rivileges nor the duties. Themai
modern, before all their code ofbe- dent gained, and I venture to hope, functions of the local comn-Lttees are:
havior towards their fellow-students permanently gained, from his experi- representation of the whole student
and towns-people and their elaborate ence during this time. Though per-
drinking rules. Most conspicuous haps the standard of learning of the
among them are the "combatting and average student may have gone down
color-wearing' corporations, the so- somewhat beneath pre-war standards,
called "Corps," "Lansmannschaften", he has had a new experience which
"Turnerschaffen", etc., which enum- may be judged as out-weighing this
ation, by the way, indicates roughly loss, and experience that has positive-
what silly people in more than coun- ly become part of his education. He
try call social standing. Their- mem- has been brought into contact with the
bers wear many-colored caps and rib- life of the workingman in the factory
bons of the same colors around their and the mine and on the field. He
breasts. Though public opinion and knows now something tangible about
the police have tried for a long time the workingman's existence, that had J .
to suppress duelling, they still have oce been so far from the pre-war
their "mensuren", generally harmless, student's almost Gilbertian gaiety.al
but by no means bloodless affairs. He has received a schooling of ines- People always see
This fighting usually takes place be- timable value for the future official your hair firs
tween selected members of corpora- and judge, who so often distinguish
tions of the same catagory. There is themselves by their aloofness from
nearly no danger for the life of the actual life. The working side by side Dle 1.
combatants. They are protected by of laborer and student has brought Of t etunke
leather armors, bandages, and strgabout a new understanding between
spectacles and expose only chestrong formerly largely hostile classes thatI spoil your w o
forehead to the long straight sword of will work for social peacecin ascoupn-
the opponent. The wounds inflicted try where class differences were al-
ways so marked. The student's own O matter how carefully you
are ere slight cuts of the more r co-operative enterprises taught him are dressed-you cannot look
less pink skin, and the whole pro- thgreat your best if your hair is straggly,
ceduro reminds the anthropologist e lesson of co-operation, unkempt.
more than anything else of the initia- which is so highly necessaryaunder Today well-dressed men, in col-
tion rites of South Sea aborigines te arcusticsdofnthalontr hu- lege and in business, have found just
where similar cuttings occur. The I ' what they need to keep their hair
object of this fighting is to teach the man co-existence to be all struggle in place-Stacornb. This delicate,
young man mastership of his nerve and fight in spite of all the proclaim- invisible cream. will keep the most
system and is regarded as of no small ing of ruthless competition. unruly hair in place all day ion.
educational value. Not very much It is far too early to say that thiN
athletic skill is shown in these affairs. social consciouness is to become
F ar more serious than these pre-ar-s.
ranged "mensuren" are duels with permanent. There are indications a
curved swords, fought out to wash off enough of a relapse into leading a Std
some offense of mostly imaginary sort of dream-existence from the far F F E
character, for the "color-student" feels frompleasanthosrealitiesmany of to-dayhem!ea
easily offended, at least when in- wer the coed a y o long for
toxicated. wear the colored caps, who long for N
the times of 1871-1914, the time of anA
These "color-students'' claimed to exuberant materialism, material
be the very core of German student-,I wealth and external power; let us
hood and liked to look a bit condes- call them the . reactionaries for the
cendingly to the other corporations as shortness of the term. There are.

existed besides their own and whose furthermore, those who do not want,
members and varieties were up to reaction but conscious reversion to.Do t BorroW -S
1914 and now again as innumerable as the life and social order on a purer
the states within the Holy Roman plan as, they imagine, it existed in
Empire. Among them are Christian 'the Middle Ages, when, as the German
fraternities, singing societies, scien-
tific and athletic organizations, groups E m=X O O+/
of the youth movement as the "Wan-Is
dervogel" (migrating birds) and the 5
big mass of the non-corporated stu- U
dents, all of them much more in con- I
tact with real life of the day and less FARMERS AND MECH A
tended to exercise that fine but dan-
gerous art in which so many Germans 101-105 S.MAIN ST.--ANN ARBOR, M
are mastero4 i. e. of denying reality
somehow and slaking about "Real-
politik" at the same time. Most of
these--corporations have survived the
war-time or have been re-founded
since. Their number and variety has
even increased since the war. Politics
have entered the halls of every "alma
mater" wherethey were forbidden be- THRIFT IS THE ONLY MAGIC WE
fore, and every party of some im - T RF H N Y M GC W
portauce has its student groups KN WOsI H W I HO E
After three or four semesters of ]KNOW OF WITH WHICH TO OPEN
this gay corporation life, which the
non-corporate student mostly used for i THE PORTALS OF SUCCESS. THE
a general study, for wandering and TIME TO BEGIN THE HABIT OF
climbing in the mountains, the stu- T MTo B G NHEA IT O
dent went as a rule over to another T
university. Here he sat down to real THRIFT IS NOW. THE HABIT GROWS
work in eminaries, laboratories, in-G
firmaries, ahd his more or less mod- EASIER AS TIME GtES ON AND IT
estly fiir'ished room. As an "elder!
semester" he had to specialize his} REPAYS A THOUSAND FOLD FOR
work and now become a real pupil of
his professor before whom he intend- THE EFFORT IT COSTS. THIS BANK
ed to pass his exxaminations, which. HE...... EFFORT T. .... COTSI . .. H.. S Ba.N.

body, charge of the academic self-
governing powers; ',articipatio, in
the administration of those univer,
sity affairs directly concerning the
student body, academic disoipline .atd
Jurisdiction; advancement of Mth-
letics; admninistration .of self-help or-
ganization. For part of these activi-
ties special offices (Amter) have been
created, as for example law ofces
that help the new-comer to find a
Iroom, athletic and employment offces,
offices that buy and sell books at
moderate prices, etc.
Athletic activities have as yet never
played a large role in the German
student's life. At its last year's na
tional meeting, however, the Stu-
dentenschaft has resolved that CVery
able-bodied student, foreign students
again exempted, has to take part in
athletics of some kind. A little while
ago the ministry of education of one
of the federal states, following a reso-
lution of the faculty and the Stu-
dentenschaft of thecUniversity of
Jenla, published a decree that asfter
October 1, 1926, nobody will be allow-
ed to enter pniversity examinations in

:

comring up as well as a new concep- coveries and achievements the tech-
tion of the sciences. There is a cer- nical colleges (Technische Hoch-
taro conflict between the different ;schulen) have gained equal rank with
standpoints as to life of the physical, the runiversities only #very slowly.
actual and technical sciences on the i Against this traditional conception
one side and the mental sciences the younger ones of every age in the
(philosophy, history, linguistics, law,'faculties raise the wider conception of
etc.) on the other. Modern natural science as necessarily connected with
science is b yits very nature more life, they want a phenomenological
closely connected with practical life. manner of observing and approaching
The mental sciences, however, have present life with all its conditional-
retained their "unutilitarian" view of ities, historical and sociological; fur-
the classical conception of studies and thermore a systematic summing up of
this tendency is still preponderant in the endless mass of specialized know-
the faculties of philosophy ,which in- ledge instead of the incessant rais-
dlude philosophy, history of all kinds, ing of isolated problems which threat-
psychology, languages, etc., so much ens to lead to an overgrowing of spec-
that in spite of their splendid dis- ialist work. Together with this sum-

ming up of results, of a seeing-to-
gether of facts and currents, a more
intimate union of the artistic form
and the results of investigation is
hoped for, a synthesis which hat made
its appearance in the work of scholars
like Wilhelm Dilthey, Frederick Gun-
dolf. Ernst Bertram, and Oswald
Spengler.
So in many ways the time, when it
was possible to substitute learning
for education, is brought nearer to its
end; besides the mere intellectual
training, religion, art, social ethics, a
new consciousness of the human body
have become factors of educating the
German student in order to make him
a personality in the community.

this state unless he can prove that he
has actually taken part in these ac-
tivities. The ' purpose of resolutions
and decrees like these may be. duly
deemed lust as laudable as the means
to this, end seem to. -us Adubious ; this
the morebecause they -ndanger one
of the:-sacred and -nt altogether
wrong traditionsofdGerman university
life,-that of .absolute freedom for the
student of selecting his own courses
and occupation and shaping his. own
mod> oflife. One cwitnot" but expr s
the apprehension that this big en-
thusiasm for sporty wbhich character-
izes Amerian- university-, life and
which the visitor of this country for
the -greater part adimires, cannot be
created by nIeans of coercion. But
all decisions like- these -are far from
final and are exprestlohs of a good.
will for new fotms anti activities.
These changes within the student
body accompafny an even more im-
portant change of the whole structure
of the German university as an insti-
tute of learning. Already this struc-
ture has become less rigid and less
formal -than. it was. What does it
matter, if for these reasons the perl-
wigs fear- for its very existence .and
high ' standards and achievements?
Slowly another ideal of humanfity is,

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