https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/06/how-universities-die
"Berlin. In 1910, German universities were the envy of the world. They were the
world’s center of scientific research, not only in the natural sciences but
also in the study of history, politics, philosophy and literature. Our modern
scholarly disciplines were all first defined in Germany.
The University of Berlin, founded a century earlier, was the Harvard of its
day. Every serious American university, from Hopkins to Chicago, to Harvard and
Berkeley, was made or reformed according to the “Berlin model.” (Why else is
Stanford’s motto in German?) Original research was prized over the mere
transmission of knowledge. Faculty and students would learn together in
seminars and laboratories. Professors would have
Lehrfreiheit, or the freedom
to teach, while students would enjoy
Lernfreiheit, the freedom to learn
across multiple disciplines. Although supported entirely by the state,
universities themselves would decide who would teach and what would be taught.
If in 1910 we had rankings of universities as we do today, perhaps eight of the
top ten in the world would have been German—with only Oxford and Cambridge
joining them in that elite circle.
As late as 1932, the University of Berlin remained the most famous site in the
world of universities. By 1934, it had been destroyed from without and within."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
