Print View

Abstract

During the Bismarckian period the number of students attending Prussian universities and other institutes of higher learning shot upward, from about 18,000 in 1869 to over 40,000 in the mid-1890s—far exceeding the rate of growth among the adult male population (women were not permitted to attend university). More and more university students came from lower-middle-class backgrounds. The proportion of students from families of the educated middle classes [Bildungsbürgertum] declined correspondingly.

Students Attending Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Learning in Prussia (1869–1912)

Source

Students Attending Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Learning in Prussia, by Type
Students (Regular Students, Auditors)[1]

At the end of the year

22 Univer-
sities

11 Insti-
tutes of tech-
nology

5 and/or 4[2] forest acad-
emies

3 Min-
ing acad-
emies

5 and/or 4[3] veter-
inary schools

4 Agricult-
ural schools

together

Per 10,000 of the male pop-
ulation

1869

13,997

2,928

261

144

267

357

17,954

8.83

1872

15,359

4,163

317

168

271

298

20,576

10.03

1875

16,357

5,449

269

264

284

269

22,892

11.08

1880

21,432

3,377

394

262

436

353

26,254

11.73

1885

26,928

2,549

394

344

735

468

31,418

13.85

1888

28,551

2,887

386

343

962

483

33,612

14.39

1891

27,398

4,209

255

389

1,047

694

33,992

13.87

1896

29,476

7,747

330

523

1,140

1,070

40,286

15.70

1899

32,834

10,412

278

763

1,343

890

46,520

16.78

1902

35,857

13,151

251

879

1,415

985

52,538

18.50

1905

41,235

12,237

336

902

1,186

1,479

57,375

19.20

1908

47,253

11,315

342

830

1,306

1,553

62,599

20.08

1909

50,612

11,365

323

826

1,233

1,607

65,966

20.87

1910

52,766

11,502

291

806

1,220

1,617

68,202

21.29

1911

54,999

11,378

338

791

1,328

1,446

70,280

21.65

1912

56,483

11,349

327

805

1,269

1,477

71,710

21.77

Notes

[1] Male and female students; the student numbers were probably expressed as a percentage of the male population because the number of female students was basically negligible—for instance, during the winter semester of 1911/12 only 1,896 women were enrolled in Prussian universities as opposed to 26,550 men. [Statistisches Jahrbuch für den Preußischen Staat (1915): pp. 265, 267.]
[2] From 1910 onward, this does not include the Forest Academy in Aschaffenburg.
[3] From 1912 onward, this does not include the Veterinary University in Stuttgart.

Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch für den Preußischen Staat (1915): p. 261; original German data reprinted in Gerd Hohorst, Jürgen Kocka, and Gerhard A. Ritter, Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch II, 2nd ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1978, pp. 161–62.