I. Public Elementary Schools

The population figures refer to the respective territory; actual counts only took place in 1864 and 1871; the data used here was generated by the Prussian Statistical Bureau by means of “arithmetic interpolation”; no data was available for 1911: the figure used here is for 1910 and was therefore put in brackets.

Source: Jahrbuch für die Amtliche Statistik des Preußischen Staates (1883): pp. 540, 550–59 (1864–1882); Statistisches Jahrbuch für den Preußischen Staat (1913): pp. 392, 393; (1915): p. 6 (population). Original German data reprinted in Gerd Hohorst, Jürgen Kocka, and Gerhard A. Ritter, Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch II, 2nd ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1978, p. 157.

II. Public Secondary Schools

An 1882 decree stipulated that, in the future, the successful completion of an institution with nine grade levels (even one not offering Latin) would entitle pupils to enter university and to pursue certain advanced scientific and technical occupations. Nevertheless, this decree did not result in any standardization. Afterwards, there were three types of secondary educational institutions:

I. Full-credit institutions whose school leaving certificates entitled pupils to study at university; these differed in the combination of subjects offered.

1. Gymnasium (grammar school), entailing compulsory instruction in Latin and ancient Greek;
2. Realgymnasium, a type of grammar school entailing compulsory instruction in Latin (but usually not in ancient Greek) and a stronger emphasis on the natural sciences;
3. Ober-Realschule (a senior stage of middle school), without instruction in Latin.

II. Advanced schools that were not full-credit institutions; the successful completion of these schools did not entitle pupils to study at university. These schools had seven grade levels; they were intended to prepare pupils to attend full-credit institutions, and they featured the corresponding subdivisions.

In addition, a separate type of educational qualification (which included a school leaving exam and eligibility for one year of military service) was offered by the advanced schools for the middle classes (Bürgerschule) after the completion of a six-grade education (without Latin); by decree of the responsible minister in 1892, these schools were turned into preparatory institutions for the Ober-Realschulen. This same decree also caused school types to be differentiated more sharply on the basis of the foreign language combinations and the natural sciences offered in the curricula.

Hence, the secondary educational institutions included: Gymnasia and Progymnasia (six-grade grammar schools without the senior grades), Realgymnasia, from 1859 to 1882 Realschulen of the first order (full-credit institutions with nine grades) with instruction in Latin, Ober-Realschulen, since 1877 full-credit institutions with nine grade levels but no instruction in Latin, and Realprogymnasien, i.e., Realschulen that prior to 1882 had been designated as Realschulen of the second order or, respectively, advanced Bürgerschulen.

In including these schools, the following table covers the entire school system beyond the so-called intermediate school leaving certificate (mittlere Reife). Admittedly, it does not cover girls’ schools of this same level, but even as late as 1913 these schools did not have more than 3,939 pupils, even when private schools are counted. Preschoolers and preschool teachers were counted as well.