Education for boys at an urban school during the Biedermeier era. Although the eighteenth century had already seen the introduction of compulsory education in the German-speaking territories, it was not until the early nineteenth century that the elementary school system was expanded in the wake of major reforms to secondary and university education. Here, an elementary school teacher provides instruction in reading and writing—at once the most basic and essential of skills. Etching by Johann Michael Voltz (1784–1858).