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Abstract

After the end of the First World War, the school system in the Weimar Republic was comprehensively reformed. With the “Weimar School Compromise” in 1919 and the Primary School Act of 1920, a school system consisting of a common four-year elementary school and a subsequent division into a three-tier school system was introduced. The Volksschule was the lowest tier and had the shortest compulsory schooling period of at least eight years according to the Weimar Constitution (Art. 145). These statistics show the development of school, class, student and teacher numbers at Volkschulen from 1911 to 1941. During this period, the number of students fell from just under 10.3 million to 7.7 million. However, the number of teachers at this school type increased during the same period. This led to smaller classes and a lower number of students per teacher.

Volksschule Enrollment (1911-1941)

Source

Elementary School Enrollment

Year

Schools a)

Classes

Teachers

Students

Students per Class

Students per Teacher

Students per 100 Residentsb)

1911

61,557

--

147,485

10,309,949

--

70

16

1921/22

52,763

207,185

195,946

8,894,486

42.9

45.4

14

1926/27

52,825

188,708

186,853

6,661,794

35.3

36.7

11

1931/32

52,961

195,456

190,281

7,590,073

38.8

39.9

12

1938 c)

51,118

188,310

179,260

7,596,437

40.3

42.4

11

1941 d)

50,537

183,839

180,501

7,724,137

42

42.8

11

(a) Public elementary schools.

(b) Population of the Reich at the midpoint of the (first) year.

(c) Based on the borders as of December 31, 1931.

(d) Reich territory in 1937 plus the district of Kattowitz. Schools in the Saar region have only been partially documented.

Source of original German text: Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch, Volume III, Materialien zur Statistik des Deutschen Reiches 1914–1945, edited by Dietmar Petzina, Werner Abelshauser, and Anselm Faust. Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1978, p. 165.

Translation: Frederick Reuss