FRG - Education

Question 1

What was the aim of education in the FRG

Answer 1

mainly focused on recovering from the war and de-nazifying the curriculum.
also wanted to stop the reintroduction of confessional schools and restructure the current system
wanted to promote democratic ideas through the education and eventually acknowledge the past to help prevent it

Question 2

They wanted to stop the reintroduction of confessional schools and restructure the current system,
while this was a ….. process, it eventually led to…

Answer 2

• slow
• an increase in working class children attending secondary and higher education

Question 3

What were the problems in education in the FRG

Answer 3

• Lack of buildings
• Large classes due to a shortage of teachers
• Unqualified teachets/ Nazi teachers
• Difficulty agreeing on policy due to the way the FRG was split - hard to agree on a system
• Wanted to keep some existing schools from WR system e.g gymnasia
• Shortage of teaching materials (were resources modern enough?)

Question 4

• The Allies wanted primary and secondary systems to be…..
• Britain and France wanted …… systems to the US

Answer 4

• The Allies wanted primary and secondary systems to be the same for all
• Britain and France wanted similar systems

Question 5

In the US zone, what proof is there that schools were over capacity?

Answer 5

• they had a class size of 85
• there were 510,000 children 6-10 with no schools to go to, as they had been bombed or converted to other uses

Question 6

The Americans brought in over … millions textbooks and tried to introduce an …………-style system, with …….. schools leading to university

Answer 6

The Americans brought in over 5 millions textbooks and tried to introduce an American-style system, with elementary, middle, and high schools leading to university

Question 7

Did the Soviets undertake DeNazification in schools?

Answer 7

• The Soviets also weeded out Nazi teachers and set up teacher training courses
• They had 40,000 teachers, all from working-class backgrounds - teaching communist values too

Question 8

What are the 4 phases contemporary history teaching in the Federal Republic of Germany can be divided into

Answer 8

1. The immediate post-war period 1945-1952
2. The period of stabilisation of post-war society 1950-60
3. The period of change mid-Sixties to the end of the Seventies.
4. Renewed stabilisation in the Eighties

Today’s perspective is still open A new phase must be approached due to the breakdown of the socialist system and German reunification

Question 9

What evIdence is there of change in the role of teachers in the FRG

Answer 9

• Nazi teachers removed
• Nazi professors in university removed
• Former Nazi teachers could move to different zones i.e. British and French zones were more lenient

Question 10

What evidence is there of change in the role of teachers in the FRG - French Zone

Answer 10

• In the French zone teachers were sent over from France and French became compulsory for German children

Question 11

What evidence is there of change in the role of teachers in the FRG - US Zone

Answer 11

• Teachers in US zone focused on teaching democratic values/also teacher exchange programmes with USA led to influence of US culture in FRG.

Question 12

What evidence is there of continuity in the role of teachers in the FRG

Answer 12

• By 1947 more than 85% of former Nazi school teachers in Bavaria were back teaching in schools

Question 13

What change was there in universities

Answer 13

• Universities expanded - 24 new unis in West Germany by 1975
• Federal Education Promotion Act provided a mixture of state funding and loans to encourage working class students to attend uni
• Number of students in unis increased from 200,000 in 1960 to 1.9 million in 1992

Question 14

Summarise how much change there was in the structure of the education system in the 1920s

Answer 14

• OVERALL more restructuring in the 1970s and 80s
• BUT the tripartite selective system remained and comprehensives failed to take hold

Question 15

What failed attempts at reform in the structure of education were there

Answer 15

• Willy Brandt tried to establish a Federal Ministry of Education and Science —> his reforms were limited due to powers of states
• he wanted a federal framework to help disadvantaged children and to reform university structure —> failed to get it passed in the Bundesrat.
• discussions on making education fairer, introducing comprehensives —> lander and federal government could not agree

Question 16

What evidence is there of no change in the structure of education in the FRG

Answer 16

• Tripartite system remained - most academic went to gymnasium
• Abitur qualification remained to get to higher education

Question 17

What major change in the control of education took place

Answer 17

• Article 30 Lander remained —> they became responsible for education which meant educational opportunity and curriculum varied between regions
• Federal spending on education in 1960s was low

Question 18

Why was the Lander having control of education slightly problematic

Answer 18

• made it harder to reform education as the Federal government could not always make the Lander adopt their proposals
• Hard to standardise despite Dusseldof Agreement
• e.g fewer secular schools in the South than the North

Question 19

What was the agreement which reformed educational structure from the 50s

Answer 19

• 1955 - Dusseldorf agreement regulated and standardised education across the states

Question 20

Curriculum …… between Lander

Answer 20

varied widely

Question 21

How did the FRG teach history - with a national - European focus

Answer 21

• it was agreed that the Nazi propagandist view of History should not be taught
• but should the Nazi period be taught? How should WWl be taught?
• This led to dry factual teaching be taught, often with a focus on European and not German history

Question 22

Worries about student ………………. due to differences in education between lander.

Answer 22

underachievement

Question 23

May 1946 - allies banned…..

Answer 23

• Nazi school books, films and slides that taught racial theory

Question 24

What was the concern over demographics

Answer 24

• Concerns over gender inequalities too - fewer girls went to gymnasiums

Question 25

Reform of the …….. curriculum due to it being seen as…..

Answer 25

• Reform of the university curriculum due to it being seen as old fashioned with poor facilities

Question 26

Describe the increase in uni attendance in FRG

Answer 26

• Govt funded students to access uni (less than 7% went to uni 1971) enrolment increased by 75% by 1992 BUT only 38% were women

Question 27

Only …… of students in the University of Frankfurt believed in democracy by 1961

Answer 27

1/3

Question 28

“The history textbooks appearing after the mid-Fifties were to a large extend based on forerunners from the …………… and regarded the Third Reich as a …………………. in German history, denied factors of ………… and backed the widespread opinion that……

Answer 28

“The history textbooks appearing after the mid-Fifties were to a large extend based on forerunners from the Weimar period and regarded the Third Reich as a wrong path taken in German history, denied factors of continuity and backed the widespread opinion that ‘the people’ had been led astray by a small group of individuals bearing the sole responsibility.”

Question 29

When educating on WW1, was the Holocaust delicately managed

Answer 29

• When it came to details, the murderes’ language and way of thinking was prevalent in history textbooks until well into the Eighties
• The authors were unwilling to describe the mass murder in their own words or the victims
• The extermination of Jews is often not treated in separate paragraphs but seen as a component of warfare in general