Georg Kerschensteiner and the plea for work-oriented and vocational Education-Germanys’ educational debates in an industrial age

Abstract

The prime trigger for reforms in school and workplace in the fin de siècle was a ‘onesided and excessive industrialism’ (cf. Sieferle, 1984, p. 147), which led to new and sandry consequences in society. For that reason, one prevalent approach in Germany was social and political in thrust and, after the turn of the nineteenth century, culminated in the idea of furthering vocational education and restoring ‘joy in work’ as part of a pedagogical agenda. This concept was also propagated by Georg Kerschensteiner (1854-1932) who implemented these reforms since 1900.