Germany

Abstract

German universities have their roots in the development of the European university during the medieval ages. The earliest universities were those of Paris and Bologna, and they served as the basic model throughout the continent long before the foundation of the European nation-states. Already in the medieval ages, universities had the right to regulate their own internal affairs and to award academic degrees. Despite an early differentiation into lower (artes liberales) and higher (theology, medicine, law) faculties, the education of students sought to encompass the acquisition of all knowledge available at the time. In order to study at any of the three higher faculties, successful completion of the lower “artistic” faculty was required. Students and teachers formed a community at each university, but it was also normal for both groups to be mobile and to change universities. Mechanisms were in place to recognize academic degrees acquired at any of the European universities (cf. Ellwein, 1985; Stichweh, 1991). Students typically paid their professors for each lesson, and the common language of teaching was Latin.