The Educated Subject and the German Concept of Bildung

A Comparative Cultural History

Rebekka Horlacher

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317805168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: History of Education

German education plays a huge role in the development of education sciences and modern universities internationally. It is influenced by the educational concept of Bildung, which defines Germany 's theoretical and curricular ventures. This concept is famously untranslatable into other languages and is often misinterpreted as education, instruction, training, upbringing and other terms which don't encompass its cultural ambitions. Despite this hurdle, Bildung is now being recognized in current discussions of education issues such as standardization, teaching to the test, evidence-based policy and high stakes testing. This volume clears up the confusion and misunderstandings surrounding Bildung by examining the origins of the concept and how it has been applied throughout history. It paves the way for educators to fully understand and benefit from this model and all it has to offer.

1 Bildung in the Eighteenth Century

DOI: 10.4324/9781315814667-2

In 1783, the Berlin pastor Johann Friedrich Zöllner (1753–1804) raised the question: what does “Enlightenment” mean? (Zöllner 1783, 516). He published this question as a prize competition in the newly founded journal Berlinische Monatsschrift, which would become a major voice of the reform movement in Berlin and a leading publication of the German Enlightenment. ¹ Several months later, in 1784, the journal published various responses, among which was the famous essay by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? Kant’s response became one of the most cited definitions of Enlightenment. For Kant, people give up their ability to think for themselves not because they lack intellect, but because they lack courage. “Enlightenment is the human being’s emergence from his self-incurred minority. Minority is the inability to make use of one’s own understanding without direction from another. This minority is self-incurred when its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. ‘Sapere aude! Have courage to make use of your own understanding!’ thus is the motto of enlightenment” (Kant 1996, 17).

Kant’s ensuing fame meant contemporaries and historians largely ignored the other answers to Zöllner’s question published in the same volume of the journal. Immediately preceding Kant’s response was one written by Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), then an equally prominent German Jewish Enlightenment philosopher. His essay (On the Question: What Does “To Enlighten” Mean?) begins as follows: “The words ‘enlightenment,’ ‘culture,’ ‘education’ [Bildung] are still new-comers in our language. At the present time they belong merely to the language of books. The common masses scarcely understand them” (Mendelssohn 1997, 313). Mendelssohn goes on to define “culture” and “enlightenment” as separate but equal parts of Bildung: culture comprises skills, crafts, and practical abilities; enlightenment, theoretical and rational knowledge. Hence, a nation, a language, or a person that was educated [gebildet] contained an amalgamation of culture and enlightenment (ibid., 313–4).

Mendelssohn’s definition reflects many core beliefs of the German intelligentsia at the end of the eighteenth century. Although he connected Bildungto skills and knowledge, he chose to ignore the progress made by modern science, and cited ancient Greece as his preferred model of a gebildete nation; contemporary France provided the negative example. This confrontational stance—the good old Greeks versus the less-esteemed French—echoes a widely held bias in Germany during this period, which strongly favored the cultural role of language, philosophy, and art over the natural sciences. Language was considered a crucial measurement of a culture’s degree of Bildung, a belief that was incorporated into the classical theory of Bildung, particularly among advocates of German new humanism (see chapter 4). Mendelssohn also contrasted the needs of public and private life; in this, he followed a number of other intellectuals who have distinguished between the human being as citizen and as bourgeois.

This preference for the arts over the natural sciences continued in the educational historiography of the nineteenth and twentieth century, leading not only to a separation between vocational and liberal education but also to a preferred temporal sequencing, according to which liberal education was considered a necessary prerequisite to any “useful” education such as vocational training (see chapter 5).

If the term Bildung was perceived as novel, according to Mendelssohn, it was because it had previously been used in a narrow context and was only beginning to gain acceptance as a term to describe a broader educational concept. ² Nevertheless, Bildung worked well as an educational term, condensing multiple meanings and values rooted in disparate traditions into a single word that could address various challenges in a changing world. Education as Bildung, according to Mendelssohn, was the single answer to multiple questions raised by religion, anthropology, ethics, and aesthetics.

Although Mendelssohn described his use of Bildung as “new,” the term itself can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Meister Eckhart (1260–1328), a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, translated sections of the Bible into German as a service to nuns, who often could not read Latin. The German language then was less elaborate than Latin and did not have specific terms for certain theological concepts, so Meister Eckhardt was forced to modify existing terms and invent new ones. One of the concepts he sought to describe was the mystical experience of sinking into Christ while thinking about oneself as made in the image of Christ. The goal of this exercise was to transcend natural existence and reach real humanity, which he called Bil-dung. Bildung, and the Old High German word bildunga, originally signified the creative production of objects such as pottery; when integrated into theology, it gained an additional layer of meaning that suggested spiritual transcendence (Tröhler 1998, 11).

Since that time, Bildung has been used in different ideological contexts. It was initially used to identify the religious or aesthetic dimensions of individual development, but became much more commonly used in educational settings during the second half of the eighteenth century. Examples from that time include the writings of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803); the novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832); and Letters on the Aesthetic Education (1795) by Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), all of whom use the term Bildung to describe an educational concept. Earlier examples of the use of the term Bildung are the writings of Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–1779) and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803). Although their use of the term did not explicitly convey an educational concept, today we can assume that it anticipated its later use in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

Pre-Educational Concepts of Bildung in the Eighteenth Century

In 1745, the Swiss philosopher Johann Georg Sulzer was among the first to use the term Bildung in an educational context, though not yet in an overall educationalized setting. Sulzer had studied theology in Zurich and was interested in mathematics, natural history, and philosophy. At 23, he moved to Magdeburg, Germany, and worked as a private tutor for the children of a wealthy tradesman. Only four years later, he was appointed professor for mathematics at the elite institution Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium in Berlin, joined the reform movement, and became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Sulzer was well-versed in international culture: he translated the work of other philosophers, including David Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1755), and worked on his own project, a General Theory of the Fine Arts (Allgemeine Theorie der Schönen Künste in einzeln, nach alphabetischer Ordnung der Kunstwörter auf einander folgenden, Artikeln abgehandelt, 1771–74). ³ Sulzer argues that taste is not subjective, and attempts to categorize and systematize the fundamental concepts of aesthetics and fine arts. By attempting to assess not only the cognitive, but also the sentient, artistic, and acting abilities of each person, in accordance with generally accepted principles, Sulzer presumes it possible to harness creativity as a natural power, potentially accessible to everyone. An artist, he writes, has to have wit and humor, sufficient depth in judgment, and a clear attitude (Sulzer 1974, 314–5). “That all makes clear, that in certain intent, the genius is as much dependent on education, schooling and exercise as on natural facilities of the mind” (ibid., 321), as he argues in his essay Development of the Notion of a Genius (Entwicklung des Begriffs vom Genie, 1757).

In his Essay on Education and Instruction of Children (Versuch von der Erziehung und Unterweisung der Kinder, 1745), Sulzer uses the term Bildung when discussing the role formal schooling can play in developing good judgment and educating the mind; as he sees it, developing the child’s rational capabilities will in turn lead to reason and virtue (Sulzer 1748, 4). This alone, however, does not guarantee a complete education, as he believes actions are not merely controlled by reason. Equally important is the education of the soul, which requires ideal examples and models to trigger feelings beyond simple instruction or pure words. The possibilities for producing feelings in a school setting are obviously quite limited, which is why Sulzer believed art essential to education. Painting, sculpture, and poetry, he says, offer the possibility to represent life, to affect the soul directly; thus, aesthetic instruction becomes the means to moral education. The fine arts touch every individual and produce the desired educational effect. This belief in aesthetics as a powerful tool to transcend reason will remain throughout the development of Bildung as an educational concept.

Another example of the pre-educational notion of Bildung is the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, best known for his epos Messiah (Der Messias ein Heldengedicht, 1748), which enjoyed cult status among Klopstock’s contemporaries. Whereas the traditional concept of an epos was oriented towards a secular hero, Klopstock’s Messiah describes a religious hero and lacks the traditional strong emphasis on action. The poetry instead encourages compassion with the aim of evoking moral attitudes and moral behavior, which in turn leads to education or Bildung. Klopstock addresses the human being in his godliness, even if the inner soul has to be renewed: “Let us form / Anew in man th'image of deity!— / Thus we decree'd the mystery profound concerning blood propitiatory / And man’s renew'd creation. I stood forth, / Alone and self-ordained to perform / The deed divine” (Klopstock 1826, 4). Bildung was seen as form or shape, whereby the inner form is reflected as the outer beauty. “The first time saw in his humility / The blessed Mediator, the divine / Messiah, e'en our God in human form” (Klopstock 1855, 25).

Looking at Klopstock’s notion of Bildung, it seems no coincidence that he was a poet and not a teacher, academic, or even school administrator. Klopstock introduced his fundamental notion of Bildung as “inwardness” in a draft about language and poetry, in which he emphasizes the fictional power of literature and underscores that the author must carry away his listeners in other spheres (Klopstock 1855, 195). In Klopstock’s understanding, poetry is a sort of illusion and brings the soul to a state of excitement, which in turn opens it up for spiritual impact. His concept of poetry relies not only on the concept of “inwardness,” but also on the importance of feelings and on the simplicity of form and structure oriented towards the “real life,” which also affects the understanding of aesthetics. The beautiful was seen as an expression of the inner, not just as representation of the outer; evoking emotion guarantees importance and verity and is by that a sign of quality (see chapter 2). In his understanding, art must be closely connected to the life of each poet and literature mirrors the process of self-formation (Berlin 1999, 58–60). Aesthetics and morality are thus closely intertwined.

Sulzer’s and Klopstock’s use of Bildung in an educational, religious, and literary context paved the way for the later use of the term. They, among others, established a place in the German language for Bildung to become an educational (and later on educationalized) concept, finally taking its role as the word that epitomized an emerging educational discourse that is still vivid to this day.

Herder's Theory of Bildung

One of the first writers to propose an educational theory based on Bildung was the German philosopher and theologian Johann Gottfried Herder, a Lutheran pastor with Pietist leanings. He was born in East Prussia and studied theology at the University of Königsberg, where he became a student of the young Immanuel Kant. After completing his studies, he moved in 1764 to Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, where he taught at the Cathedral School and maintained correspondence with famous proponents of the German Enlightenment, including the philosopher Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788), ⁴ the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719–1803), and the writer and bookseller Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811). Intellectual disputes near home led him to move to Central Europe. In 1769, he left Riga and Eastern Europe and traveled to France.

Herder developed his concept of Bildung in his book Journal of My Voyage in the Year 1769 (Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769). It was, however, not published during his lifetime. ⁵ The book is based on the diary he wrote while traveling from Riga to France. The aim of this journey was twofold: Herder wanted to foster his own education and development, and he also hoped to enlist his newly acquired knowledge and skills to improve his homeland in East Prussia, in particular to reform schools. His journal records the knowledge he gleans from life and literature to reach his goal of becoming an educated man, which he defines as a “preacher of the virtue of your own age” (Herder 1969, 90), an “enlightened, educated [gebildet], sensitive, reasonable, virtuous, and enjoying man, as demanded by God at the actual level of culture” (Herder 1992, 31). The experiences documented in this diary, he suggests, should be used by young people as guidelines to self-formation. Bildung, in Herder’s understanding, is fundamentally based on introspection and self-examination.

Herder criticized the contemporary school, which in his opinion was obsolete and rigid, and demanded reform that would teach the students “living” knowledge, meaning that school instruction should focus on subjects he considered “real.” Herder’s notion of reality does not necessarily correspond to a contemporary understanding of reality. By “real” subjects, he does not seem to mean practical skills or contents, but rather subjects that respect th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Bildung in the Eighteenth Century
• 2 The Fundaments of the Educationalized World
• 3 The Philosophy of Politeness as Language for Bildung
• 4 Bildung as a National Construct
• 5 Bildung as a Social Distinction
• 6 Bildung and Its Travels to North America
• 7 Bildung as a Fundamental Concept in the German Educational Sciences
• 8 Bildung after the Second World War: Reconnections and Skeptical Variations
• 9 Bildung as an Alternative to Contemporary Empiricism in Education Research
• Concluding Remarks, or Bildung in the Twenty-First Century
• References
• Index