An investigation into the effects of National Socialism on secondary education in Germany and some problems involved in its reconstruction

Abstract

The first part of this dissertation consists of an examination of the effects of National Socialism on secondary education for boys. In the Introductory chapter the backgrounds and the fundamental principles of National Socialist educational philosophy are considered. The application of these principles and the subsequent innovations in both the form and content of secondary education are then described, with special reference to the part played by the racial doctrines. In Chapter IV the effects of National Socialism on the secondary school teacher, his training and his professional associations are discussed. To conclude Part One, the Hitler Youth, rated by many theorists as a more important educational institution than the school itself, is reviewed. Part Two contains first of all an account of the disintegration of secondary education during the last years of the war, and the situation which confronted the allied education authorities during the early stages of the occupation. The emphasis throughout Part Two is on developments in the British Zone in Germany, but reference is also made to educational tendencies noted in the other zones. Some of the divergent aims and methods pursued in the zones in the re-organisation of the form and content of secondary education along democratic lines are detailed in Chapter VII. In conclusion certain parallel lines of development in contemporary English and National Socialist educational thought have been included which point to the conclusion that the Nazi diagnosis was often correct but that the remedy applied was wholly false. Finally the conditions of and the prospects for education for democracy in Germany are discussed, which lead to the ultimate belief that unless the Western powers can rapidly provide some spiritual goal, the more dynamic, all-embracing totalitarian ideology of the Russians may in the end make more appeal to the Germans.