Berlin – a city of science: the von Humboldt legacy
Wilhelm von Humboldt - Wikipedia
In the long-term historical perspective, transformation of universities in the Western world used to mean reshaping older institutions into a modern form, spurred by the European Enlightenment movement.
The transformation was the result of a tenacious struggle for freedom of thought and the right of scholars and scientists to undertake research unconditionally without an eye to predetermined outcomes. It meant breaking with an older academic regime, one of tutelage and censorship at the behest of Church authorities and an absolute monarch.
Going against the mainstream trend of his time the liberal educational reformer, linguist and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt set up Berlin’s oldest university. That was in 1810, breaking free of the double shackles of religion and royalty.
In the constitution of the new institution von Humboldt inscribed what are often regarded as the core values of the modern European research university. Compared to other German universities the “Unter den Linden University” as it was also called once upon a time (because of its location on the street by that name) the institution is of course rather young.
However because of its unique blend of principles like academic freedom, the unity of education with research and graduate training, and comprehensive coverage of all branches of learning (i.e., wissenschaft), it became a model for modern universities throughout the western world.
It must be added that the German term wissenschaft is much broader than the English term science. Whereas the latter only refers to natural sciences, the term wissenschaft includes scholarship in the arts or humanities, fields of knowledge in which critical reflection on the human condition, culture and civilization are important.
The name Humboldt has come to symbolize traditional university values that were also emphasized by the philosopher Karl Jaspers in 1946, a year after he had been reinstated as president of Heidelberg University and presided over its reconditioning.
Frong Cover of Karl Jaspers book "Allgemeine Psychopathologie.." from 1913 - Wikipedia- source- H.-P.Haack-
With the terrible experience of intellectual dismantlement and repression during the Third Reich still fresh in mind Jaspers wrote a small booklet – The Idea of the University – in which he restated the arguments for free inquiry.
”The university is a community of scholars and students engaged in the task of seeking truth. It derives from the idea of academic freedom, a privilege granted by state and society which entails the truth in defiance of all internal and external attempts to curtail it”. In his view the university was meant to serve as a critical conscience that when needed should go against mainstream currents in society at large.
When after World War II, the University of Berlin ended up in the city’s Soviet sector and was renamed Humboldt University (1949), American political action and funding in Dahlem, the US sector, promptly led there to the foundation of the Free University of Berlin. Competition between the two universities evolved that continues today.
Upon re-unfication of Germany the name Humboldt University was kept, some restructuring was done and a lot of funding was put in to expand into its present day quality as an internationally leading place that this year is celebrating the bicentennial of its foundation.
Over its two hundred years of existence it has been the home of many famous thinkers, including the poet Heinrich Heine, physicists like Max Planck and Albert Einstein, as well as the founders of Marxist theory, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Today the university can boast historical affiliation with 29 Nobel prize-winners. As part of ongoing activities to commemorate the institution’s bicentennial its president Christoph Markscheis earlier this year published a book with the title “Was von Humboldt noch zu lernen ist” (What we still can learn from Humboldt). It is worth reading.
Although Humboldt’s original concept of the modern university needs to be and has been transformed, in a time of globalization and a tendency to let economic values dominate the principles of academic freedom in the face of external pressures is as valid as ever.
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Tags: Albert Einstein, Albert Einstein Berlin, Alexander von Humboldt, berlin science, Heinrich Heine, history of science berlin, Humboldt university berlin, Karl Jaspers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Berlin, Max Planck
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