Invoking Humboldt: The German Model

How can one possibly know completely a nation's character without having also studied other nations with which it is in close relation? It is in contrast with them that this character actually came into being and it is only through this fact that it can be fully comprehended. (Humboldt, quoted in Dumont 1994: 120) The present volume is concerned with the sociology of higher education, and thus takes a comparative perspective, much in the spirit of the above Humboldt quotation. In the case of German-speaking universities we are in the fortunate position of having analysis from leading sociologists such as Max Weber (brilliantly updated in the late 1960s by the historical sociologist Fritz Ringer), influential social anthropologists, notably Louis Dumont, through to significant representatives of contemporary critical theory Jürgen Habermas), and systems theory, such as Rudolf Stichweh and Uwe Schimank. This chapter will, selectively, draw on this rich social-scientific tradition to throw light on, first, the ideas and institutions that shaped the higher education system in the German-speaking countries and gave it its distinct - and for a time highly influential - character and, second, the dilemmas that the system currently faces in the light of the emergence of higher education as an international system under - for the moment - Anglo-American hegemony.