The Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes takes in about 2,500 new scholarship holders each year. Traditionally, students were vorgeschlagen, nominated, by their school. Since 2010 every first-year student can also apply directly by taking a test. The foundation said that the new route ergänzt das bisherige Vorschlagssystem, supplements the existing nomination system. More than half of those who registered for the first test came from non-academic and needy families.
education
A Bond for Life
A particularly old value of German student fraternities is the Lebensbundprinzip, the principle of a bond for life. Members who finish their studies become Alte Herren, old gentlemen, and remain members. In a 2015 report by Legal Tribune Online, a member rejected the word Seilschaft, a rope team of people who pull each other up. A fraternity, he said, is eher um ein Netzwerk, rather a network. Another called membership eine Art gemeinsame Geschäftsgrundlage, a kind of shared basis for doing business. A critic described the social pressure to stay in, weil man ja Vorteile genossen hat, because one has enjoyed advantages. According to one member, most fraternities refuse contact with the media for fear of bad press.
Two Offices in One School
A German public school usually has two different bodies in charge of it. The Schulträger, as a rule the town or district, is responsible for the outer school matters, such as the building, its equipment and its maintenance. The state school authority is responsible for the inner matters, the teaching staff and the curriculum. In Berlin’s district of Treptow-Köpenick, for example, the district office looks after the caretakers and sports ground attendants, while the regional school supervision deals with the teachers. In one building, the teachers answer to one office and the caretaker to another.
Singing for the Chair
zum Vorsingen eingeladen werden — to be invited to sing for an audition. In university jargon, Duden explains, it means being invited to give a lecture in order to present oneself as a candidate for a professorship. At the University of Potsdam, for example, shortlisted candidates give a trial lecture that is open to the university. The appointment committee includes professors, academic staff and students.
Who Teaches Does Not Examine
In the system of vocational training run by the chambers of industry and commerce, more than 150,000 volunteer examiners sit on more than 30,000 examination boards. They come from working life, and every year they hold more than 600,000 interim and final examinations. A principle of the system is Wer lehrt, prüft nicht, the person who teaches does not examine. These figures are from 2018 and cover only the chambers of industry and commerce, not the chambers of crafts.
Both Exist for Science
Around 1810 Wilhelm von Humboldt wrote a memorandum on the organization of the higher scientific institutions in Berlin. Humboldt led the founding of the new Berlin university in 1810, and the text reflects his idea of it. Das Verhältniss zwischen Lehrer und Schüler wird daher durchaus ein anderes als vorher. Der erstere ist nicht für die letzteren, Beide sind für die Wissenschaft da. The relationship between teacher and student therefore becomes entirely different from before. The former is not there for the latter. Both are there for science.
Colleagues Advise a Colleague
Kollegiale Fallberatung, collegial case consultation, is a method used among German teachers and in teacher training. A colleague brings a difficult situation from his or her working day, and the group works on it in fixed roles and timed phases. A worksheet for teacher training sets the rules for each phase: Keine Fragen!, no questions, Keine Ratschläge, Ideen, Lösungen!, no advice, ideas or solutions, and Der Fallgeber ist still, the one who brought the case is silent. The whole consultation takes about 60 minutes. An information folder of TU Dresden lists Kommunikation auf Augenhöhe, communication at eye level, among the conditions for the method.
Punctuality on the Curriculum
In a 2019 study by the Allensbach Institute for the Roland Berger Foundation, Germans ranked what secondary schools should teach. Spelling and grammar came first, with 80 percent, and general knowledge second, with 76 percent. Pünktlichkeit, Zuverlässigkeit, punctuality and reliability, came third, with 66 percent. English followed with 63 percent.
Discretion in the Ethics Class
A teaching unit in the journal Ethik & Unterricht (2/2013) asks pupils to work with Georg Simmel’s essay Psychologie der Diskretion of 1906. Simmel writes: So gibt es ein seelisches Privateigentum, in das einzudringen eine Lädierung des Ich in seinem Zentrum bedeutet. So there is a private property of the soul, and to intrude into it injures the self at its center. He names acquaintance as der eigentliche Sitz der »Diskretion«, the true seat of discretion. The pupils are asked to work out what consequences a lack of discretion has, in the author’s view.
Your Magnificence
Magnifizenz — magnificence. German Wikipedia: the form of address for the rector of a university. At ceremonies, rectors are still sometimes addressed this way, as Eure Magnifizenz.
Spektabilität — distinction. Deans of faculties are still sometimes addressed as Spektabilität or Spectabilis in formal speeches.
Inside universities, Magnifizenz is still fairly common, but in front of outsiders it is rarely used except at academic ceremonies.