Abstract

How They Work at a German University

The chief pride and ornament of Berlin, next after her museum, is the university. The indefatigable industry and minuteness with which the Germans collect and dispense all the knowledges of earth, receive here their best illustration. The range of subjects that are treated daily, the amount of illustrative material that has been collected in its cabinets, and the accuracy and voluminousness of the information that, is given are wonderful. In the present semester-extending from April 9 to August 15, there will be given three hundred and thirty-five courses of lectures, all of them occupying the whole semester and employing one hundred and eighty-three professors. A majority of these lectures are two hours in length, some of them three, and they are given at all hours of the day, from six in the morning until ten at night. The number of subjects treated is also remarkable. In the department of philosophy, for instance, and on the single subject of history, there are twenty-nine simultaneous courses, and a greater number on mathematics.