IV. The Teaching in Germany

Abstract

In principle, I want to consider all the German-speaking countries, such as Germanspeaking Switzerland and Austria. In Germany, the ways in which the teaching of geometry have evolved show completely different patterns to those in the other countries; especially, due to the lack of uniformity, as it was achieved in other countries – be it by strict governmental organisation or by the intervention of a strong personality. Here in Germany public education became established in each individual state according to proper conceptions; moreover, also at the individual institution, for individual teachers always retained a relatively large degree of freedom for independent practice. Thus, a great number of various suggestions from different sources achieved realisation concurrently; usually, their efficiency could be established, even before they had been sanctioned in official curricula. I shall be able, of course, to select out just a few aspects which became particularly important for the development in the last decades – say from about 1870 on. For additional information, I recommend to you the extensive presentation of the general lines of development in the book Klein-Schimmack.