The Impact of Global Tendencies on the German Teacher Education System

The structural core characteristics of the German teacher education system developed in the first decade of the nineteenth century under the influence of Wilhelm von Humboldt. Since then, German federal states have demanded that high school teachers undergo a university-based teacher education programme leading to a state examination. For Germany, this policy marks the starting point of the teaching profession as a special career (for more details, see Blömeke, 2002). The introduction of state exams was not a detached innovation but part of a fundamental modernization of the public administration after Napoleon had defeated Prussia in 1806 (Führ, 1985, pp. 418ff.). A new humanism had become influential with Humboldt as one of the most prominent educational philosophers. General education of all children was the most important value underlying educational policy (‘enlightened absolutism’). Regarding the teaching profession, Humboldt’s goal was a state-controlled training of civil servants with high qualifications.