Humboldt Revisited: Liberal Education, University Reform, and the Opposition to the Neoliberal University

Postwar discussion about university reform in West Germany revolved around Wilhelm von Humboldt's idea of the university. Right-wing critics, who wanted to block any reforms, and left-wing critics, who opposed the pragmatic reform movement of the liberals, used Humboldt's name and ideas equally. The strongest critique of the Humboldt model came from the liberal camp (Dahrendorf) that wanted to modernize the German university by emphasizing the needs of the labor market. Parallels to the more recent American corporate university are briefly discussed at the end.