“The Center Cannot Hold.” Educational Politics and the Collapse of the Democratic Middle in Germany: The School Bill Crisis in Baden, 1927–1928

Weimar Germany. The words conjure images of ineffectual leaders and stopgap governments, of a haphazard democratic way station en route to Hitler and National Socialism. Historians have probed and assessed the weaknesses—sociological, political, economic, psychological—that bedeviled this ill-fated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History of education quarterly 1985-12, Vol.25 (4), p.413-437
Main Author: Fritz, Stephen G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bourgeois
Catholic schools
Catholicism
Communities
Liberal arts education
Liberalism
Nazism
Political campaigns
Political parties
Voting
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Summary:Weimar Germany. The words conjure images of ineffectual leaders and stopgap governments, of a haphazard democratic way station en route to Hitler and National Socialism. Historians have probed and assessed the weaknesses—sociological, political, economic, psychological—that bedeviled this ill-fated system. The chief defect oftentimes is judged to be a weak and divided middle class, which proved incapable of acting as a moderating and stabilizing force of the political center. A variety of studies have pinpointed the political and economic fragmentation of the German bourgeoisie. Another, not insignificant, factor helped split the bourgeois middle in Weimar Germany. Educational differences founded upon the clash between advocates of religious and secular schooling acted as a serious hindrance to bourgeois political cooperation.
ISSN:0018-2680
1748-5959
DOI:10.2307/368833