Letter Kultusminister Berlin 1907 An Paul Hinneberg, Signature Friedrich Althoff

You are bidding on one Write of the Prussian Minister of Education ("Minister of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs").

DatedBerlin, 28. May 1907.

Signed on behalf of the Minister of Education, Conrad von Studt, by the important cultural politician Frederick Althoff (1839-1908), who as Ministerialdirektor of the first education department was in fact the head of the entire education and university system in Prussia and was considered the "secret minister of education".

addressed to the historians and publicists Paul Hinneberg (1862-1934), who as Organizer and publisher of the large encyclopaedic work "The Culture of the Present" and the "Deutsche Litteraturzeitung".

Here he is in his capacity as "Editor of the International Weekly Journal of Science, Art and Technology" written. -- This magazine founded by Friedrich Althoff was published from 1907 to 1911 by the August Scherl publishing house in Berlin. It was then published under the title "International Monthly for Science, Art and Technology" under the editorship of Max Cornicelius continued in the publishing house BG Teubner (Leipzig and Berlin) until 1921.

Transcription: "Eh. Reverend I have opened a loan of up to 5,000 marks to cover the material expenses you incur from the publication of the International Weekly Journal for Science, Art and Technology. The Royal Ministerial, Military and Building Fund here, NW 40 Invalidenstrasse 52, is instructed to pay you the amount of 2000 marks against receipt. I would like to ask you to submit a statement about the use of the latter amount and, if necessary, to encourage the liquidation of a further part of the loan. On behalf of Althoff."

Scope: one written on four pages (32.7 x 21 cm); without envelope.

On strong paper.

Condition:document folded; Paper browned and stained. BPlease note also the pictures!

Internal note: Hinneberg Novooo autograph autograph science

About Friedrich Althoff and Paul Hinneberg (source: wikipedia & NDB):

Paul Hinneberg (* 16. March 1862 in Felchow near Angermünde; † 21 April 1934 in Berlin) was a German historian and publicist.

Live and act:Paul Hinneberg studied political science and philosophy in Berlin. In 1888 he received his doctorate in Halle on the philosophical foundations of historical science. From 1885 he was Leopold von Ranke's private secretary. After his death he published the seventh volume of world history. Hinneberg found his living position in 1892 when he took over the publication of the Deutsche Litteraturzeitung, an important review journal.

Hinneberg is best known today as the organizer and publisher of the large encyclopaedic work The Culture of the Present, which appeared in numerous volumes from 1905 to 1926. He also founded the series of monographs The Scientific World View.

Due to the various editorial functions and based on his personal connection to the ministerial director Friedrich Althoff, Hinneberg exercised a not inconsiderable degree of influence on German science and university policy in the empire.

Works (selection)

The philosophical foundations of historical science. In: Historical Journal. Jg. 63 (1889), p. 18 ff. (Dissertation, Halle, 1888)

Hinneberg, Paul, scientific editor, * March 16, 1862 Felchow near Angermünde, † June 20, 1934 Berlin. (Protestant)

genealogy:V Gustav, sexton and teacher in Felchow near Angermünde;

M Ida Paulick.

Biography: H. studied political science and philosophy in Berlin (doctorate in Halle 1888), worked for Ranke from 1885, was awarded the 7th volume of its world history (1886) and in 1892 joined the editorial team of the "Deutsche Literaturzeitung" (DLZ), which as a scientific review journal can be traced back to 1880 under various editors (Roediger). Under his editorship (since 1892) and under the supervision of a commission of the German scientific academies, the DLZ (including an extensive bibliography of new publications) appeared as a "weekly for criticism of international science" and gained a worldwide reputation. – In addition to his work for the DLZ, H. realized his great plan for a scholarly encyclopedia around the turn of the century: “The culture of the present, its development and its goals”. The edition, which was planned for more than 40 volumes, was taken over by the Teubner publishing house in Berlin and Leipzig. A systematically structured overall presentation of the culture of the time should be offered. The great scholars of the time were recruited as collaborators. F. Paulsen and H. Diels, among others, collaborated on the introductory volume: “The General Foundations of Contemporary Culture” (1906, ²1912). A. von Harnack, G. Bezold, U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, F. Morf, W. Meyer-Lübke contributed to further volumes. the 1st World War II prevented the completion of the work. After the war years and inflationary difficulties, H. renewed this plan for presenting contemporary culture by publishing a new series of monographs entitled “The Scientific World View”, which was published by Quelle and Meyer in Leipzig. But the death of the editor, who had made a name for himself as a scientific organizer, put an early end to the enterprise.

factories

the phil. basics d. History, Diss. Halle 1888 (partial dr., cont. in: HZ 63, 1889).

Friedrich Theodore Althoff (* 19. February 1839 in Dinslaken; † 20 October 1908 in Steglitz) was a Prussian cultural politician who founded the Prussian universities at the end of the 19th century. and early 20th Century significantly influenced.

Origin: Friedrich Althoff's mother, Julie von Buggenhagen (1802-1871), was the daughter of Minister of State Julius Ernst von Buggenhagen. Her family came from the Pomeranian nobility; one of their ancestors was the reformer Johannes Bugenhagen. The father, the Prussian domain councilor Friedrich Theodor Althoff (1785-1852), came from a Westphalian family of civil servants and pastors of peasant origin from Ergste near Schwerte. Friedrich Althoff's cousin was the painter Clara von Wille.

Life and work up to the Strasbourg period

Studies, marriage and career start: After graduating from high school in Wesel, Althoff studied law in Berlin and Bonn from 1856 to 1861. In 1856 he joined the Corps Saxonia Bonn, which later gave him honorary membership. In 1867 he passed the legal assessor exam with the grade "very good".

In 1864 he married Marie Ingenohl (* 1843; † 1925) from Neuwied am Rhein, who was four years his junior. She was a cousin of the Imperial Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl (1857-1937), who also came from Neuwied. The marriage was harmonious, but remained childless.

When Alsace-Lorraine was annexed to the newly founded German Empire in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, he became legal adviser and consultant for church and school matters in Strasbourg. He quickly gained the confidence of his two superiors, the liberal Oberpresident Eduard von Moeller and the commissioner for the reestablishment of a German university in Strasbourg, Freiherr Franz von Roggenbach from Baden. Althoff learned a great deal from the latter in particular, who was regarded as an excellent administration specialist. In 1872, Althoff played a key role in founding the Reich University of Strasbourg (from 1877 Kaiser Wilhelm University) and worked in its administration until 1882. In 1872 he was offered a full professorship there, although he had neither a doctorate nor a post-doctoral qualification or demonstrated any special scientific achievements, which was very unusual even then. However, he initially rejected the offer. Althoff's only academic achievement was the detailed and commented compilation of the French laws that applied in Alsace-Lorraine until the Civil Code came into force. He relied on other legal scholars.

Beginnings of the Althoff system: Some characteristics of what was later known as the "Althoff system" were already evident in Strasbourg. His unbureaucratic approach, which often went beyond departmental boundaries, was characteristic. He built up a widespread network of shop stewards in various places and used this form of "secret diplomacy" to influence decisions. He was also adept at launching other people's or his own articles under a pseudonym in important newspapers in order to influence public opinion in a targeted manner.

For years after he left for Berlin, he retained a decisive influence on the appointments policy of the University of Strasbourg, although this was no longer his responsibility, so that the civil governor of Alsace-Lorraine, Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, angrily reported in 1887 to the Gray Eminence of the Foreign Office Friedrich August von Holstein wrote:

"This Althoff, who meddles in everything that doesn't concern him, this intriguer under the mask of a staid Westphalian farmer, who knows how to pull the strings and who puts the whole high and highest official world in Berlin in his pockets, this man wants it, of course reign here too.”

Ministerial director and “secret Minister of Education” in Prussia: Gustav von Goßler promoted Althoff in 1882 and ensured his appointment as university consultant in the Prussian Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs. The appointment to Berlin was partly at the instigation of the Alsace-Lorraine Reich governor, for whom Althoff had become too influential. Formally, Althoff was a senior official in the Ministry of Education and a secret senior government official. Above all, he concentrated energetically on the reform and expansion of the Prussian university system. In 1891 he became an associate professor in Bonn and in 1896 honorary professor at the University of Berlin. In 1897 he was appointed Ministerial Director of the 1st Department of Education and was thus effectively head of the entire education and university system in Prussia. One spoke of the "System Althoff". The Göttingen Society of Sciences made him an honorary member in 1901. From 1900 Althoff was also an honorary member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1904 he received the title of Excellency and in 1907 the title of Real Privy Councilor. During this time he also received several honorary doctorates, including 1906 from Harvard University.

Although Althoff was formally subordinate to the Minister of Education and never held a ministerial office himself, Althoff was the person who actually shaped Prussian university policy at this time. Since Prussia played a dominant role in the German Empire, Prussian higher education policies also influenced those of the other German states and Austria. Althoff's important position was already recognized by his contemporaries and he was called the "Bismarck of the German university system" because of his energetic actions and assertiveness.

Friedrich Althoff also made a significant contribution to the great reform of the girls' school system in 1908. To this end, he worked closely with Helene Lange, Adolf von Harnack and Marie Martin, among others.

Althoff had a great influence on publication projects, for example on the universal encyclopedia The culture of the present, which was to become a kind of encyclopedia of the empire.

Appointment policy and expansion of science: During his tenure, Althoff actively intervened in the universities' appointment policy. He carried out all the appointment negotiations himself and tried to appoint the best researchers and scholars to the chairs. When a new chair was filled, the respective faculty had the right to propose candidates. However, the ministry had to agree before a proposed candidate was appointed to a chair and thus became a Prussian civil servant. Althoff did not shy away from ignoring the faculty's suggestions and appointing and pushing through a candidate he considered more suitable against the express will of the faculty. He tried to form his own picture of the candidates and often traveled incognito to various universities in order to hear the respective candidates in their lectures himself. He also tried to get an impression of the personality of the candidate during the interview. The top criterion for him was the scientific achievement and originality of an applicant. He deeply despised the clique that often ruled the universities, the envy and resentment of better colleagues, nepotism, greed and stubbornness of many incumbents and tried to eliminate this with his recruitment policy. In making his decisions, he drew on an extensive network of relationships and friendships with well-known scholars, politicians, publicists and industrialists, who wrote reports for him and advised him. Already in Strasbourg and then in Berlin, Althoff had "tied a complex network of relationships within the Prussian university landscape in the Ministry for Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs, which allowed him to make almost unlimited decisions about the appointment of chairs." Raising money for the expanding scientific community, he often proceeded in an unconventional way, involving private donors and industrialists who brought in large sums through foundations.

New foundations: The founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (later the Max Planck Society) (which only took place after his death under his successor Friedrich Schmidt-Ott) goes back to his work. Althoff played a key role in the development of the University of Münster (1902, previously "Catholic Academy") and the Royal Academy in Posen (1903) as well as the Technical Universities of Danzig (1904) and Breslau (founded in 1910).

The Charité in Berlin owes Althoff's efforts the approval of the costs for its new building and conversion at the turn of the 20th century. Century. He thus created the prerequisites for the successful further development of the Berlin Medical Faculty. The doctors expressed this help by donating for the production and installation of a bust on the premises of the Charié. The bronze sculpture was designed by the sculptor Ferdinand Hartzer. Before its final inauguration, it was shown at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1902.

In 1902 he initiated the founding of the International Union Against Tuberculosis. In order to promote individual scientists, he spent large sums of money and founded entire institutes, e.g. B. the Institute for Infectious Diseases by Robert Koch, the Institute for Serum Research and Serum Therapy or the Georg Speyer House in Frankfurt am Main by Paul Ehrlich, the Institute for Hygiene and Experimental Therapy in Marburg for Emil von Behring. In 1907, Ferdinand Sauerbruch approached Althoff about moving from Greifswald to Marburg as senior physician. Althoff supported him and also offered him the management of the polyclinic there.[9] During his tenure, the University of Berlin expanded from 38 to 81 institutes. He was involved in the appointments of a large number of important researchers such as Adolf von Harnack, Emil von Behring, Hermann Gunkel, Max Planck, Walther Nernst, Paul Ehrlich, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ferdinand von Richthofen and Robert Koch. The work of Althoff is largely due to the heyday and global reputation of science at German universities from around 1890 until (far after Althoff's death) into the 1920s. The University of Göttingen became a leading international center for mathematics and physics through Althoff's work.

Full of gratitude, the later Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich wrote to Althoff in 1907:

"Personally, I thank you for my entire career and the opportunity to bring my ideas to fruition. Pushed around as an assistant, crammed into the cramped conditions - completely ignored by the university - I felt pretty useless. I never received a call to the smallest position and was considered a person without a subject, ie completely unusable. If you hadn't stood up for me with a strong hand and a genius initiative, if you hadn't arranged for me with restless zeal and kind friendship the work opportunities under which I could develop, I would have been completely wasted.”

– Paul Honest

Since Althoff was also significantly involved in the reform of the German library system, he gave his name to a non-profit association of scientific institutions in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, the Friedrich Althoff Consortium. This library consortium provides users of the participating non-university research institutions, universities, state and private colleges with scientific information from electronic publications.

In Potsdam-Babelsberg (then called Nowawes), a grammar school, the Althoffschule (now the Goethe Comprehensive School) and a street were named after him.

Althoff died in the early evening of the 20th. October 1908 in his home in Steglitz, presumably suffering from a long-term heart condition. His grave is in the botanical garden in Berlin-Dahlem. It was dedicated to the city of Berlin as a grave of honor until 2009.

Bust at Althoffplatz, in Berlin-Steglitz

Honours: A memorial on the grounds of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has commemorated the science politician Althoff since 1903. The bust on a high base was replaced by a cast in 2001. This was funded by donations, just like the original. At the entrance to the Charité location in Berlin-Mitte there is also the Friedrich-Althoff-Haus with an Althoff hall.

Another monument adorns the Althoffplatz in Berlin-Steglitz. A shell limestone base supports a portrait bust of Althoff, modeled in 1908 by Fritz Schaper (1841–1919) and cast by the H. Noack foundry.

Althoff's birthplace Dinslaken celebrated its 175th birthday. Birthday as an occasion to highlight and honor his life and his achievements in an "Althoff year" in 2014. Since 2003, on the occasion of his commitment to the German oceanographic Valdivia Expedition (1898-1899), he has given his name to the Althoff Seamount, a deep-sea mountain in the Southern Ocean.

The plant genus Althoffia K.Schum. 1887 from the mallow family (Malvaceae) was named after him.

Personality: Althoff was politically liberal and, like Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg in Alsace-Lorraine, advocated a conciliatory policy towards the Alsatians and Lorraines, who were often skeptical about the newly founded empire. He also sharply rejected any form of anti-Semitism or anti-Catholicism (culture war) ("I have never participated in any agitation in my life, neither agitation against Jews nor Catholics."). Friedrich Althoff stood completely on the ground of the existing monarchical state order and rejected, for example, the awarding of university offices to political dissidents. In 1900, for example, the Lex Arons was approved, a law that was specifically designed to withdraw the venia legendi from the Berlin private lecturer in physics Leo Arons, since he was a member of the Social Democratic Party and therefore did not seem suitable for a teaching position at a Prussian university .

Althoff's personal qualities included sincerity, personal unselfishness, political astuteness, tireless diligence, and modesty. Notorious, however, were his notorious unpunctuality and his generous use of other people's time. It often happened that people who had an appointment with Althoff had to wait for hours in small antechambers until they were finally admitted to the “Mr. Ministerialdirektor”. The academics concerned felt that they were being forced into the role of petitioners and felt that this treatment was demeaning. When it came to getting things done, Althoff could have a ruthless energy. On the other hand, he appreciated and respected the direct demeanor of his counterparts and despised the subservient spirit that often prevailed at German universities. His natural sense of humor and civil courage led to his winning the favor of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his right to speak directly, which was very unusual for an official of his position, but on the other hand characteristic of the Kaiser's personal rule.

Criticism of the Althoff system: Even during his lifetime and even more so after his death, Althoff's actions were not only rated positively. Above all, the "personal regiment" was criticized, with which the university self-government was partially eliminated. In particular, the increasing state influence on the design of science was viewed skeptically by contemporaries. Even his critics, however, recognized Althoff's personal unselfishness and his services to the great expansion of Prussian-German science[12]. During Althoff's tenure, the number of students and the budget of the universities had doubled, the teaching staff at the universities had increased by a factor of 1.5, expenditure on science had increased by a factor of three and a half, and the budget for worship had increased fourfold.

Quotations: A few quotations are given here on behalf of many (reproduced from vom Brocke, see below).

Max Weber on the IV. German University Teachers' Day in Dresden on 12. October 1911:

It is very difficult to talk about this man. He was really not only a good man in the specific sense of the word, but he was also a man of very broad points of view [...] to whom the German universities owe things that are in a certain sense immortal [...]. And from a personal point of view it cannot be emphatically emphasized [...]: There was no nepotism under him [...]. But [...] the means with which the Prussian educational administration worked were the most ruthless imaginable. […] The influence of Althoff's system [“of human treatment”] has had a directly corrupting effect [“on the offspring”].

"Ministerial Director Dr. Althoff" in "The Help", 13. Jg., No. 36, 8 September 1907, published by [Althoff's successor] Friedrich Naumann:

Whether his almost dictatorial regime brought more advantages or disadvantages over Prussian learning can only be judged much later. Today we see both before us: an increase in state services for almost all branches of knowledge, many and exemplary new buildings of university components, new professorships, new grammar schools and polytechnical institutions, but at the same time a dependence on the central office that did not exist before. Althoff means the expansion of state omnipotence compared to the older, more republican constitution of the universities. That, too, can have advantages if the character of self-government bogs down in petty favoritism for sons-in-law and favorite pupils, but it certainly has great disadvantages where the old freedom has been used in a good sense. Now the central office decides on the scientific direction much more than before. Althoff ruled over the Prussian professors with a certain benevolent brutality that no one would easily imitate. Even his ruthlessness was not without humor.

"Althoff's resignation" in "Die Hilfe", 13. Jg., No. 40, 5 October 1907:

As long as a man like Althoff is at the top, an Althoff system can be endured, just as enlightened absolutism had its good points. But if great power falls into small hands, petty abuse of power will be the unfortunate consequence.