TRANSFORMATION OF APPROACH TOWARDS PUBLIC SERVICE AND THE EMERGENCE OF HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY MODEL IN PRUSSIA (1807–1810)

Abstract

The paper deals with higher school transformation in Prussia between 1807 and 1810. Discussion on new university took place before 1806-1807, and had a purpose to design a new model connected with the practical application of the knowledge, also in public administration. The reforms initiated by Baron vom Stein and Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg offered the national principles to basics of Prussian state. Traditional point of view is that Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt ideas prevailed in the reform, though Theodor Anton Heinrich Schmalz’s and Johann Gottfried Hoffmann’s offers tapped into Faculty of Law and Political economics programme concepts. As a result, new principles appeared, and the ideal statesman image. The reform had a deep impact on academic positions in Prussia, transfer of knowledge and ideas, and tapped into transformation of Prussia to national state. It is possible to state that new university and the new public servants training models made its commitment to the approach transformation towards the public service and political culture evolution. The new approach towards the Academy of Sciences, its relations with government and society became a catalyst towards political culture transfer to civil and national one. The new university tapped into continuity of social and political reforms in the kingdom even within the Bourbon Restoration after 1815.