German-American academic migration and the emergence of the American research university, 1865-1910

Abstract

The study investigates into the background, process and effects of the German-American academic transfer of the second half of the 19th century and its role in the development of the modern American research university. The crisis of the traditional American college that reached its climax after the Civil War prompted a few waves of academic migrations to Germany. Most graduates chose to return to the US, where they formed a group of reformers to promote the German university model during the Academic Revolution. The student body is analyzed as the main mediator which determined the way this model was adapted and implemented. In analyzing the transfer of the concept of "academic freedom", the study looks at how exactly the process was affected by the mediator. The reformist agenda pursued by the German graduates in the US was directed against the hegemony of pietist administrators and the ideology of the "all-rounded-man" education. Achievement of those goals suggested the establishment of graduate research programs to be regulated by the academic community at its own discretion. The article consists of three parts, which describe the background, motives and process of student migration, the position of American students in German universities, and their perception of the German research university model. The final part of the article examines the political agenda of the "reformist-returnees" and its implementation.