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Public Schools in Prussia (1864-1911/13)

School attendance rose dramatically in Prussia at the end of the nineteenth century. Industrialization, urbanization, and rising literacy rates were directly tied to educational advances. The traditional agrarian character of Prussian society meant that the transformation was all the more rapid.

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I. Public Primary Schools

Year
Schools
Classe
(grades)
Teachers
Pupils

Pupils per
class
(grade)

Pupils per
teacher
Pupils per
100
inhabitants
1864
1871
1878
1882
1886
1891
1896
1901
1906
1911
25,056
33,120
32,299
33,040
34,016
34,742
36,138
36,756
37,761
38,684



65,968
75,097
82,746
92,001
104,082
115,902
128,725
30,805 (1)
48,211 (2)
59,493
59,917
64,750
71,731
79,431
90,208
102,764
117,162
2,825,322
3,900,655
4,272,199
4,339,729
4,838,247
4,916,476
5,236,826
5,670,870
6,164,398
6,572,140



66
64
59
57
54
53
51
(92)
(81)
72
72
75
69
66
63
60
56
15
16
16
16
17
16
16
16
16
(16)

(1) Only full-time male teachers; it is not possible to divide the female teachers (for 1864 there were 2815 and for 1871 there were 3848) into full-time and part-time assistant teachers; after 1878 the data include both full-time male and female teachers.
(2) Including part-time assistant teachers, approximately 2,000 in number.


The population data refer to the data collected for the respective territories; only in 1864 and 1871 was a census taken; the data employed were derived by the Prussian Statistical Office by means of “arithmetic interpolation;” for the year 1911 there was no data available: the data from 1910 was used and the resultant number appears for this reason in parentheses.

Source: Jahrbuch für die Amtliche Statistik des Preußischen Staates [Yearbook for the Official Statistics of the Prussian State] 1883, pp. 540, 550-559 (1864-1882); Statistisches Jahrbuch für den Preußischen Staat [Statistical Yearbook for the Prussian State],1913, pp. 392, 393; 1915 p. 6 (Population). Table reprinted in Gerd Hohorst, Jürgen Kocka, and Gerhard A. Ritter, eds., Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch: Materialien zur Statistik des Kaiserreichs 1870-1914 [Social History Workbook: Materials on Kaiserreich Statistics 1870-1914]. Munich, 1975, vol. 2, p. 157.

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