“is lacking in the education of our youth?  The chief fault is that since 1870 the philologists have sat in the high schools as beati possidentes and laid chief stress upon the knowledge to be acquired and not on the formation of character and the demands of the present time.  Emphasis has been put on the ability to know, not on the ability to do—­the pupil is expected to know, that is the main thing, and whether what he knows is suitable for the conduct of life or not is considered a secondary matter.  I am told the school has only to do with the gymnastics of the mind, and that a young man, well trained in these gymnastics, is equipped for the needs of life.  This is all wrong and can’t go on.”

Then the Empire-builder speaks—­what is wanted above all is a national basis.

“We must make German the foundation for the gymnasium:  we must produce patriotic young Germans, not young Greeks and Romans.  We must depart from the centuries-old basis, from the old monastic education of the Middle Ages, when Latin was the main thing and a tincture of Greek besides.  That is no longer the standard.  German must be the standard.  The German exercise must be the pivot on which all things turn.  When in the exit examination (Abiturientenexamen) a student hands in a German essay, one can judge from it what are the mental acquirements of the young man and decide whether he is fit for anything or not.  Of course people will object—­the Latin exercise is very important, very good for instructing students in other languages, and so on.  Yes, gentlemen, I have been through the mill.  How do we get this Latin exercise?  I have often seen a young man get, say 4-1/2 marks, for his German exercise—­’satisfactory,’ it was considered—­and 2 for his Latin exercise.  The youngster deserved punishment instead of praise, because it is clear he did not write his Latin exercise in a proper way; and of all the Latin exercises we wrote there was not one in a dozen which was done without cribbing.  These exercises were marked ‘good,’ but when we wrote an essay on ’Minna von Barnhelm’ (one of Lessing’s dramas) we got hardly ‘satisfactory.’  So I say, away with the Latin exercise, it only harms us, and robs us of time we might give to German.”

The Emperor goes on to recommend the study of the nation’s history, geography, and literature ("Der Sage,” poetry, he calls it).

“Let us begin at home,” he says; “when we have learned enough at home, we can go to the museums.  But above all we must know our German history.  In my time the Grand Elector was a very foggy personage, the Seven Years’ War was quite outside consideration, and history ended with the close of the last century, the French Revolution.  The War of Liberation, the most important for the young citizen, was not taught thoroughly, and I only learned to know it, thank God, through the very interesting lectures of Dr. Hinzpeter.