What is the importance of the Friedrich-Wilhelm III University in Berlin in the book, W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race?

Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelm III University is located in Germany, a country that is pulling itself out of an old-fashioned peasant and master society and attempting to become a modern industrial society. Unfortunately, the Prussian leaders of Germany are using a pushy, overbearing approach to crush all opposition. When Du Bois arrives before World War I however, the intellectuals at the University in Berlin are feeling much freedom to generate important new ideas. Socialism and various philosophies are being taught at the University. Du Bois loves being in a place where his color does not restrict him very much and where he is appreciated for his brains. However, when he's outside the university his experiences are mixed. In large cities, he is treated like any other white upper class individual. When he hikes out into the European backwaters, people react as if he is something inhuman.