As was natural, I had close and lasting relations in the regular course of events with the Ministry of Public Worship and Instruction. Herr von Gossier and Herr von Trott may surely be considered the most important and prominent occupants of this post. In this Ministry a ce-worker almost without equal arose in the person Ministry Director Althoff, a man of genius.
Thad been made acquainted with the dark side of the highs school system of education by my own schoo] experiences. The predominantly philological character of the training led, in the whole educational system as well, to a certain When I was at the Cassel High School in 1874-1877 I had observed that, although there was great enthusiasm for 1870-1871 and the new empire among the boys, there was, nevertheless, a distinct lack of the right conception of the German idea, of the feeling "elvis Ger manus sum"? (I am a German oitizen)—which I impressed later upon my people at the laying of the foundation-stone of the Saalburg. To create such sentiments and awaken them in the rising generation and to'lay the foundations for them firmly in the young hearts was a task somewhat beyond the powers of the teaching staff, in view of the fossilized, antiquated philological curriculum.
There was great neglect in the department of German history, which is exactly the study through which young hearts may be made to glow, through which the love of one's native country, its future and greatness, may be aroused. But little was taught of more recent history, covering the years since 1816, Young philologists were. produced, but no German citizens qualified for practical ce-operation toward building up the flourishing young empire.
in. other words, na youths who were consciously Germans were being turned out. In a small reading club composed of my classmates often tried to inculcate the idea
to eliminate parochial and similar of the Greater Germanys ti sides conceptions which hampered the German idea. Admiral Werner's
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.