Classical Liberalism Toward National Socialism: Transformation Of German Universities From The Weimar Republic To The Nazi Regime

German Universities from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi regime were quite prosperity and freedom, and got wonderful achievements since World War I, but after the Nazis seized the power, which went to the darkest time. A huge transformation occurred of German Universities’ education during the time, from Classical Liberalism to National Socialism, from prosperity to dim.German Universities during Weimar Republic reflected the characters of returning to classicism, maintaining the tradition of autonomy and catering to democracy and so on. Under the control of Classical Liberalism, German Universities were maintaining a high standard. However, when National Socialism took control, these universities went down the wrong path under the pressure of political integration movement and centralized management from the official with their educational goals, which focused on training loyal and brave successors of the party. Besides, the popularity of Militarism in universities, the appearance of curriculum representing the party’s will, and the starting of cleaning academic work and remodeling scientific work, which not only destroyed the tradition of humanism, freedom and autonomy of universities, but also damaged innocent teachers and the quality of education, and encouraged ultranationalist ideology and revenge idea. Universities had to get out of the ivory tower and were forced to connect closely with the destiny of whole nation. German universities were indeed in the process of transition in the history of Germany higher education. Obviously, this transformation was attributed to both internal and external reasons. Conservatism of teachers built a wall to Weimar Republic; constitutional guarantee of academic freedom provided a legal pass for the speech about the dissatisfaction with the status quo; right-wingers took advantage of young students’ national feelings; prosperous and open culture of Republic of Germany and the ideas of past philosophies of Germany buried the fuse for the transition in this particular time. Karl L?with, lecturer of Marburg University at that time, went through the transition in person. His experiences reflected experiences of most teachers who were killed by Nazi. After comparing the different academic life before and after the transition of L?with we discovered two things. On the one hand, L?with advocated classical humanistic spirit and rational academic ideal, so it was inevitable for him to lose value after transition. On the other hand, University of Freiburg and University of Marburg has also been incorporated into the framework of National Socialism after transition. In essence, the purpose of education in German Universities was to bring up more young people with the spirit of Nazi after transition. The official was trying to ensure that new teachers of universities could bear the burden of leading the elite with strict mind control. In summary, the transition of German Universities was inevitable in that particular time, which was the consequence of the outbreak of many cultures of German Empire. Also, it was the victim of dictatorship and political integration process. All of these led German Universities to start the transition from Classical Liberalism to National Socialism.