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Our life is like a German Confederacy made up of petty states with its boundary forever fluctuating, so that even a German cannot tell you how it is bounded at any moment-Henry David Thoraeu-Mathematicians won the war. Mathematicians broke the Japanese codes... and built the A-bomb. Mathematicians... like you. The stated goal of the Soviets is global Communism. In medicine or economics, in technology or space, battle lines are being drawn. To triumph, we need results. Publishable, applicable results. Now who among you will be the next Morse? The next Einstein? Who among you will be the vanguard of democracy, freedom, and discovery? Today, we bequeath America's future into your able hands. Welcome to Princeton, gentlemen.-Helinger-From movie A Beautiful MindTransition to the 20th Century:Cantor and KroneckerSignificant Events During the PeriodDefeat of Prussia by Napoleon in Jena in 1806.Signing of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807).Stripping Prussia of all its territories west of the Elbe.Prussia lost all its Universities except for the three along the Baltic coast; the lost of those at Gttingen and Halle was the most severe blow.The throne and people of Prussia turned to education, the only area in which the French left them free to act as the means to the moral and physical regeneration of their country. We have indeed lost territory and it is true that the state has declined in outward splendor and power, and for that very reason it is my earnest desire that the greatest attention be paid to the education of peopleThe state must regain in intellectual force what it lost in physical force.-King Frederick William III-

At the time of Prussias deepest national despair, a new university was founded in Berlin (1810).

University of BerlinAn embodiment of a new conception of higher education.Intended primarily to develop knowledge.Intended secondarily to train the professional classes.

Features of the University and other Founded Universities

The main emphasis for both students and teachers was on original research.The lecture hall took the place of classroom recitation.Seminar, in which a small group of advanced students investigated a problem under the direction of a professor, became prominent feature of every department.The university was given full liberty to manage its own affairs regarding to studies and administration.

The sober search for the truth , without reference to where the truth led, was the watchword of the University of Berlin.Other universities were founded on the new model of Berlin; Breslau(1811),Bonn(1818), and Munich (1826). The unquestionable superiority of their libraries, laboratories, and scholars explained the scientific renown that Germany enjoyed abroad.Pains were taken to eliminate nepotism, favoritism, and seniorism in appointments, as a result, a new kind of professorate emerged.Premium was place on teachers who could also published, and whose publications were sufficiently significant to draw attention to the university.A person with doctorate and promise of scholarly merit could apply to a university for a license to give accredited lectures as privatdozent.