ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of recent research on elite education in Germany. Historically, the field of secondary and tertiary education in Germany has not recognised the presence of educational institutions that might be regarded as explicitly 'elite' in their character. German universities were deemed in public discourse to be fundamentally equal in terms of the degrees and graduate certificates awarded by each institution. Nevertheless, distinctions between universities and schools have long existed. For instance, some Gymnasiums were established long ago during the Renaissance and early modern period. In addition there are prestigious Jesuit schools, the Saxonian Furstenschulen and their successors, and the Prussian Landesschulen. These were originally founded as schools run by the church or by monarchs, and largely seen as responsible for training the clergy or state officials respectively. The dismantling of a system previously perceived to be equal began as early as 1810, when Humboldt, a German philosopher and government functionary, created the Humanistic Gymnasium.
