ABSTRACT
WHEN Bismarck, the man of ‘blood and iron’, created the German Empire in 1871 by means of the characteristic methods of force and fraud, Germany still consisted of twentyfive States, each of which was autonomous, except in matters relating to foreign policy. One result of this was that the German universities enjoyed a considerable measure of academic freedom. They were under Government control, it is true. But the universities belonged to different States, between which there was a healthy competition to secure the most eminent teachers for the several universities, and the teachers naturally preferred to go to those universities which offered them the greatest academic freedom. The twenty-five States had twenty-three universities between them, only two of which came into existence subsequent to the foundation of the Empire.
