ABSTRACT
The educational concept of Bildung evolved in a somewhat comparably dynamic political context as did the concept of politeness at the end of the seventeenth-century England. The discussions concerning national education is proliferated throughout Europe. It is hardly incidental that the nation-states France and Germany, began its development simultaneous with an increase in attention paid to the heritage, development, and codification of a national language. Johann Gottfried Herder had laid the foundation for an educationalized concept of Bildung and also a nationalized one that was based in the unity of language. He also asserts the connection among language, nation, and Bildung quite concretely in his Idea for the First Patriotic Institute for the General Spirit of Germany. On the one hand, the concept of Bildung was used to help fashion the nation-state and to develop the citizen, while, on the other, it also contributed to form an inner world where many sought refuge from the political world.
