ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various trajectories of the cross-Atlantic travelling of German ideas about education, schooling, and philosophy to North America in the nineteenth century. In the cultural frame of American ideas regarding the useful knowledge schools should provide, the German emphasis on Greek and Latin, as characteristics of Bildung, seemed superfluous. The concept of Bildung was a way to remain connected to the humanities and even to the arts. Even if the humanities were generally considered guardians of Bildung, German Idealism has no idea to separate the humanities and natural sciences. The broad implementation of common schooling was a general concern for various countries during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Prussian schools trained people for municipal or other public affairs, being responsible to build bridges or similar tasks. American compulsory schooling and American universities developed certain ideas being imported from abroad, and were often using the German research university and the German compulsory school as models.
