On the studium generale as pars pro toto of the university and its amorphous transformations

Abstract

Our contribution considers the studium generale as a pars pro toto of the university. The analysis aims at the epistemological and education-political significance attributed to the studium generale in the context of the changed self-understanding of the university and its societal function. Our reconstruction emphasizes its polyvalent direction, the epistemological preconditions for the various shapes it may take on, and the education-political negotiation processes, which also form the basis of curriculum implementations. The function of the studium generale varied during different phases of the history of university; it experienced a renaissance after World War and in the wake of the Bologna Process. We specify our analyses of the education-political significance of the studium generale in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1945 by way of a serial analysis of political recommendations and assessments in the period 1945-2015.