Big administration reforms against Catholic reformist traditions: fusion of state and church mid-level school administrations in early nineteenth-century Prussian Silesia
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Jan Uredat [1]
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[1] Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
Berlin, Stadt, Alemania
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- Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 61, Nº. 1, 2025 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Histories of education and reform : traditions, tensions and transitions), págs. 153-175
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
In what are often described as modern Western school systems, thesupervision of elementary schools generally shifted from the hands of clerical administrators to genuine state officials during the nine-teenth century. The Prussian state, like other predominantly Protestant states, relied on clerical personnel and church supervision structures to establish its school supervision administration. Yet, this was also true for the more Catholic parts of the Prussian monarchy,where integration of church structures into state administration caused friction between state and church authorities. Hence, this contribution focuses on appointments of school inspectors in early nineteenth-century Prussian Silesia, when friction arose between thestate and the prince-bishop concerning appointment rights. These frictions are reflected in the process of newly introduced mid-levelstate school administrations taking over episcopal appointmentrights, which has been described as a nationalisation or secularisation of Silesian school administration. The article proposes a more nuanced approach to the restructuring of Silesian school administration, driven by consecutive administration reforms resulting in a fusion of church and state administration, rather than a traditional secularisation narrative. It traces the subtle ties between the Prussian state, episcopal administration, and clerical inspection personnel that led to the gradual assertion of state over ecclesiastical structures
