Religious Education in German Schools

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Religious education in the German school curriculum has been a concern of the churches as well as of the governments of Germany since the Middle Ages. This is a carefully detailed account of religious instruction as it developed historically in the curriculum of German elementary and secondary schools. It emphasizes the relations of church, state, and school; the problem of a confessional or interdenominational basis for public schools; and the training of teachers, the content of the curriculum, and the method of instruction. Although it begins with the early origins of the school, major emphasis is given to the period after 1871. The book concludes with an up-to-date description of the present-day situation in East and West Germany, and in East and West Berlin. German experience with the vexing political and religious problems of religious education in public schools affords interesting comparisons and contrasts to conditions in other countries.