German-Chinese University (Tsingtau)

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German-Chinese University
activity 1909-1914
Sponsorship state
place Qingdao , Shandong Province
director Georg Keiper
Students approx. 400 (1914)
Employee min. 33 (1913)
Annual budget 200,000 marks

The German-Chinese University ( Chinese  青島 特別 高等 专门 学堂  /  青岛 特别 高等 专门 学堂 , Pinyin Qīngdǎo tèbié gāoděng zhuānmén xuétáng  - "Special University of Tsingtau" or 德華 大學  /  德华 大学 , Déhuá dàxué  - "in German-Chinese University") Tsingtau (today Qingdao ) was a higher education institution for special sciences with a special character in the German leasehold area Kiautschou in China. It was the only university in the German overseas territories . The university was jointly sponsored by the German and Chinese empires (from 1912 Republic of China ). Just before it closed in 1914, the number of students was about 400.

history

founding

University building

The plan to establish a higher education institution in Tsingtau came from an idea of ​​the German ambassador in Beijing, Arthur Alexander Kaspar von Rex . The institution should be able to train the future elites of China and was part of Germany's cultural policy in the Far East . The idea found the support of State Secretary Alfred von Tirpitz in the Reichsmarineamt , which was responsible for the administration of the leased area. The support came at a time of general reorientation of German China policy after the end of the Boxer Rebellion , when Germany gradually began to look for a cooperative relationship.

In the Gouvernement of Kiautschou under Oskar von Truppel , however, there were initially reservations. On the one hand, these concerned the financial price of the establishment, which would burden the budget, and on the other hand, the local administration preferred local school projects. In contrast to the previous training of Chinese workers to meet local needs, the university idea was not aimed at subsequent use in the leased area, but across China.

Irrespective of the criticism, von Tirpitz continued to pursue the plan. On December 11, 1907, the German government informed the Chinese ambassador to Germany, Sun Baoqi , and proposed negotiations on a joint founding statute. The German government announced that it was planning an educational institute in Tsingtau to familiarize the Chinese with Western culture even without an expensive trip to Europe . Sun rated the project as "interesting from a school perspective". On January 15, 1908, von Rex repeated the German communication and asked the Chinese government for support and the recognition of university degrees. In April 1908 the sinologist Otto Franke took over the negotiation on behalf of the Reichsmarinamt. Franke's negotiating partner on the Chinese side was Zhang Zhidong , head of the Ministry of Education.

China gained more influence on the project than the German side planned: the school received a Chinese co-director. The Chinese authorities were responsible for selecting the Chinese students, as well as the teachers and curricula for Chinese subjects. The German lecturers should also be able to teach in Chinese . In return for having a say, the Chinese government helped finance the university and allowed graduates to apply for the Chinese state examination.

The founding costs amounted to about 640,000 marks , of which China took over 40,000 marks. Of the 600,000 marks on the German side, around 245,000 marks came from German companies.

business

The college officially opened on October 25, 1909 (the medical department in June 1911). Its leader was Georg Keiper (1877-1951), professor of geology and official of the Imperial Navy . An official from the Ministry of Education, Jiang Kai , was posted from Beijing to Tsingtau to serve as the Chinese study inspector . Regular classes began on November 1, 1909. University operations were based on the militarized school system of the German Reich of those years, in which great importance was attached to secondary virtues and physical hardening. Physical education and health education (personal hygiene, venereal diseases, etc.) were given across disciplines. In addition to German courses, subjects in Chinese were also taught in all levels and departments. The teaching of the traditional culture of China also had its place in the curriculum by teaching Chinese regional studies and literature, among other things. On the occasion of the opening, the Chinese representative Li Xi expressed the interests of China with the metaphor that the students should plow the field of Western science, but sow the seeds of their own nation.

In 1913, 26 German teachers (including 15 full-time and 11 part-time) and 7 Chinese teachers taught at the university. The number of students grew from around 80 in 1909 to around 400 in 1914. In the winter of 1913 there were 301 lower school students and 73 upper school students. The students were usually young male Chinese aged 13 and over with prior training from the Chinese school system. Admission was usually made after review and referral by the Shandong Provincial School Board or other Chinese education authorities. The tuition fee was 175  yuan per person per year. Since many of the Chinese students could not afford the fee, it was often taken over by Chinese provincial governments. In the early years, teaching suffered from linguistic problems, as many Chinese students did not understand German enough to follow the course of the course. For this reason, more interpreters were used.

All subjects had considerable practical parts: law students visited the Imperial Court of Kiautschou and sat in on jury trials , medical students practiced in the local hospital and the Catholic clinic. Engineering students were able to gain practical experience not only in the university's own workshop, but also with partners such as Sifang Locomotive Works . Trial fields and forests in the area were available to students of agricultural and forestry sciences.

In October 1912 , Sun Yat-sen , the first provisional president after the end of the old Chinese empire , attended the college. In his speech to the Chinese students, he praised the facility as a special opportunity to acquire modern knowledge under the guidance of important and well-known German teachers. The students should take Germany as a model for the new China .

During the siege of Tsingtau the auxiliary hospital existed at the college . It was the only hospital whose location was comparatively safe from enemy artillery fire . After the occupation by Japan in November 1914, the German-Chinese university was closed. By the time the Japanese came to power, around 20 to 30 graduates had successfully completed the university. Some students were able to continue their studies after the closure of the German Medical and Engineering School for Chinese in Shanghai .

campus

Map section of Tsingtau with the German-Chinese. University (bottom left), around 1912

The university had a campus on the outskirts of the city on Tsingtau Bay. In addition to the teaching building, the campus also included a commercial building and two residential buildings of the adjoining boarding school ( alumnate ). In the boarding school, the students lived in small rooms with two to three beds each. In total, each of the two alumnate buildings offered space for 125 people. In addition, there was an agricultural test site on campus. The field artillery barracks on the Kronprinzenufer were previously at the site. The former main building still exists, the current address is Chaocheng Road 2 .

Faculties

The university was divided into two levels.

  • a preparatory lower level: the attendance at the lower level lasted five years. The focus should be on teaching the German language and general Western education.
  • a scientifically operated upper level: The upper level comprised four faculties, called departments .
    • Legal and political science department (three-year course, head: Kurt Romberg , formerly Richter)
    • scientific-technical department (four-year course)
    • Forestry and agricultural department (three-year course, headed by Wilhelm Wagner , botanist)
    • Medical department (four-year course: three-semester preparatory course, five-semester specialist course, then one year of practical training)

The overarching facilities included a library, a teaching material collection , a museum and laboratories. A translation agency under the direction of a sinologist was also affiliated.

gallery

  • German-Chinese University of Tsingtau, 1909–1914

  • Main teaching building

  • Auditorium

  • Students of the lower level

  • Chinese students in drawing lessons

  • Medical department

  • Teaching material collection

  • Chemical laboratory

  • Agricultural laboratory

  • Workshop

  • Alumnat I and II (under construction)

Well-known lecturers (selection)

The German-Chinese University tried to attract qualified lecturers from Germany:

  • Konrad Baetz , engineer, from 1912 to 1914 professor for engineering subjects at the technical university department
  • Georg Crusen , lawyer, from 1909 part-time lecturer at the German-Chinese University
  • Karl Erich Hupka , physicist, accepted a call to the German-Chinese University in 1914, but was no longer able to reach it due to the First World War
  • Konrad Knopp , mathematician, taught at the German-Chinese University in 1910 and 1911
  • Ferdinand Lessing , sinologist, was employed at the university's translation agency and was a lecturer in 1913
  • Bruno Meyermann , astronomer, part-time lecturer at the German-Chinese University
  • Viktor Praefcke , doctor and medical officer, was a lecturer in the medical university department from 1912

Publication series (selection)

The German-Chinese University has published several series of publications:

  • German-Chinese legal newspaper, from 1911, newspaper of the legal and political science department in German and Chinese
  • West-Ostlicher Bote , from October 1913, magazine for teaching German language and culture in the Far East in German and Chinese

literature

Web links

Commons : German-Chinese College, Qingdao  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 125.
  2. ↑ a b c d e K. Mühlhahn: Rule and resistance in the "model colony" Kiautschou. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56465-X , p. 245.
  3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Mohr (ed.): Handbook for the Kiautschou protected area. W. Schmidt, Tsingtau 1911, p. 449 ( online edition: Frankfurt am Main: Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, 2016 ).
  4. ^ K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 121.
  5. ^ K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 124.
  6. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Mohr: Statute for the University of Tsingtau, in: ders. (Ed.): Handbook for the Kiautschou protected area. W. Schmidt, Tsingtau 1911, p. 396 ff. ( Online edition: Frankfurt am Main: Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, 2016 ).
  7. ^ K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 131, note 25.
  8. ^ K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 126.
  9. ↑ a b c d e Xu, Miao: Chinas Bildungsinternationalisierung: An analysis of Sino-German cooperation in higher education. Inaugural dissertation, University of Heidelberg, 2015, pp. 87 ff. ( Online ).
  10. ↑ K. Mühlhahn: Rule and resistance in the "model colony" Kiautschou. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56465-X , p. 250.
  11. ↑ K. Mühlhahn: Rule and resistance in the "model colony" Kiautschou. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56465-X , p. 247.
  12. ^ K. Mühlhahn: Qingdao (Tsingtau) - A Center of German Culture in China? In: H.-M. Hinz, C. Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau - A Chapter of German Colonial History in China 1897–1914. DHM, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , p. 130.
  13. ↑ Waldemar Vollerthun : The battle for Tsingtau - an episode from the World War 1914/1918 according to diary sheets. Hirzel, Leipzig 1920, p. 44 ( online edition: Frankfurt am Main: University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg, 2016 ).
  14. ↑ Tsingtau and Japan 1914 to 1920 , historical-biographical project

Coordinates: 36 ° 3 ′ 32.6 ″  N , 120 ° 18 ′ 19.7 ″  E