Educational Rivalries: The Transition from a German-German Contest to an International Competition

Since the eighteenth century, the concept of Bildung has been considered an untranslatable term because it describes a very “German invention and institution.”¹ Generally speaking, Bildung equates to education, but also a kind of intellectual cultivation; it can be seen as a lifelong process of human development wherein individuals develop their spiritual and cultural sensibilities to become more free due to a higher level of self-refl ection. In the age of high modernity and nation-states, educational institutions were therefore more than just places where knowledge was acquired. From a systematic perspective, educational institutions have four key social functions:² fi rst,