The history of the chairs of education in the German speaking universities

The articles presents the fourth volume of Wolfgang Brezinka’s monumental history of academic theory of education and pedagogy. This last volume deals with Vienna University of Economics (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) and therefore the chair of economics and commerce education, and the University of Klagenfurt, with the controversial attempt to build there a leading centre of educational research and training in the Seventies. More than 800 pages are dedicated to these cases, but the last 150 pages of the book, where Brezinka draws the final synthesis of the four volumes are to be seen by all historians of university. Here he provides also a comparative picture of German and Swiss chairs, showing similarities and differences. The close link with religion first and philosophy then; the State school and university policies; the changes in the Seventies, with the student boom and the shift from Pädagogik to educational sciences; the hyper specialization and fragmentation of education in many topics; the relationship between university educational theory and school teachers’ needs are critically examined.