The prussian Gymnasium: the greek temple of german idealism

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. After the fall of the German Empire in 1806 there was a revolutionary process promoted by the ruling elite that sought to transform the economic and social order in a peaceful manner. The need to create a new nationalist sentiment led to the search for an own cultural system, and the Germans turned to Ancient Greece for inspiration. The new social model was to be organized in layers, and the top level would be able to ensure the permanence in power, thanks to the creation of a proper education system. The Gymnasium, an elite High School, controlled the access to the main official institutions and would become a new temple where the most sacred concept of the moment-the State itself-, inhabited. METHOD. This paper has located and reviewed material on three areas: the socio-political situation, the enacted legislation on education and the school buildings themselves. This documentation has been analyzed separately and then carrying out a process of synthesis, the points on which the three blocks converge have been located. These meeting points lead us to the identification of spatial models which reflect the socio-political spirit of the moment and are the materialization of certain intentions. RESULT. The analysis of all this material allowed us to assess the Gymnasium, beyond the functional characteristics that the building might have today, as a particular universe in which the concerns and thinking of the age were collected. DISCUSSION. In the comparison of the two models: the Greek temple and the Gymnasium, it is of particularly interesting to analyze the concept of sacred in these two cultures. The application of the Greek formula to the German culture produced a new spatial model, which contained the most significant of German thought.