American Investment in German Universities
N OW that the United States has ceased to "occupy" Germany it is worth while to take stock of our investments during the days when the High Commissioner for Germany was making every effort to aid the country not only in economic recovery but also in the more difficult task of acquiring a different attitude, a different set of values. The schools and youth groups made a natural first point of approach. The universities were ignored at the beginning, probably because of the difficulty in approaching this citadel of tradition. However, it soon became clear that to the German-more than to the American-the university is a symbol of the national mind at its best. The professor in Germany is not an object of ridicule, he is a man with prestige. The university had to be recognized as a very important approach to any basic change in the attitudes of the German people. The High Commissioner for Germany through the Office of Public Affairs, Education Branch, asked J. J. Oppenheimer, dean of the University of Louisville, to come to Germany and see what could be done to bring teaching in line with the problems of the day and the best of the methods of the Western world. The pressure for investigation and change came from a group which was small but worth encouraging. There were several liberal groups in the universitiesstudent leaders, professors, and directors who were a sizable minority in every university. It was not necessary to create interest-it was already there. All that was needed was to encourage the existing desire for change. The High Commissioner' and his wife were impressed with the needs of student groups and were instrumental in providing them with comfortable dormitories. Mr. Oppenheimer did not allow himself to be swamped by paper work, but he met students, young instructors, professors, rectors, and Landministers of education. The results are beginning to be apparent sooner than it would have been believed possible. After less than a year of preparatory and exploratory visits to the universities, Mr. Oppenheimer was able to assemble at Weilburg, Germany, in the summer of i95i, German professors interested