128. About Popular University Courses

The University of Berlin will follow the example set by the universities in Jena, Leipzig, Munich and Vienna and also set up popular university courses. Professors Diels, Ortmann, Schmoller, Waldeyer and Witt are said to have made a special contribution to the realization of this undertaking, which will be launched next autumn.

Much has been said about courses of this kind. In a widely read weekly newspaper, one could hear the voices of all those whom a nimble journalistic mind considers authorities in the field of university and popular education. One should actually believe that there is no need to talk so much about this latest institution. If it is implemented well, it will certainly have a beneficial effect. But putting it into practice well means, among other things, not overlooking one requirement. The teachers who take on such university courses must not in any way accommodate the desire of our time for the trivialization of knowledge. The audience must be raised to the heights of science, not lowered to the tone that is unfortunately demanded today in popular scientific lectures and journals. If the university kutse can be used to counteract the malaise of popular trends in science, then we will be able to rejoice in it. I believe that this cannot be too difficult. For those who get to know the true nature of the scientific enterprise must lose their taste for the trivial. Courses can do a great deal to increase respect for science. If, at the beginning, the "people's" mind, which has been thoroughly corrupted by our popular magazines, shows little interest in the undertaking, there is no need to be put off by this.