Schooling and Class in Germany An Interview with Eberhard Brandt and Susanne Gondermann

Abstract

(Editors’ note: Germany is a federal country, so education systems vary from state to state, as they do in the United States. Most states in Germany have a “tripartite” system, which separates children, usually at the age of ten, into one of three options: main schools, secondary schools, and grammar schools. Each has its own course of study and leaving or exit exam. Students leave the main schools at fifteen, the secondary schools at sixteen, and grammar schools at eighteen or nineteen. If they wish to attend higher education, they must take an exam called the Abitur. A few comprehensive schools, which were the norm in the old East Germany and in some traditionally Social Democratic states like Hamburg and Hessen, still exist, but these are increasingly under attack.