1806, Germany was completely defeated by Napoleon in the Jena War, and the German nation suffered great humiliation because of the compensation for ceding land. Scholars, led by Fichte, put forward the slogan of "education first", and advocated revitalizing education through reform and cultivating a new generation to invigorate the national spirit and rebuild Germany into an independent country. Fichte's appeal has attracted the attention of the public and the authorities. The new government handed over the work of rebuilding education to Humboldt, the knowledgeable minister of education, and Humboldt has done fruitful work for this. He reformed primary and secondary education, carried out Pestalozzi's educational method and founded the University of Berlin, making the German educational system a model of Britain, France and the United States in the first half of the19th century.