Surprisingly, Germany was defeated in both world wars, but eventually Germany recovered quickly. After World War II, Germany rose again and became the country with the highest economic strength in Europe.
Why does Germany always come from behind? Because Germany has a magic weapon to win-universal education.
The first thing to point out here is that the Holy Roman Empire, the predecessor of Germany, is not a small country in Europe, but a few big countries. Generally speaking, several great powers in the Middle Ages, basically Britain, France and the Holy Roman Empire, are basically the same as Britain and Germany now.
However, in the middle and late stage of development, the Holy Roman Empire retreated, Britain and France began to establish centralization, and the Holy Roman Empire became a loose alliance of German States, which maintained their independence and were unwilling to be unified. The British and French powers also intended to keep Germany in this state, and the efforts to unify Germany failed in the Thirty Years' War.
There are two ways to express the situation in Germany at that time. One is that Voltaire said that the Holy Roman Empire was "unholy, neither Roman nor imperial".
"This expressed France's view of Germany at that time.
Second, the German poet Heine said. "The land belongs to France and Russia, and the sea belongs to Britain.
Only in the dreamland, the strength of the Germans is indisputable.
"In fact, this is just German self-mockery.
In short, no one in Europe regarded Germany as a first-class power. Of course, Germany has not yet been unified.
At that time, Austria and Prussia, Germany's two largest states, were afraid of France and Russia. Before the Franco-Prussian War, even Bismarck didn't expect such a great success.
However, in the middle and late19th century, especially after Prussia unified Germany, Germany developed rapidly, not only leaving France and Russia behind, but also Britain, the first power at that time, caught up with Germany.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany's gross national product was second only to that of the United States, but its technology far surpassed that of the United States. German manufacturing, once considered as a cheap product, gradually caught up with and replaced the most advanced British manufacturing at that time.
This is less than 50 years since the reunification of Germany.
What's more, after Germany's defeat in World War I and World War II, it can quickly recover from the defeat and become an economic power again.
Why can you do this? Universal education in Germany is the key.
Universal education in Germany can be traced back to the Luther era. At that time, because Protestantism and Catholicism competed for the right to speak in religion, Luther proposed compulsory education so that Germans could read the Bible by themselves. Later, some countries in Germany began compulsory education, which was still for religious reasons.
Before Frederick I of Prussia advocated universal primary education in the18th century, Frederick I's purpose was simple. In order to make Prussia have more soldiers and more qualified soldiers, compulsory education and compulsory military service are carried out at the same time.
In the later period, due to the failure of Prussia in Napoleonic era, Prussia increased its investment in education, and the enrollment rate of children continued to increase.
Other German countries have followed suit.
The first effect of German state investment in education is the rise of German thinkers, that is, the dreamland in the air described by Heine. /kloc-the thinkers around the 0/8th century were mainly Britain and France, while the thinkers in the 0/9th century were mostly Germany. These thinkers were deeply worried about the weakness of Germany, and strongly advocated the reunification of Germany, which indirectly promoted the reunification of Germany.
After Prussia built Germany, Prussia's compulsory education extended to the whole of Germany. At the beginning of the 20th century, the literacy rate of Germans was close to 65,438+0,000%, which almost brought great benefits to eliminating illiteracy among young people.
First of all, it brings high-quality workers. Many workers are literate, so their ability to absorb new technologies is much better than that of illiterate workers, and they can put forward suggestions for improvement. As a result, German manufacturing quickly got rid of the evaluation of cheap and good quality, and the quality gradually improved.
Secondly, although higher education in Germany can only accept the middle and high level, the improvement of overall education has also brought about the progress of higher education. Germany has made rapid progress in science and technology, especially in chemistry, surpassing Britain and France at that time and becoming the first in the world.
Third, the popularity of education has deepened the feelings of Germans for the country. Before the reunification of Germany, all German states had strong centrifugal force and always liked to say that they were Bavarians and Prussians. After the reunification of Germany, the Germans' sense of identity with Germany has greatly improved.
Like the monkey area after World War II, France tried its best to get rid of Germany, but most of the monkeys returned to Germany.
In a sense, German's achievements in World War II are also closely related to his educational level.
Here is a simple example. When Germany completed universal education and eliminated illiteracy before the war, the literacy rate of Britain and France was only 80%, that of second-and third-rate European countries such as Spain and Italy was only 50%, and that of Russia was only 30%.
At that time, China, not to mention more than 90% were illiterate.
Therefore, during World War I, the ranking of countries' strength was also obvious. Germany can challenge Britain and France alone, and Italy jumps from allies to allies in the middle, and the result is very bad. Russia has a large population, but Germany, which faces second-line operations, has also been defeated repeatedly. As for China, it is no match for European powers.
Then, during World War II, things changed. The most typical is the Soviet Union. In the Russian era, in fact, the territory was larger and the population was more. In the face of Germany, no Germany is against the main force. However, in the Soviet era, Germany, facing a desperate situation, was overthrown despite huge losses at first. This is not only related to the industrial achievements of the Soviet Union, but also related to Stalin's completion of compulsory education and the basic elimination of illiteracy.
Germany is often revived, and universal education is the biggest key, so perfect compulsory education is absolutely essential for a country.
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