Georg Friedrich Meier, Immanuel Kant und die friderizianische Universitätspolitik

This paper begins by considering the ‘Oberkuratoriums für die königlichen Universitäten,’ which was established in Berlin in 1747, and some of its policies. It then turns to Staatsminister Karl Abraham von Zedlitz und Leipe, wo was in charge of Prussian universities from 1771 to 1788. Its third part is dedicated to a conversation on Locke’s philosophy between Frederick II. the Great and the philosopher G. F. Meier that took place in 1754 at Halle; and its fourth part reconstructs the effects of an order coming from Berlin that required Kant and his colleagues at Königsberg to teach in Latin. In Frederick’s Prussia universities were eager to introduce reforms, but at the same time still very bound by their traditions, and in all sciences one can find innovation as well as the last of the past. The orders from Berlin and the aspirations of the faculty at Halle and Königsberg were nonetheless steps on the way toward Humboldt’s reform and at the same time steps toward the achievement of the unity and of the freedom of research and teaching.