The contemporary university within the Federal Republic of Germany is described in the context of its past. Since the central idea of the German university, even today, is rooted in the pivotal founding of the University of Berlin in 1810, that event is the point of departure for this book. Throughout, focus is on the history, structure, and functions of German higher education, including continual struggles for reform and transformation. Chapters include the following: (1) Movement toward a New University: Berlin, Prussia, 1808; (2) Wilhelm von Humboldt and the Idea of the University: Berlin, 1808-1810; (3) Friedrich Schleiermacher and the Idea of the University: Berlin 1809-1810; (4) Development and Growth: The German University in the Nineteenth Century; (5) Continuity: The West German University after 1945; (6) The German University in the Federal Republic: An Elegant but Poignant Anachronism, to 1967-69; (7) The German University in the Federal Republic: Turning to the Future, 1970 and Beyond. It is concluded that the period of romantic reform for the contemporary Germany university has peaked and passed, that at present there is no agreement on a single new model to replace the "enlightenment university" model developed 150 years ago. The debates of the 1960s and 1970s articulated nearly all the reform possibilities, from which the future model will derive. (LB)