This paper investigates the impact of mostly implicit convictions about 'white supremacy' and racist ideas in traditional and recent theories of "Bildung" which is a central educational concept in Germany. Concepts of "Bildung" describe processes of individual self-formation. It will be argued that the notion of "Bildung" is still very important in academic and public discourses on education in general and on educational inequities in particular. It will be argued that the concept of "Bildung" focuses on a certain understanding of the subject which does not take into account structural inequities in terms of diversity, even though it is omnipresent in discourses on education and diversity in Germany. To show how deeply ingrained in philosophical and political ideas a racialised concept of "Bildung" is, selected works of Kant, Hegel and Wilhelm von Humboldt on education on the one hand, and on 'race' on the other will be analysed by using Critical Race Theory. However, despite this critique concerning the inherent 'white' supremacy, the critical potential of "Bildung" is worth recognising by formulating a critical race perspective on "Bildung".