Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

German Entrepreneurs and the Industrialization of Milan
Lehranstalt für die Kinder aus den höheren Ständen in Elberfeld, 88
one of the best educational establishments in Protestant Germany. 89
This innovative school was open to girls and boys, and its usual
course of studies lasted two years. Under the direction of the educationalist
Johann Friedrich Wilberg, 90 children were taught German,
French, English, natural sciences, history, geography, mathematics,
drawing, and, on request, accounting and Italian: commercial subjects
and Realien, 91 instead of the predominantly theological subjects
taught at other Protestant schools. After these preliminary years, girls
completed their studies at college, while boys began a practical ap -
prentice ship in commercial enterprises. All the children thus receiv -
ed an education that equipped them to understand the functioning of
the firms they were going to inherit or marry into. This was a radical
departure from existing cursi studiorum, and fulfilled the wishes and
practical requirements of the families financing the new school in
Elber feld. The pursuit of a new and dedicated course of studies re -
flects the growing self-awareness of the international business elite to
which Kramer and Mylius belonged. It was not confined to Elber feld.
In each hub of activity where they were present, members of international
networks financed initiatives like Wilberg’s school, 92 and
88 On this school founded by the merchants and textile manufacturers of
Elber feld in 1804 see Hans Peter Füssel and Peter M. Roeder, ‘Recht—Er zie -
hung—Staat’, in eid. (eds.), Recht—Erziehung—Staat: Zur Genese einer Pro b -
lem konstellation und zur Programmatik ihrer zukünftigen Entwicklung (Wein-
heim, 2003), 16–18.
89 ‘Il professore Antonio de Kramer-Cenno Biografico’, Il Crepuscolo, 4 (1853),
626.
90 The revolution consisted not only in removing the educational sector from
the sphere of religious influence, but also in treating male and female students
equally and introducing some new subjects. For this reason Wilberg was one
of the most representative German educationalists. Many of his teaching principles
are still valid today. For example, in 1821 he wrote: ‘It is not the amount
of knowledge of various sorts acquired . . . that determines the value of the
school, but whether its pupils can find things out for themselves, and thus
have learned to learn.’ Johann Friedrich Wilberg, Die für die Elementarschulen
nothwendigen und genügenden Schulübungen (Elberfeld, 1821).
91 In German-speaking countries Realien refers to subjects dealing with the
real world, such as biology, geography, and mathematics, as opposed to language-based
subjects.
92 Gunther Herbert Zander, ‘Gründung der Handelshochschulen im deut -
281