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The article presents the findings of a research project on the roles and positioning of foundations in Germany, with a focus on the fields of education, higher education, social services, and arts and culture. Results show that fields as well as differences in size and mode of operation are key to understanding the roles and positioning of foundations. Germany is a coordinated market economy with a conservative welfare regime and a corporatist nonprofit sector. However, especially the latter of the two characteristics is gradually changing, and foundations are moving away from a state orientation toward a greater civil society focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophical debate on educational justice currently focusses on the Anglo-American situation. This essay brings in an additional perspective. It provides a justice-oriented critique of the segregated education systems in German-speaking countries. First, arguments that are commonly put forward in favour of these systems are rejected. Second, an additional argument against early tracking in education is formulated. It is claimed that segregated education systems tend to undermine children’s ‘right to an open future’. It is also explained that the segregated systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are linked to well-established systems of vocational education and training. It is argued, in this essay, that a workplace-based vocational system can be an important element of a just education system. The proposal is, then, to introduce a comprehensive school system in the first 8 or 9 school years that prepares students for both the vocational system and the academic track (Gymnasium). Against this background, a so-called threshold conception of educational justice – that contains two different threshold levels – is formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses effectively maintained inequality considering two different examples from the Germany education system: secondary school attainment and enrolment in highly ranked universities among freshmen. In our analyses of secondary school attainment, we investigate whether considering differentiation in upper secondary education leads to other conclusions than restricting the analyses to the conventional distinction between the traditional degree levels. In our analyses of university choice, we investigate whether the introduction of university ranking lists has created a new qualitative dimension of inequality in the German higher education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I suggest that the question whether the proper place for philosophy of education is in the domain of philosophy or the domain of education cannot be resolved as long as we think of the connection between philosophy and education in terms of the idea of ‘philosophy of education’. To substantiate this point, I look into the history of the idea of ‘philosophy of education’, both as a general idea and with regard to the way in which it became institutionalised in universities in the English-speaking world. I contrast this with the way in which the academic study of education developed in German-speaking countries in order to highlight that ‘philosophy of education’ is not the only way in which philosophy and education can be connected. Being aware that the connection between philosophy and education can be made differently not only provides a way out of the discussion about the proper identity and location of philosophy of education, but also hints at forms of philosophically informed scholarship that are more firmly based with the academic field of education rather than that they remain a halfway house in between philosophy and education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on the current status of sport, physical education and higher education in unified Germany as of May 1994. When contracts for the reunification were developed, the home minister of Germany was naturally reluctant to preserve a sports system filled from top to bottom with obedient socialists. The three major sport research institutes, the Research Institute for Physical Culture and Sport in Leipzig, the Doping Laboratory in Kreischa, and the Institute for the Development of Sport Equipment in Berlin were kept, guaranteeing their existence by incorporating the three institutions in the official reunification contract. All the other East German sport institutions were given up, left to the discretion of the five new federal states. After the unification of boundaries, search for a new identity for sport club activities has began. The future development of Germany is in need of sport and physical education to play an important role in change. Such a sport system includes not only top-level athletics in the form of professional sports but opportunities for physical activity to be part of individuals' everyday lived experiences.