Is the University on the Way to Becoming a Specialized School?

Abstract

In his rector's address of October 15, 1874, Theodor Mommsen said to the students:

There is no formal law that prescribes for you how you must utilize your academic years; there is no intermediate examination to inquire into whether this use has taken place at all and, if so, in what way. No nation in the world places as much confidence in its youth as ours; and our academic youth has up to now justified that confidence. Go now your own way onward, even though this way may often lead into the thicket and you may well think that it is a wrong way; more often than we have dared to hope, it has been found that many ways can lead to the same, and the correct, goal. For every real man of unique qualities his own way is the best way for him; and that way is open to each of you. (1)