AFTER THE END of the Napoleonic Wars, higher education in the German states experienced significant growth in both the number of students enrolled and the number of institutions. The Gymnasium, established as the dominant secondary school that prepared students for admission to a university, received competition in the second half of the nineteenth century from the new Realschule, with its emphasis on natural sciences and modern languages. The total number of students attending secondary schools in Prussia grew from 21,000 in 1822 to 68,000 in 1864 and reached 156,630 in 1900. This growth reflected not only the expansion of the Prussian state in the process of creating a German nation-state and the growth of the Prussian population in general but also the increased significance of a university degree for careers in industry and civil service (and especially in education). According to Konrad Jarausch, the expansion of the educational sector after 1870 was largely responsible for the enormous growth of the student population at secondary schools and universities.

The growth of the student population caused an increase in the number of secondary schools and the emergence of specialized school types, which included the Progymnasium as well as the Oberrealschule. The number of Gymnasiums in Prussia grew from 91 in 1810 to 145 in 1864 and 291 in 1900. But the Gymnasium accounted for fewer than half of all secondary schools in Prussia by the turn of the twentieth century. Of the 608 secondary schools, Gymnasiums accounted, as just noted, for 291, while Progymnasiums accounted for 50, Realgymnasiums for 77, Realprogymnasiums for 23, Oberrealschulen for 35, and Realschulen for 132. While the Progymnasiums prepared students for the Gymnasium and, thus, followed a fairly similar curriculum that focused on the humanities and classic languages, Realgymansiums and Realprogymnasiums attempted to combine the humanistic education provided in Gymnasiums with the scientific education imparted in Realschulen. Oberrealschulen were created beginning in 1882 as an alternative to the Gymnasium. They offered preparation for university education that, in contrast to the curriculum of the Gymnasium, did not include training in Latin.