VORSCHULE

(German: "preparatory school"), a type of private elementary school that developed in Prussia and other north German states in the mid-19th century to prepare upper-class children for secondary schools. Theoretically, any Prussian boy who had completed the Volksschule (a free, universal, and compulsory primary school) could go to secondary school. But the primary and secondary curricula had so little in common that many who had completed the Volksschule could not master the secondary curriculum. The Vorschule gave students the background necessary to succeed in secondary school. Some were privately owned; others were operated by local governments. All charged fees; thus sons of poorer parents rarely attended. The usual course was three years. In 1919 Germany adopted the Weimar Constitution, which required each state to have primary schools that prepared all children for secondary school. With the implementation of this requirement, the Vorschule ceased to exist.