Present Organisation of the German Universities. 
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2. A short View of the Present Organisation of the 
German Universities. 
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I. The German Universities are exclusively state institutions. 
[t is true, there would be no obstacles in the way of establishing, on 
the part of municipalities or of private founders, colleges after the 
model of Universities, but such institutions would not have the 
prerogatives bestowed on the Universities by law of the States or 
of the Empire, unless they acquired them by special concession. 
The granting of academical degrees by no means forms the most im- 
portant of these rights; itis of far greater significance that for appoint- 
ments in the Church*), for employment in judicial and the higher ad- 
ministrative and educational functions, for admission as barrister, for 
the practice of medicine (on the basis of imperial legislation), a 
course of study at a German University is prescribed as a necessary 
condition. 
The Universities possess the personal legal rights of public 
law; as is expressly stated in the Prussian common-law, they have 
the rights of privileged corporations. Their inner administration has 
been regulated, for each University and its faculties, by sovereign 
privileges and statutes, dating from very various times, and by sup- 
plementary ministerial decrees. 
All the Universities possess considerable assets, in the shape of 
buildings, collections, etc., besides endowments for the purpose of 
dursaries or for the provision of the families of deceased professors. 
But only a few, like that of Greifswald, possess property that yields 
considerable revenues, from which a large part of the costs of 
maintenance is defrayed. Others receive subsidies from independent 
public funds, that are devoted to special purposes, as for example 
Gottingen, from the Hannoverian monastic funds. As their own 
sarnings we may also mention the proceeds arising from the clinical 
hospitals, and from certain fees or charges. By far the larger 
portion, however, of the total University expenses. is covered by 
direct State subsidies. 
*) Only for the training of Roman Catholic priests, there are, in addition to the 
theological faculties, institutions in the enjovment of rights equal to those of the former.