This article is adapted from "Germany National Tour," prepared by G. Nicolai, B. Kolasa and C. Brücher-Albser, 2008, in Wedding, D., & Stevens, M. J. (Eds.). (2009). Psychology: IUPsyS Global Resource (Edition 2009) [CD-ROM]. International Journal of Psychology, 44 (Suppl. 1)

History

Wilhelm Wundt founded the world's first psychological laboratory in Germany at the University of Leipzig in 1879. Psychology as a science rapidly grew in Germany out of Wundt's experimental tradition, later forming special branches, such as Gestaltpsychologie, Berlin Topological School (Lewin), Leipzig Ganzheit School or Würzburg School. SEP was founded by G.E. Müller, H. Ebbinghaus and O. Külpe in 1904 in Giessen during the first psychological congress. In the 1920s psychology as a profession was established and grew continually. Professional psychologists worked in various fields, mostly psychodiagnostics or ergonomic-related fields. In 1942, the diploma was established as a university degree. Under the influence of Nazism and World War II many achievements were lost.

After World War II psychology in Germany was in a disastrous state as a scientific as well as professional discipline. It recovered in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the number of departments and the number of faculty members, as well as the number of non-academic psychologists, increased remarkably. In 1962, the Gesellschaft für Psychologie der DDR (Society of Psychology of the GDR), was founded. It was dissolved in November 1990 after the unification of Germany.

Research

To promote top-level research and to improve the quality of German universities and research institutions the federal and state Initiative for Excellence was created. For the period from 2006 through 2011 the German federal and state governments have granted the German Research Foundation €1.9 billion in additional financing for three funding lines. Psychological science is contributing on all three levels (graduate schools, competence clusters and university structures). More than 40 research schools for young scientists and PhD candidates will receive one million euros each per year, and thirty so-called Excellence Clusters will be created connecting universities with leading German research institutes and businesses. More than 30 universities in nine universities received funding for their future concept: Free University of Berlin, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, RWTH Aachen University, Technical University of Munich, University of Constance, University of Freiburg, University of Göttingen, University of Heidelberg, University of Karlsruhe.

Education

The implementation of the Bologna process is proceeding. The Diplom is increasingly being replaced by a system that awards Bachelor's and Master's degrees. At the moment 44 universities offer study and research programs (35 Bachelor studies at Aachen, Bamberg, FU Berlin, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Braunschweig, Bremen, Chemnitz, Darmstadt, Düsseldorf, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Freiburg i.Br., Gießen, Göttingen, Halle-Wittenberg, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Hildesheim, Jena, Cologne, Konstanz, Leipzig, Lüneburg, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Munich, Münster, Osnabrück, Regensburg, Saarbrücken, Trier, Wuppertal, Würzburg; 9 Diplom studies at HU Berlin, Dresden, Greifswald, Kiel, Koblenz-Landau, Mainz, Marburg, Potsdam, Tübingen). In addition there are programs at 14 Colleges of higher education (Berlin, Bochum, Erding, Görlitz, Hagen, Heidelberg, Idstein, Iserlohn, Cologne, Lüneburg, Potsdam, Stendal, Wernigerode, Wolfenbüttel). Further programs are projected.

Publications

Psychologische Rundschau, 1949- , 4/year
Report Psychologie (BDP), 10/year

Updated November 2008