school to another during the course of their education. Such midcourse changes were easiest at the small but growing number of comprehensive schools, which offered all three programsvocational, commercial, and academic. Schools of continuing education for adults, such as the many Volkshochschulen (people's universities), offer a variety of courses and have some programs leading to diplomas.Germany has long been known for the quality of its institutions of higher learning, and one of its universities, the Ruprecht-Karls-Universitt in Heidelberg (1386), is among the oldest in Europe (see Heidelberg, University of). Other leading universities in Germany are in Berlin, Bonn, Erlangen, Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg, Gttingen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Marburg an der Lahn, Munich, and Tbingen. Germany also has numerous teacher-training institutions; schools of fine arts, music, and filmmaking; and schools of theology.Cultural Institutions Unlike English and French cultural life, which is centered in the capital cities, London and Paris, German cultural life has traditionally flourished in many cities. For centuries these cities were the capitals of the many independent German states, whose rulers encouraged art, music, theater, and scholarship as expressions of their power. Berlin was the cultural as well as the political capital of a united nation from 1871 to 1945 and became that again in 1990.Germany has some 4000 museums, 15,000 libraries (including 9 national libraries), 60 opera houses, 300 other theaters, and more than 150 major orchestras. These institutions receive large subsidies from their respective cities or states, continuing the tradition of princely support for the arts. Government aid enables many people to find employment in the arts and brings the arts within geographic and economic reach of a large part of the region's population, but it does not imply government control. See also German Literature. Economic Unification The firs...
