862.42/76
The Ambassador in Germany ( Dodd ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 20.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that on the basis of the Decree of April 25, 1933, providing against the overcrowding of German schools and universities (see the Embassy’s despatch No. 2351 of May 2, 193378), the Reich Minister of the Interior has issued an order restricting the number of students to be admitted into German universities during 1934 to approximately 15,000. This is a drastic reduction, as it means that about two-thirds of the pupils in German secondary schools preparing to enter college this year will be unable to do so.
The primary purpose of the ordinance is of course to reduce the large number of college graduates who can not hope to earn a living in a country overstocked with doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc., and to force more young people to engage in some form of handicraft or commerce. It is stated that by compelling young people to start [Page 281] earning a living at a lower age, the authorities expect that a larger number of them will marry and thus help to increase the population, which is one of the principal aims of the Hitler régime.
The ordinance provides that students eligible for matriculation in a university are to be selected on the basis of intellectual and physical fitness, personal character and of course, “national reliability”. It seems evident that the last qualification can be interpreted so as to exclude all who are not avowed adherents of the Hitler régime and thus to reduce the number of Jewish students below the present figure which corresponds roughly to the proportion of Jews in Germany to the entire German population. It is of interest that, in keeping with Nazi philosophy that woman’s place is in the home, the number of female students admissible to German universities this year has been limited to 1,500, or 10 per cent of the entire number.
The total quota of 15,000 new students for 1934—a still further reduction may be made next year if necessary—is distributed among the 16 German States comprising the Reich as follows:
| Prussia | 8,984 | Mecklenburg | 172 |
| Bavaria | 1,670 | Oldenburg | 122 |
| Saxony | 1,339 | Brunswick | 122 |
| Württemberg | 611 | Anhalt | 87 |
| Baden | 574 | Bremen | 105 |
| Thuringia | 390 | Lippe | 40 |
| Hesse | 340 | Lübeck | 34 |
| Hamburg | 398 | Schaumburg-Lippe | 12 |
In order to alleviate the lot of those who will be excluded from university study, the Reich Institute for Unemployment Insurance has been instructed to cooperate through its district labor agencies in finding employment for them in places where they could be trained for various useful vocations. It is believed that since the Government has been able to create jobs for two million unemployed in less than one year, there should be no serious difficulty in finding suitable work for about 20,000 young people affected by this ordinance.
According to reliable information received by the Embassy, this measure appears to have aroused a feeling of disapproval among the more cultivated classes of the population who will be affected by it.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩