Educational expansion and social composition of secondary schools: evidence from Bavarian school registries 1810-1890

This paper studies the relationship between social class,
educational attainment, and social mobility. While educational
expansion has been shown to increase educational attainment and
social mobility in contemporary countries, the 19th century has
received little attention. The German state of Bavaria experienced
an enormous expansion of secondary education in the course of the
19th century, also due to the introduction of modern secondary
education (Gewerbeschule). In this context, it is asked whether
educational expansion (1) led to changes in the association between
social class and educational attainment, and especially so after
the introduction of the Gewerbeschule; (2) weakened the link
between social class of origin (father’s occupation) and class of
destination (son’s occupation) and thereby increased social
mobility? Employing a unique dataset based on annual school reports
of 21 Bavarian cities covering the 19th century, the analysis of
occupational background information on students by the use of
HISCO/HISCLASS reveals that introduction of the Gewerbeschule
increased self-selection of the upper class into traditional and
the middle class into modern education. Even though educational
expansion did not increase participation of lower social classes,
the prospect of social mobility for underprivileged classes was
high especially in the Gymnasium.