Distance education (DE) in Germany as offered by private institutions has quite a long tradition (for a historical review, see Staatliche Zentralstelle fuer Fernunterricht - ZFU, 1997). Even before the turn of the century, there were private institution that offered distance courses in the field of professional training and education. In 1856, Gustaf Langenscheidt in Berlin started to send out his letters of correspondence in French - this was the first DE course in Germany and it focused on teaching a foreign language. In 1895, Simon Mueller offered letters which introduced the reader to the field of design and construction. A year later, he started to co-operate with a Berlin publishing company which some ten years later began to offer DE courses to help students prepare for the Abitur, the final examination at high school level (Gymnasium) that is a prerequisite for entering the university.
Following World War I, the number and variety of DE courses increased markedly. Many people whose education had suffered during the war years wanted to make up for this lost time and enrolled on courses which they hoped would improve their scholastic and/or professional education. With the Nazis coming into power, the whole educational system - including the institutions offering DE courses - was subjected to the control of their regime.
World War II was followed by a period of reconstruction in Germany which gave people the opportunity to improve their social status. Private institutions offered DE courses which helped people try to realise their ambitions, not only with respect to professional education, but also with respect to more general and scholastic education. As a consequence, the private DE business boomed, leading also to abuses. For example, people were talked into signing contracts for DE courses which later on they could not revoke or, if they could end the contract, it was only with great difficulty. Therefore, in the sixties the ministers of culture of the different German states began to discuss how DE courses offered by private institution could and should be controlled by state law. In 1969, they proposed a treaty between the German states on the implementation of a central agency on distance education which was then signed by the presidents of each of the states.
On January 1, 1971, the National Central Agency on Distance Education (NCADE) assumed the responsibility to control private institutions that were offering distance courses in the field of education. At the same time, the National Institute for Research on Professional Education (Bundesinstitut fuer Berufsbildungsforschung) was founded at Berlin. Both institutions helped improve the quality of DE courses markedly. Starting in 1980, every DE course that is offered by a private institution in the field of education has to be approved by the NCADE.
Students who take part in DE courses offered by private institutions will either receive a certificate of that institution if they complete the course successfully, or they may take an examination at an external, state controlled institution (if, for instance, they want to continue in the public educational system).
In 1995, the number of people taking part in DE courses offered by private institutions was 142,066 - about a third of these students were preparing for examinations offered by public and state controlled institutions. DE students were distributed across the different disciplines as follows: