(1) At the base of the educational edifice there is the common or elementary school (Grundschule), which gives all children an equal education, from the point of view of length of time and content. _This is the principle of the “uniform” school._ This does not mean, however, that everywhere and in all the states public schools must be organized after an invariable pattern. They are uniform in the sense that they are one in the conception underlying their establishment, in that they are inspired in every respect and exclusively by the same democratic principles, that no difference in instruction is made and that the economic and social position and the religious beliefs of parents are deliberately disregarded in according to children the right to an education. (2) Above the common schools are the secondary and higher schools. The Constitution does not say how these are to be organized. It indicates only the idea that is to serve as a guide to legislators when they construct the educational edifice. The State is not to yield to the will and the desires of individuals, but is to be guided before all by the aptitudes and the interests of the children. (3) All children are naturally not compelled to go through the whole educational curriculum, but there is an _obligatory minimum of instruction_. Educational obligations are notably extended in the Constitution as compared to their former limits. “Attendance at school is obligatory. This obligation is discharged by attendance at the elementary schools for at least eight school years and at the continuation schools until the completion of the eighteenth year.” Formerly the obligation to attend school was only for seven years for the public schools. Supplementary instruction, therefore, thus becomes an essential part of public education in all the Reich. (4) Instruction is free, at least in the elementary and supplementary schools. This is a necessary result of compulsory education. The secondary and higher schools are in theory not free, but “to facilitate the attendance of those in poor circumstances at the secondary and higher schools, public assistance shall be provided by the Commonwealth, States, and municipalities, particularly, assistance to the parents of children regarded as qualified for training in the secondary and higher schools, until the completion of the training.”