Object – German university education as a socio-cultural phenomenon; the purpose of the research is to substantiate the stages, identify the main trends and characterize the experience of the organization of university education in Germany in the XX – early XXI century to use constructive achievements in modern conditions of reforming the national system of higher education; methods – general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction, comparison, generalization, systematization, concretization), specific scientific (historical-retrospective, historical-structural, chronological, historical-diachronic, problem-thematic, praximetric, historical-actualization); novelty – the historiography of the problem of development of university education of Germany in domestic (pre-revolutionary, Soviet, post-Soviet) and foreign scientific thought is outlined; scientifically substantiated stages and leading trends in the development of university education in Germany within certain chronological limits: Stage I (1899 – 1932) – active search for a new model of university education against the growing role of natural, engineering and technical sciences, industry demands and state needs for training a new generation; Stage II (1933 – 1944) – a radical transformation of university education in Germany under the National Socialist regime; Stage III (1945 – the first half of the 60's of the twentieth century) – the restoration of the war-torn and Nazi ideology of university education in divided Germany; Stage IV (second half of the 60's – 1989) – focusing on solving problems of university education, large-scale activities to streamline educational expansion; Stage V (1990 – 1997) – consolidating the efforts of educational policymakers and the scientific community to strengthen the competitiveness of university education in a united Germany and the introduction of market mechanisms in the basis of its management; Stage VI (1998 – 2018) – reforming university education in Germany in the context of globalization and integration processes; identified cross-cutting trends in the development of university education in Germany during the XX century – the beginning of the XXI century; the views of the scientific and pedagogical community of Germany of the XX – beginning of the XXI century are generalized and characterized. the role of pedagogy in general and didactics of higher education in particular for the development of university education; results – provisions and conclusions on the evolution of university education in Germany and its leading trends during the XX – early XXI century provide grounds for systematization of ideas, generalization of experience and determination of prospects for its use in the process of reforming the university education of Ukraine, taking into account the challenges facing modern Ukrainian society. Field – education/pedagogy.
