225 ON THE PRUSSIAN PEOPLE EDUCATION ON THE MATURE STAGE OF ABSOLUTISM Shoji Department of Education, Nara University of Education, Nara, Japan Ishii In order to observe the preceding conditions for the formation of national education thoughts and movements in last 30 years of the 18th century in Prussia, I intend to analyse the spreading process of people education on the mature stage of absolutism (1763-1790). Before the end of 7 years war (1763), the feudal relations between the feudal land owner, the so called "Gutsherr" and peasantry, which are, at the same time, the feudal productive relations, the feudal governing system and the feudal community, are very tightly, so that these tight feudal relation prevents to rise the capitalism and to spread the people education in this times. However, after the end of 7 years war, these tight feudal relations began to relax keeping pace with the rising of agricaltural productivity. Just this times, Frederick the Great began to drive forward the policies of people education from the view-point of the breeding of the noncommissioned officer class and sericulturists, which are pointed out as his motivations for people education policies by many educatioral historian already, then, if he wishes to reach this goals of people education effectivly and efficiently, I think, his educationl interests will be directed to cildren of, no peasantry, but the middle class farmers and rural handworkers rising from the relaxation of these feudal relations, because they have more probability to become the noncommissioned officers and sericulturists in future. When I analyse his people education policies, for example, "Das General-Land-Schule- Reglement" (1763) and "Das konig. preuss. General-Landschule-Reglemement fur die Rom. Kath. in Stadt. und Dorf. des Herz. Schlesien und Graf. Glatz". (1765) I find this tendency in these regulations on many sides easily. But the people education by these regulations does not spread easily all over the kingdom, because the peasantry resists these regulations. However, once we observe all over the kingdom in detail and more carefully, we find that the educational demands by the middle class farmers and rural handworkers are rising strongly over the frame of these regulations in 1770-1780 and their demands begin to change contents of people education and turn them into their interests, national eduction. So Frederick the Great and his minister Zedlitz warn this tendency as a crisis of their absolutism in the end of 1770. We have the formation of national education thoughts and movements in 1770-1800 in this country, this formation has preceding conditions in the background as I pointed out above.