The reign of the Empress and Queen Maria Theresa (1740 –1780) is associated with many reformative steps. These also affected the educational and the schooling system, which began to be seen as a political issue. In December 1774, that is 250 years ago, the General School Ordinance for all German primary schools in all the imperial and royal hereditary lands (Allgemeine Schulordnung für die Deutschen Normal – Haupt – und Trivialschulen in sämtlichen Kaiser., Königl. Erbländern) was issued in German in the Austrian (thus also the Czech) part of the Habsburg monarchy. Three years later, in 1777, the...