Historians of adult education claim different times and traditions as the beginning of adult education in Germany : Tietgens(l994) claims the reading societies(Lesegesellschaften) in the second half of the 18th century as an important root of the adult education idea. Intellectual citizens met and exchanged about art, science, and politics. Libraries were established and journals were discussed. These intellectual circles which often included contributions of the leading philosophers of that time are seen as the root of enlightenment in Germany. This tradition of enlightenment and humanism is still a basic idea of adult education in Germany today. Roehrig(I975) refers to the workers' educational societies(Arbeiterbildungsvereine) in the first half of the 19th century. Here we find the motive that under-educated people meet and organize with the aim to overcome their intellectual poverty. The primary motive of workers for this development was emancipation through knowledge from being excluded from understanding the world and from being able to play a role on their own in this world. Later this motive changed more to emancipation through political action. Workers themselves often carried this movement, sometimes through philanthropic leaders and intellectuals.