In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of public education in Germany and the US, focusing on historical and contemporary challenges to education, Bildung, and citizenry in the modern nation state. In particular, we examine relations among nation building processes and education, transnational discourses, mutual influences, and relations regarding public education over time, and identity building and citizenship within and between federal, nation state and international levels. Comparative methods are utilized to examine policy documents as well as the literature, looking for similarities and differences among key concepts and discourses. The article concludes by pointing out that a number of contemporary developments bringing public education to a crossroads today are not entirely new and that foundations of education theory are still relevant. At the same time, we suggest new cross-national dialogues regarding the challenges bringing public education to the crossroads today.

在本文中，我们将对德国和美国的公共教育进行比较分析，重点是Bildung在历史和当代教育方面的挑战，以及现代民族国家的公民身份。特别是，我们研究了国家建设过程和教育之间的关系，跨国话语，相互影响以及随着时间的推移与公共教育之间的关系，以及联邦，民族国家和国际级别之间以及之间的身份建设和公民身份。比较方法用于检查政策文件和文献，以寻找关键概念和论述之间的异同。文章最后指出，当今将公共教育带入十字路口的许多当代发展还不是全新的，并且教育理论的基础仍然具有现实意义。同时，我们建议开展新的跨国对话，探讨将公众教育带入当今十字路口的挑战。