The educational understanding of today's parents and educators is primarily shaped by the idea of promoting the independence of children and adolescents. The theoretical foundations of this educational goal have been a key theme in pedagogical reflection since the Enlightenment's call for self-activity and autonomy. Since then, the concept of independence has been discussed in various theories and sub-disciplines of educational science. Recently, independence has increasingly been viewed as the competence of children as actors or as self-referential and self-organized learning, seen as a societal-cultural and epistemological prerequisite for educational processes. This book sheds light on both classical and contemporary perspectives on independence through a historically systematic overview.