bildung

Thanks for the replies, directly and indirectly, to my question that
is, in hindsight, marked by conjecture (of the everyday sort), and
laziness (not having consulted with at least wikipedia). I also
appreciate the humour (of the subtle type) in your posts.

I joined to ask simple questions, in the hope of acquiring a better
grip on words and phrases encountered in academic books and articles.
Could you help me with the word, bildung, in the sentence, "Education
was Bildung -- character building, not just subject matter"? I did a
quick search on the internet, but I did not find anything that seems
relevant. I gather that bildung has something to do with building (the
two words do look alike), but does it also carry the meaning related
to character building by itself? Of course, character building here
could have referred to what has already mentioned or what is to come
in the text where I encountered the sentence. I understand the text
and I don't think there are such references.