According to the collective memory of several educationalists it seems that there has been, once upon a time, a kind of natural bond between history and philosophy of education. Particularly in the sphere of what is actually called in Germany "general pedagogy", the "educational heritage" of "great thinkers" served as a starting point for both - the theoretical, systematic (and/or) philosophical reflection of the educational phenomenon on the one hand and the historical (re)construction of the educational past on the other. Generations of students of education have been trained in other words from a historical-hermeneutic perspective in view of their theory formation. If one looks however at the everyday practice of actual research there is no longer a bond between historians and philosophers of education. Rather the contrary is true. One can easily speak of split in the communication. Both circles have since decades not only their own structures like specialized journals and separate conferences, but also their own discourse about the past. For example philosophers of education concentrate much more on the contemporary value of historical texts than historians do and develop therefore a quasi supra-historical language which aims to clarify the characteristics of a phenomenon transcending history. Historians of education, on the other hand, pay much more attention to the historical context(s) of the studied texts and authors and use therefore a great variety of sources that are not always analysed to the same extent. In the present paper this evolution of an increasing gap between the two approaches is first of all studied against its social and cultural backgrounds. Secondly, the paper aims to indicate some of the possibilities of bridging this gap in the future and, finally, it discusses, without being blind for the ongoing specialization of both fields, some of the advantages of such a mutual co-operation.