| Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg | |
|---|---|
| Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | |
 | |
| Latin: Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis | |
| Motto: | Semper apertus (Latin) |
| Motto in English: | (The book of learning is) always open. |
| Established: | 1386 |
| Type: | Public |
| Rector: | Bernhard Eitel |
| Staff: | 4,196 full time faculty |
| Students: | 26,741 |
| Location: |  Heidelberg, Germany |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Colors: | Sandstone red and Gold |
| Affiliations: | German Excellence Universities LERU Coimbra Group EUA |
| Website: | http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/ |
| Data as of 2007[update] | |
Coordinates: 49°24′37″N 8°42′23″E / 49.41028°N 8.70639°E The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (University of Heidelberg, Ruperto Carola, Heidelberg University, or simply Heidelberg) is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire. A coeducational institution since 1899, today Heidelberg consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association.
Rupert I, Elector Palatine established the university when Heidelberg was the seat of the Prince-Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Consequently, it served as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century. Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and develeloped into a "stronghold of humanism and democracy". However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP cadre university during the Nazi era between 1933 and 1945. It later underwent an extensive denazification after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.
Associated with 30 Nobel Prize laureates, the university continues to emphasize on research. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities, and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorates successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International students from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body.The university comprises two campuses: one in Heidelberg's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld quarter on the outskirts of the city.
History
Founding
The university was founded in 1386 at the behest of Rupert I, Count Palatine of the Rhine, in order to provide faculties for the study of philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. On October 19, 1386 the first lecture was held, making Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany.
The Great Schism in 1378, which split European Christendom into two hostile groups, was initiated by the election of two popes after the death of Pope Gregory XI in the same year. One successor resided in Avignon (elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far-reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave. Rupert I recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull Foundation. On October 18, 1386, a special Pontifical High Mass in the Heiliggeistkirche commemorated the opening of the doors of the university. As a motto for the seal, Marsilius von Inghen, the first rector of the university chose semper apertus—i.e., "the book of learning is always open." At this point in time, the city of Heidelberg had approximately 3,500 inhabitants, including 600 students enrolled at the university.
Early development
The newly created university acted from the outset as an intellectual center for theology and jurisprudence scholars from throughout the Holy Roman Empire.[12] Nominalism had been prevalent from the time of Marsilius until after 1406, when Jerome of Prague, the friend of John Hus, introduced realism at Heidelberg, on which account he was expelled by the faculty. Six years later, the teachings of John Wycliffe were also condemned. Between 1414 and 1418, several distinguished professors of the University of Heidelberg took part in the Council of Constance and acted as counselors for Louis III, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm, and had John Hus executed as a heretic. In 1432 the university, pursuant to papal and imperial requests, sent two delegates to the Council of Basle who faithfully supported the legitimate pope.
The transition from scholastic to humanistic culture was effected by the chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, Conrad Celtes, Jakob Wimpfeling, and Johann Reuchlin. Æneas Silvius Piccolomini was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.[4]
Martin Luther's disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518 made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading Reformationists in Southwest Germany. With the Palatinate's turn to the Reformed faith, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, converted the university into a calvinsitic institution.[13] In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism stepped beside Calvinism as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a cultural and academic center.[12] However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina (the library of the university) was stolen from the University Cathedral and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King Louis XIV, who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.[13][14]
As a consequence of the late Counter-Reformation, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward, and the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory in the neighboring city of Mannheim, where Jesuit Christian Meyer labored as director. In connection with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from three to four hundred; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution and particularly because of the Peace of Lunéeville, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.
19th and early 20th century
It was not until 1803 that this decline stopped. In this year, the university was reestablished as a state-owned institution by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the one of Ruprecht I. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself at its head as rector, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages in speech, poetry, and art. The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism and the movement in favor of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser and Georg Gottfried Gervinus were the guides of the nation in political history. The modern scientific schools of medicine and natural science, particularly astronomy, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school.Heidelberg’s professors were important supporters of the Vormärz revolution and many of them were members of the revolutionary Frankfurt Parliament of 1848. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit, which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch and a circle of colleagues around them. In the Weimar Republic, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic thinking, coined by professors like Karl Jaspers, Gustav Radbruch, Martin Dibelius and Alfred Weber.[12] Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi physicist Philipp Lenard was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.
Nazi era and Federal Republic
With the advent of the Third Reich in 1933, the university supported the Nazis like all other German universities at the time. It dismissed a large number of lecturers and expelled many students for political and racist reasons. Many dissident fellows had to emigrate, some Jewish and Communist professors were deported, and two professors directly fell victim to Nazi terror. Particularly members of the university took part in a book burning at University Square, and Heidelberg was eventually ill-famed as a NSDAP cadre university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit", and many professors paid homage to the new motto. After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification. Since Heidelberg was for the most part spared from destruction during the war, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity". During the Sixties and Seventies, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld area, a large campus for medicine and natural sciences was constructed.Today, about 26,500 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. There are 4,196 full time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2007, the university was appointed University of Excellence within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small network of exceptionally well-funded universities, which are expected to generate a strong international appeal.
Campuses
Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism, and its old town and castle are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport. The University of Heidelberg’s facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.
Old Town Campus
The so-called New University is regarded as the center of the Old Town Campus. It is situated in the pedestrian zone at University Square in direct neighborhood to the University Library and to the main administration buildings. The New University was officially opened in 1931. Its erection was largely financed by donations of American tycoon families, such as Goldman, Sachs, Morgan, Chrysler, Ford, and many others, in line with a fundraising campaign of Jacob Gould Schurman, an alumnus of the University of Heidelberg and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries, and working places for their students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.
New Campus
The New Campus is located in the newest district of the town called Neuenheimer Feld. It is the larger part of the university, and the largest campus for natural sciences and life science in Germany. Almost all science faculties and institutes, the medical school, the university hospitals, and the science branch of the University Library are situated on the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Several independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center and two of the Max-Planck-Institutes have settled there. The New Campus is also seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The old part of town can be reached by tram in about ten minutes. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is not located on either campus, but on the Philosophers' Walk, separated from the Old Town by the River Neckar, and some two kilometers away from the New Campus.
Libraries
The University Library is the main library of the university, and constitutes together with the decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes, the integral university library system, headed by the director of the University Library. It is Germany’s most frequently used library, and it is currently placed second in a ranking of Germany's best libraries. The University Library's stocks exceeded one million in 1934. Today it holds about 3.2 million books, about 500,000 other media such as microfilms and video tapes, as well as 10,732 scientific periodicals. Moreover, it holds 6,600 manuscripts, most notably the Codex Manesse, 1,800 incunabula, 110,500 autographs, and a collection of old maps, paintings, and photographs. The further 83 decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes hold another 3.5 million printed books. In 2005, 34,500 active users of the University Library accessed 1.4 million books a year. The conventional book supply is complemented by numerous electronic services. Around 3,000 commercial scientific journals can be accessed via e-journal. The University Library of today traces its roots back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche, then the University Cathedral. Since 1978, the science branch of the University Library serves the institutes of natural sciences and medicine on the New Campus.
Facilities abroad
The University of Heidelberg has founded a Center for Latin America in Santiago, Chile in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by the University of Heidelberg or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. The University of Heidelberg has arranged cooperation agreements with both of these universities. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education. It also coordinates the activities of the University of Heidelberg in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation. In addition, the university is currently about to set up a Heidelberg Center for North America, with similar tasks, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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