Unisterben

Nearly half of the German-speaking universities disappeared within 15 years, from 1803 to 1818, a period often described as the Great Universitätssterben ("die-off" of universities). Among the talks at the Ott Fest, a colloquium on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Professor Hugo Ott, Sandra Haas's presentation was the most lively and exciting.

Emperor Joseph's decree (©Sandra Haas)

Throughout its history, Freiburg's university was threatened with closure. In the second half of the 18th century, the quality of teaching at the Albertina was terrible. So it was no surprise that Emperor Joseph II also mentioned Freiburg when he decreed the closure of half of the six universities on Habsburg territory. Freiburg miraculously survived while the University of Innsbruck was downgraded to a lyceum, and Brno was closed.

Four waves of  "die-off" of universities in Germany (©Sandra Haas)

Sandra Haas told the audience that, starting in 1803, four closing waves swept over German universities. The first blow to their existence came in 1797 when the Second Congress of Rastatt resulted in a peace agreement between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Empire. All German territories to the left of the Rhine River became French in this agreement. Under French rule, the cities of Löwen, Trier, Mainz, Bonn, and Cologne closed their universities.

German universities in 1797 (©Sandra Haas)

The next wave began on February 25, 1803, when the German princes who, in 1797, had lost their territories on the left bank of the Rhine were finally "compensated" in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (German mediatization). Most of the land for their compensation was "gained" by secularizing ecclesiastical principalities and the sometimes vast territories of monasteries. So the prince-bishoprics of Bamberg and Fulda were dissolved and lost their universities. At the same time, the city of Dillingen became part of Bavaria, and the new sovereign downgraded its university to a lyceum.

In the same year, Hercules III of Modena took possession of the Breisgau, which Napoleon had imposed on him in the Treaty of Campo Formio, compensating the duke for territories lost in Northern Italy.

As Freiburg University officials feared the closure of the Austrian Albertina, they sent a letter to Emperor Franz II, begging for the preservation of the university. When the Freiburgers learned that the senile Hercules had appointed his heir and son-in-law, the Austrian Erzherzog Ferdinand, as regent of the Breisgau, the letter, fortunately, became obsolete.

A third mortality wave swept over German universities during the years of Napoleonic rule, i.e., the time between 1806 and 1813. Only two new universities were founded during that period, both at the expense of closing existing ones. When the University of Berlin, later Humboldt University, was founded in 1810, Frankfurt (Oder) was closed. Likewise, the foundation of the University of Landshut in 1801 was nothing but a shift from Ingolstadt on the River Danube to the city on the River Lech. However, Landshut's university lasted only briefly. In 1826, King Ludwig I moved the university to Munich, the Bavarian capital.

German universities in 1818 (©Sandra Haas)

The fourth wave came in the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna. A "bad" example was Prussia, inheriting many "new" old universities due to its territorial acquisitions. The universities of Duisburg, Münster, Paderborn, Wittenberg, and Erfurt overstrained the Prussian state's financial resources and were closed.

The Congress of Vienna also confirmed the Grand Duchy of Baden's existence, which suddenly found itself with two universities: the Calvinist Ruperto Carola in Heidelberg, founded in 1368, and the Catholic Albertina in Freiburg, dating back to 1457. In fact, Baden was in a difficult political situation with a Protestant population in the north, while the acquired Breisgau was mainly Catholic. As Freiburg's professor and poet Johann Georg Jacobi wrote, it became more urgent to "marry" Baden's Protestant North with its Catholic South than to worry about universities.

Already in 1806, Elector Karl-Friedrich was asked to close one of the two universities, but he answered: By no means, they do not belong to Baden alone; they belong to mankind. The following year, as a precaution and preventively, Freiburg's university officials offered their sovereign the title of rector magnificentissimus.

Following the Congress of Vienna in 1816, Baden's financial constraints were even more significant. The government in Karlsruhe told a delegation from Freiburg that one university in Baden was sufficient. Being compensated by a Catholic bishop and the permanent stationing of a garrison, Freiburg should not complain.

Title page of Karl von Rotteck's Promemoria (©Sandra Haas)

In this messy situation, Freiburg's professor Karl von Rotteck wrote a Promemoria (memorandum) in which he stressed that the longish form of Baden's territory justified keeping two universities. Also, competition between the Ruperto Carola on the River Neckar and the Albertina on the River Dreisam would improve the quality of teaching. Baden's governor in Freiburg, Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Friedrich Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn, added that the study of theology should be Catholic in Freiburg and Protestant in Heidelberg.

On January 23, 1818, the relieving message arrived in Freiburg: an explicit ducal order guaranteed the university's existence. When in 1820, Grand-Duke Ludwig granted the Albertina a yearly government subsidy of 15,000 guilders, the thankful university officials asked their sovereign for his gracious permission to rename Freiburg's university: Albertina-Ludoviciana, vivat, crescat, floreat ad multos annos.

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