Heidelberg: Relations Between a Town and Its University
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Heidelberg: Relations Between a Town and Its University Peter Meusburger The oldest seal of the rector’s offi ce at the most important of the four secular ᕡ Honorary offi ces, offi ces of state, University of Heidelberg, from 1390, used Prince Electors as Arch-Steward ᕡ and until 1740. and court offi ces (Erzämter) Imperial Vicar as well as the judge over During the First German Reich – since the the king. The function as the seat of the fi fteenth century customarily called the Prince Elector’s court was further en- Holy Roman Empire of the German Na- that Heidelberg was a centre of politi- hanced when Ruprecht III was elected tion – certain honorary offi ces, offi ces of cal power from the 14th to the early German king as Ruprecht I in 1400, state, and court offi ces were attached to 18th century as the residence of a Prince which title he retained until his death in the rank of Prince Elector. The bestowal Elector, one of only seven nobles at that 1410 (Hepp, 1990, p. 15; Scheuerbrandt, and duties of these high offi ces were set forth by Emperor Charles IV in the Gol- time who held the privilege of electing 1996b, pp. 48-49). The fact that the den Bull (1356). the German king and future Holy Ro- Heidelberg Prince Electors (descended man emperor. Such elections took place from the senior line of the House of Arch-Steward (Erztruchsess) when the dynasty changed, but they Wittelsbach) repeatedly played a lead- The offi ce of Arch-Steward was of purely were also needed by the son of the ing role in the politics of the German symbolic character at the emperor’s coro- reigning king in order to be approved Empire greatly benefi ted the town sci- nation, at which the Arch-Steward, carry- On the symbiosis between the town by the Prince Electors as his father’s entifi cally, culturally, and economically ing the imperial orb, led the procession. The Palatine Prince Electors held the of- rightful successor. This outstanding but also meant major disadvantages. and the university fi ce of Arch-Steward until well into the Heidelberg University shapes its envi- centre of political power depended on Because of Heidelberg’s political cen- seventeenth century. rons through buildings, technical equip- knowledge and expertise, and it became trality and its militarily strategic loca- ment, traffi c density, and other ways in an almost irresistible magnet for many tion near the border with France and at Imperial vicar (Reichsverweser) which space is used. It also has great scholars, students, and artists over the a place where the Neckar valley opens The imperial vicar represented the king or impact on demographic development, centuries. During that time, the Prince onto the Rhine plain, the town suffered emperor at offi cial functions and in mat- social structure, economic vitality, in- Elector’s court and the university domi- time and again from siege, destruction, ters under court jurisdiction. He also did so during long vacancies of the throne, novativeness, purchasing power, voting nated the scene, constituting Heidel- and the effects of forced migration. as with extended absence of the King or behaviour, educational attainment, and berg’s economic cornerstone, whereas Heidelberg and its university profi ted Emperor, the transitional phase surround- cultural life in its town and region. Di- the town’s commercial function re- especially from the town’s ascendance ing the election of the King or Emperor, rectly and indirectly (through wages, mained rudimentary and its manufac- as a nucleus of European Calvinism in or the period during which the ruler was capital expenditures, and investment), turing sector served only local needs. the sixteenth century and from the fact still too young to assume power. Heidelberg University generates myriad Despite a host of auspicious conditions that the Electoral Palatinate’s cultural jobs and attracts scholars, students, cre- at the outset, Heidelberg was never able (and in some measure also political) re- Italy and France. In the early seven- ative minds in the arts and letters, and to develop all the urban functions one lations extended from England to Tran- teenth century the Prince Elector in intellectuals from around the globe. would expect to fi nd in so politically sylvania and from Silesia to northern Heidelberg took the lead in the anti- Some of its graduates remain in the re- signifi cant a place. Nor did Heidelberg gion and expand the creative potential gain much from industrialisation in the from which the regional economy, pub- nineteenth century, although the town’s lic administration, and culture recruit manufactories offered relatively favour- highly qualifi ed employees and manag- able conditions for that eventuality. ers. Those academics and graduates who Through good times and bad, the uni- move on from the university region un- versity was the most stable urban func- derscore the acclaim of the university tion for 625 years. It spread Heidelberg’s and the town. name throughout the world, and its his- Conversely, a university is affected by tory was inextricably linked with the the political, social, and economic con- history of the town. ditions of its urban and regional loca- tion. Heidelberg University owes not Heidelberg – an important centre of only its founding but also some of its power for more than 300 years heydays and catastrophes to the fact Right from its beginnings in the twelfth century, Heidelberg was a likely admin- istrative hub of the emerging territorial state governed by the Counts Palatine of the Rhine (Pfeifer, 1963b, p. 181; Scheuerbrandt, 1972, pp. 129-131). Bastions in the western part of the Heidelberg Old Town (today’s Bismarckplatz, between the The town occupied the limelight in im- Neckar river and the Ebertanlage) shortly before its completion at the beginning of the Thirty perial politics for the fi rst time when Years War. Count Palatine Ludwig II in 1272 be- came the Imperial Vicar ᕡ, or chief secular prince of the Holy Roman Em- pire. Heidelberg’s political infl uence continued growing when the Palatinate became a principality in its own right in 1329 and particularly when the Golden Bull of 1356 confi rmed the Count Pala- tine’s electoral dignity. Henceforth, one The Codex Balduineus (circa 1340) contains the fi rst recognised of the empire’s seven Prince Electors re- portrayal of the seven Prince Electors, who are identifi ed by their sided in Heidelberg (Ī image). coats of arms above their heads. From left to right: the Archbish- ops of Cologne, Mainz, and Trier; the Count Palatine of the Rhine Heidelberg’s prominence as a centre (the Heidelberg Prince Elector), the Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of power increased again in 1356 when of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. Count Palatine Ruprecht I became the 18 Wissenschaftsatlas of Heidelberg University Habsburg alliance of Protestant princes, came to be derided as the Winter King thrusting the Electoral Palatinate into (see Bilhöfer, 2003a, 2003b, 2004; the maelstrom of European-wide con- Frese, 2004; Pánek, 2003). fl ict. The Heidelberg Prince Electors ac- Heidelberg and the Electoral Palati- tively supported the Calvinist Hugue- nate were a primary target of attack by nots in France and the resistance of the troops of the Catholic League in the Dutch Protestants against Spain. the Thirty Years War (Ī image). The To strengthen the Protestant princes capital was alternately captured by both against the Catholic Habsburgs, six- parties to the confl ict and was defence- teen-year-old Friedrich V (Ī image) was less against the devastation and plun- married in 1613 to Elizabeth Stuart dering visited upon it by troops of Duke (Ī image), the only daughter of James I, Maximilian of Bavaria in 1634, who King of England. came from the junior, Catholic line of After the Bohemian estates in Prague the House of Wittelsbach. The univer- had deposed the Habsburg King, Ferdi- sity’s fi rst, glorious period ended in nand II, in 1618 (an act that became 1622. According to Wolgast (1986b, known as the defenestration), they re- pp. 53-55), the university had to shut quested Prince Elector Friedrich V, who down its teaching on 11 April 1626. resided in Heidelberg, to become King Except for one mathematician who had of Bohemia, a throne to which a few converted to Catholicism, all the pro- earlier candidates had already declined fessors left the university. Teaching re- to succeed. Recognising the high risk sumed in June 1629, but by 1632 the that acceptance of the Bohemian crown university had to interrupt teaching would entail, some of his counsellors in again, a recurring pattern throughout Heidelberg advised him to reject the of- the war. Records of 1641 mention one fer, as did the kings of France and Eng- physician as rector and two Jesuits as land. They were certain the Habsburgs professors. The university was at last re- would not tolerate this encroachment opened in 1652. on their power. Friedrich V went ahead Few areas in Germany during the nonetheless and was elected King of Thirty Years War had been badly de- Bohemia on 26 August 1619. He and stroyed and had lost as much of its pop- his wife left Heidelberg for Prague on ulation as had the Electoral Palatinate. 7 October 1619 with a retinue of On 7 October 1649 – about one year af- 568 people and 153 wagons (Billhöfer, ter the war ended – there were only 2003a; 2003b, p. 27). He was crowned about 300 inhabitants left in Heidelberg king in Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral. (Scheuerbrandt, 1996b, p. 74). In the His reign in Prague, however, was trou- communities of the Rhine plain, only bled from the start.