Founding on instruction of
Pope Urban VI who demanded modelling it after the ancient
University of Paris. The
Great Schism of 1378 made it possible for Heidelberg, a relatively small city and capital of the
Electorate of the Palatinate, to gain its own university. The Great Schism was initiated by the election of two popes after the death of
Pope Gregory XI in the same year.
Rupert I recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the
Curia, which ultimately led to a
papal bull for foundation of a university. After having received, on 23 October 1385, permission from pope
Urban VI to create a school of general studies (), the final decision to found the university was taken on 26 June 1386 at the behest of Rupert I,
Count Palatine of the Rhine. As specified in the papal charter, the university was modelled after the
University of Paris and included four faculties: philosophy, theology,
jurisprudence, and medicine. On 18 October 1386 a special
Pontifical High Mass in the
Heiliggeistkirche was the ceremony that established the university. In November 1386,
Marsilius of Inghen was elected first
rector of the university. The rector seal motto was
semper apertus—i.e., "the book of learning is always open." The university grew quickly and in March 1390, 185 students were enrolled at the university. was offered in the
Heiliggeistkirche in 1386 to mark and bless the establishment of the university.
Late Middle Ages Between 1414 and 1418, theology and jurisprudence professors of the university 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. This resulted in establishing a good reputation for the university and its professors. Due to the influence of Marsilius, the university initially taught the
nominalism or
via moderna. In 1412, both realism and the teachings of
John Wycliffe were forbidden at the university but later, around 1454, the university decided that
realism or
via antique would also be taught, thus introducing two parallel ways (). 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 Heidelberg University 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 as 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 benefices to secular professors.
Reformation and modern era 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
Electorate of the Palatinate turn to the Reformed faith,
Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, converted the university into a
Calvinist institution. 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. 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. As a consequence of the late
Counter-Reformation, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by
Jesuits. From 1712 to 1728, 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. Meanwhile, 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 Mayer labored as director. In connection with the four hundredth anniversary of the university, the elector approved a revised statute book that several professors had been commissioned to prepare. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that time, the number of students varied from 300 to 400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the
French Revolution, and particularly because of the
Treaty of Lunéville, 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 This decline did not stop until 1803, when 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 name 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. Heidelberg's professors were important supporters of the
Vormärz revolution and many of them were members of the first freely elected German parliament, the
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 February 1900, the
Grand Duchy of Baden issued a decree that gave women the right to access universities in Baden. Thus, the universities of Freiburg and Heidelberg were the first ones to allow
women to study. 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. On 17 May 1933, members of the university faculty and students took part in
book burnings at
Universitätsplatz ('University Square') and Heidelberg eventually became infamous as a
NSDAP 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. The university was involved in
Nazi eugenics: forced sterilizations were carried out at the women's clinic and the psychiatric clinic, then directed by
Carl Schneider, was involved in
Action T4 Euthanasia program. The heads of the university helped in the deportation of Jewish men, women and children directly to the gas chambers.
Federal Republic of Germany Since Heidelberg was spared from destruction during World War II, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, Heidelberg University 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". 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 university's 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. There are 4,196 full-time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2022,
a mass shooting occurred in the university, killing a woman and injuring three other people. The gunman then committed suicide. ==Campuses==