Academia Gustaviana The foundation act of the new university in Dorpat (Tartu) was signed on 30 June 1632 by
King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden who was leading a military campaign in Germany at the time, a few months before his death in the
Battle of Lützen (16 November 1632). The first chancellor of the university (called alternatively
Academia Dorpatensis after its location, or
Academia Gustaviana after the founding king) was Baron
Johan Skytte (1577–1645), the governor-general of the Swedish provinces of Livonia,
Ingria, and
Karelia. The university founded in Tartu in 1632 was at the time the third oldest university in the entire Kingdom of Sweden, following the
University of Greifswald in
Swedish Pomerania and
Uppsala University (in
Uppsala, Sweden proper), and preceding the
Academy of Åbo (now
Turku,
Finland). A precursor to the academy had been a
Jesuit grammar school
Gymnasium Dorpatense, founded by
Stefan Batory (then king of
Poland–Lithuania) in 1583 and existing to 1601, when Tartu (Dorpat) was under
Polish–Lithuanian rule. The first students matriculated between 20 and 21 April 1632. The opening ceremony of Academia Gustaviana took place on 15 October in the same year. The academy in Tartu functioned with philosophy, law, theology, and medical faculties enjoying the privileges of the University of Uppsala. After the outbreak of the
Russo–Swedish war of 1656–1658, the university was moved from Tartu to
Tallinn. It was closed down in 1665, only to be re-opened in Tartu again in 1690. In the 17th century, the future outstanding Swedish scholars
Urban Hiärne,
Olof Verelius, , and others studied at the university. Among the academic staff were , professor of history (the history of
Livonia, the first scientific approach to Estonian folklore) and
Georg Mancelius, professor of
theology (author of the first
Latvian-German dictionary in 1638).
Academia Gustavo-Carolina With the re-opening of the university in 1690 (renamed
Academia Gustavo-Carolina) Tartu became a university town again. Academic staff of the new university included , professor of mathematics (the first in the world to deliver lectures based on
Newton's theory), , professor of rhetoric and poetry, , professor of medicine (founder of
balneology, and discoverer of natural mineral water springs) and
Michael Dau, professor of philosophy as well as of rhetoric and poetry. Just under a decade after being reconstituted, as a result of the coalition against Sweden (Russia,
Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland-Lithuania) and the
Great Famine of 1695–1697, the university moved from Tartu to Pernau (
Pärnu) and renamed
Academia Pernaviensis. Eventually, Academia Gustavo-Carolina, which had opened in Pärnu on 28 August 1699, was closed as a result of the surrender of the city to the invading army of the
Tsardom of Muscovy on 12 August 1710 during the
Great Northern War. Albeit according to the terms of capitulation, the Russian tsar
Peter I agreed to maintain the university in Pärnu, the university was closed for the following 92 years. It was able to reopen only in 1802, when its new charter was confirmed by Emperor
Alexander I of Russia.
Universität Dorpat constructed between 1804 and 1809. . was founded by
Gottfried Albrecht Germann in 1803. The university was relaunched by the leaders of local
Baltic German nobility and officially opened in April 1802. The charter of
Universität Dorpat, the first German-speaking university in the entire
Russian Empire, was confirmed by the reform-minded Tsar
Alexander I of Russia. The language of instruction at the university was German from 1802 to 1893. During that time, Dorpat had a dual nature in that it belonged both to the set of German(-language) and Russian universities. Financially and administratively, the latter was more important; intellectually and regarding the professoriate and students, the former was more important (over half the professors came from
Germany, at least another third were local
Baltic Germans). Among the 30 German-language universities, of which 23 were inside the
German Empire, Dorpat was the 11th in size. In teaching, the university educated the local Baltic German aristocrats and professional classes, as well as staff, especially for the administration and health system of the entire Russian Empire. In scholarship, it was an international university; the time between 1860 and 1880 was its "golden age". The freedom to be a half-German university ceased with the rise of nationalist tendencies in Russia, which held homogenization more important than retaining a bilingual university. Between 1882 and 1898,
russification in language, appointments, etc., was imposed, with some exceptions (such as the Divinity School, which the state feared would be used by the
Orthodox clergy to teach dangerous
Protestant views and was thus allowed to continue in German until 1916). By 1898, when both the town and the university were renamed
Yuryev, virtually all distinguished scholars from Germany had left. The University of Yuryev existed until 1918, when during part of the fall term, it was reopened, under
German occupation, as Dorpat. Russian academic staff and students took refuge in
Voronezh in Russia, giving rise to the foundation of
Voronezh State University, which traces its own history back to the foundation of the University of Tartu and still holds several physical properties of the latter.
University of Tartu (1919–) After Estonia became an independent country in 1918, the University of Tartu has been an
Estonian-language institution since 1919. The university was named Ostland-Universität in Dorpat during the
German occupation of Estonia in 1941–1944 and Tartu State University (Estonian:
Tartu Riiklik Ülikool) in 1940–1941 and 1944–1989, during the
Soviet occupation. During Soviet rule, although Estonian remained the principal language of instruction, some courses were taught in Russian, with several Russian curricula. Estonia
regained independence in 1991, and the full recovery of academic autonomy of the university can be dated to 1992 with the introduction of financial and academic strategic planning. Presently, no courses are taught in Russian. was developed mainly by the students from the University of Tartu. The last decade has been marked by organizational and structural changes, as well as adaptations to various university models (American, Scandinavian, German) against the background of the Soviet and Baltic German past. Most recently, the university has been and is still being marked by the adaptation of the
Bologna declaration in Estonia generally and Tartu specifically, leading to major changes in curricula and studies, as well as by strong organizational centralization attempts. Recent plans also include the abolition of the Chair system (an Americanization) and of the faculties, which is supposed to lead to four large divisions (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and medicine) under briefly serving deans and rector-appointed financial administrators. ==Buildings==