History of the fraternities
The history of the student associations is closely linked to the history of the universities . The article describes the history of connections since the early beginnings in medieval universities, but focuses on the history of today's forms of student corporations.
Formation of corporations at European universities
Even in antiquity, students organized so-called symposia , which sought convivial drinking groups in serious and cheerful conversations. There were universities in Alexandria , Athens and Byzantion , for example . A symposium would therefore be a forerunner of a Kommerses or a pub .
With the first European universities of the 12th and 13th centuries, associations of students also emerged. These developed certain forms that are to be regarded as early forerunners of today's connection traditions. Previously, from the seventh century onwards, education had primarily taken place in monastery schools , with a belief in authority and monopolistic learning behavior. Two conditions now led to the emergence of universities. First, the spirit of reasoned scholasticism with its system of dialectical Three step of thesis , antithesis and synthesis a new concept of science, on the other hand tended social development this time to the formation of corporations such as guilds , guilds and religious , so now that even those of teachers and Students from various fields of science emerged.
Nationes
At the Sorbonne (around 1200) there were philosophical schools , at the University of Bologna (1088) legal and at the University of Salerno (around 1160) medical schools, which gradually merged into large communities in which general studies could be pursued: the universities . It is only against this background that one can understand today's student associations.
In the Middle Ages , the totality (universitas) of professors and students of a university was divided into corporations called nations, of which there were four in Paris and seventeen in Bologna.
Like guilds, they served to protect their members, who campaigned for the rights of their members and, in addition, had a constitutive character within the “University” corporation. This becomes particularly clear in Bologna, where the university called itself “universitas magistrorum et scholarium” early on and where the students, among other things, had the right to elect a rector, the rectorate itself and the authority to control professors.
In contrast, Paris in the 13th century can be seen as the prototype of the northern university of professors. Here, too, practically the same nation existed, but in contrast to Bologna they were each headed by a Magister . Other Nationes existed at the University of Prague , the first university in the Holy Roman Empire . Here there was the Bohemian nation for Germans and Czechs, as well as a Bavarian, Polish and Saxon department.
Today's successor to the Nationes is the student nation that still appears in Sweden today , where the student associations called "nationer" sometimes take on tasks that are assigned to the student unions in Germany .
Colleges
Parallel to the nationes, the so-called “colleges” were created in Paris and England. When King Henry II called back the English students from Paris in 1167, a Studium Generale, a university , developed from the schools in Oxford . After a dispute, three thousand academics moved from Oxford to Cambridge at the beginning of the 13th century and founded a new university there. Both universities were organized on the Paris model, each of them having two nations. Since the universities arose out of different schools, they were spread over many buildings, rented houses and churches; there was initially no central building. A particular problem was the creation of housing for the students. To remedy this, colleges were set up, mostly on the basis of foundations, in which the students could live and were also taught. They were comparable to boarding schools and were each headed by a master's degree. These are professional alliances regardless of membership of the nationes.
The most famous college was founded in 1257 by the chaplain of King Louis the Saint , Robert de Sorbonne , which eventually gave the whole Paris university its name. It was intended for poor theology students and was not limited to the country. Life in these colleges followed the rules of the mendicant orders , Franciscans , Dominicans and was oriented accordingly. The colleges lasted until the French Revolution . In Oxford and Cambridge, the “colleges” still exist today as mostly rich foundations, the tutor system ensures that studies are regulated from them, and the doctoral student remains associated with his college as a fellow throughout his life. Colleges and nationes thus not only regulated the course of study, but also private life.
First German universities
The later universities in Europe were founded on the model of the aforementioned original university by ordinance of a sovereign or a commune, for which a papal privilege was required. Until the middle of the 14th century, Germans had studied at one of the foreign universities, which was probably enough for the needs of the time, so in 1348 Emperor Charles IV founded the first university on the soil of the German Empire in Prague as the sovereign (king) of Bohemia. The University of Vienna (1365), the University of Heidelberg (1386), the University of Cologne (1388), the University of Erfurt (1392) and finally the University of Leipzig , founded in 1409 by professors and students, followed in a first wave the Czech pressure from Prague, favored by the Hussites , had given way. Numerous other foundations followed in the 15th century. The Prague University had taken over from Paris the division into four faculties and four nations, which thus also formed a constitutive element here. The same was true for Vienna. The other universities - like almost all German universities founded later - already renounced the nations, only Leipzig adopted the Prague model. Here, as in Vienna, the nations lived on, albeit in a much weaker form, into the 19th century, after all they were still responsible for legitimizing enrollment and doctoral studies . Each nation was assigned a college house. At other universities there has already been a division according to faculties.
Burse
The function of the Paris colleges took over the bursa at the German universities , students were only allowed to live privately in exceptional cases. These were residences similar to the colleges, which were under the direction of a Magister , in which the teaching events took place and the scholars lived. Lectures were also given in these hospicia or colleges. From this, living, eating and teaching communities developed. Initially, the bursa were only intended for poor students who were granted a scholarship , later the colleges were also allowed to accept students who paid their bursa themselves. The clothing of the students living in the Burse (called collegiati , bursati or bursarii , from which today's term “ boy” was developed ) was prescribed precisely according to color, fabric and cut, from which today's color developed .
Old country teams
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the universities came more and more under the influence, funding and control of the sovereigns . Now, more and more private student groups were formed, which only served to socialize and provide support in times of need. They were also organized as a country team, but no longer part of the university. The students followed on from existing traditions and called their associations “Nations” or “Landsmannschaften” and their members “ Boys ” (derived from “Burse”). The deposit was reduced to a formal act of admission upon enrollment . Some sources state that at this time the term (school) "fox" appeared for the first time as a name for former high school students who were new to the university.
In the 17th century this became Pennalism : The new students ( Pennäler ) were now often exploited for a year and had to serve the older semesters. Particular pennalistic excesses are known from the universities in Leipzig, Jena, Rostock and Königsberg. The sovereign rulers concerned brought the matter to the Reichstag (HRR) in Regensburg in 1654 , where an agreement between the evangelical imperial estates was made to punish such violations, which also provided for the mutual recognition of relegations . On this basis the universities fought against this custom and the country teams more or less energetically. Nevertheless, they could hold up into the 18th century.
Towards the end of the century, the country teams lost their importance, sometimes they were only constituted on special occasions such as university celebrations, in which the students then took part in country team groups with colorful flags and clothes.
Membership in a country team ended with graduation. There was still no covenant of life .
Student orders
Within the country teams of the 18th century, which were becoming less important, closer forms of student associations developed. The most important were initially the student orders , which were based on the model of the Masonic lodges , but also the literary-philosophical orders of the 17th and 18th centuries ( see also: Pegnese Flower Order , Palm Order , Illuminati Order ). They were responsible for the strict internal regulations, the constitution , the formal promise of admission and many, sometimes secret, identity symbols such as circles , federal symbols , etc., which are still in use today. The student orders were the first type of association in which membership did not end with the exam; the life covenant principle arose. The four most important orders were the Amicists , Constantists, Unitists and Harmonists .
Although they were apolitical, the orders were viewed with suspicion by the respective authorities. In absolutism, every association of people was considered potentially dangerous and harmful to the interests of the state. In addition, there were frequent fights that individual students or student groups fought against each other.
In 1793, a farewell to the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg banned all student orders throughout the Holy Roman Empire. This form of organization was practically at an end.
History of today's connections
Student associations in today's sense have developed at German-speaking universities since around 1800. They took over individual elements of the older forms of student associations and developed them further.
Formation of the Corps
After the student orders were banned, new forms of self-governing student associations emerged, later so-called corps . In the early days they had very different names such as country team, society, wreath , club, etc. They combined external elements of the medals - strict regulations, binding togetherness, secret identity symbols - with those of the old country teams - Latin country names, uniformly colored clothing (predecessor of Couleurs ) and thus created the first connections of today's type. As for the student costume, it should be mentioned that the students of the 18th century wore hats and colored bows, which were replaced by caps and mostly three-colored ribbons in the 19th century.
These associations even enjoyed the support of professors, at least initially, who were otherwise very critical of the self-governing student communities. The aim was to improve the manners of the students at the universities, and not through official ordinances, because that had been of little use in many centuries. The new approach consisted of making character and personality formation the task of the new communities. In the sense of idealism, no political programs should be pursued, but the character of the human being should be developed. The positive effects for society would then inevitably arise by themselves. Even in the first, early definitions of corps students, it is expressly emphasized that political activity is not a task for the corps. In the early years, the members were free to choose what political convictions they personally harbored. To this day, this basic view has the effect that corps students belong to many different political directions and parties, but, according to the Corps, have had a special, above-average influence on social development.
What was new about them was that they joined together to form Senior Citizens' Convents (SC) at every single university and created a student body of legislation that was binding for all students at the university: the SC Comment . The reason was the harsh customs and habits common at the time, which, according to the view of the time, could only be contained by “written laws”. Analogous to this, since the French Revolution and the Napoleonic occupation, the rulers have been required to set civil rights in writing to curb the arbitrariness of the rulers ( codices ). In this way, an early form of democratically structured student self-administration emerged.
The pursuit of commitment and democratic structures with the aim of positively influencing student life and the development of the country laid the foundation for the development of the student associations typical of the German-speaking area. At that time, the German states were still a long way from granting their citizens freedom of assembly and association . Therefore, the self-governing student associations were banned in most German states until 1848 or were subject to strict licensing requirements. However, these regulations were not strictly controlled and punished everywhere.
The original fraternity
The wars of liberation against the Napoleonic occupation had a decisive influence on the student culture in Germany. Although only about five percent of the total number of volunteers could be considered as students, no social group had such a high proportion of volunteers. Historians estimate that around 20 to 50 percent of students took part in these wars. From the war experience of a joint effort by all German states, the idea of a German national movement arose which, after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, ended the fragmentation of Germany and strived for a German nation-state. The resulting small states were to be overcome.
Similarly, within the early, country-based corps , efforts were soon made to abolish the country-based structure of students at universities and to bring all students (" boys ") together in a unified "fraternity". The protagonists of these ideas were, for example, “gymnastics father” Friedrich Ludwig Jahn , Ernst Moritz Arndt , Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Jakob Friedrich Fries .
Shortly after the Wars of Liberation, a Teutonia was founded on November 1, 1814 in Halle (Saale) , which was still deeply rooted in the country-side traditions of the early corps. Although it did not yet use the term “fraternity”, it was already pursuing similar goals and was already opposed to the Senior Citizens' Convention (SC) of the Corps. The “Teutonic Movement” developed from it in the years to come, which led to the establishment of similar associations at other German universities. The Teutsche Lesegesellschaft was founded in Giessen with similar goals . Some of these connections turned back into corps over time and joined the respective SC. Others existed parallel to the fraternities and later joined the fraternity movement.
In Jena in August 1814, the volunteers who had returned from the Wars of Liberation formed a "military service" that practiced the use of weapons. Her relatives were members of various local corps, some of which were still called "Landsmannschaft" at that time. The driving force behind the establishment of a general association, a “fraternity”, was the “Landsmannschaft” Vandalia. After sometimes violent disputes with the other "Landsmannschaften", the SC decided to dissolve it on May 29, 1815 and on June 12th, all of the "Landsmannschaften" existing in Jena were merged into the original fraternity . The constitutional document of the Jena fraternity of June 12, 1815 states:
“ Raised by the thought of a common fatherland, imbued with the sacred duty that is incumbent on every German to work towards the revival of the German way and spirit, thereby awakening German strength and discipline, and thus to reestablish the previous honor and glory of our people and to protect against the most terrible of all dangers, against foreign subjugation and compulsion to despotism, some of the students in Jena have met and talked about establishing a union under the name of a fraternity. "
The fraternity idea then quickly spread from Jena and the movement soon spread throughout Germany and contrasted with the early corps and their SCs, which until then had claimed full representation for students at a university. At a meeting of about 500 students at the Wartburg on October 18, 1817 (the anniversary of the Reformation and the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig ), the General German Burschenschaft was founded , which was to be a Germany-wide, fraternity of all students. During the gathering, which became known as the Wartburg Festival , there was also an originally unplanned incineration of objects laden with symbols and of books by a group of particularly radical students. For example, a wig was burned as a symbol of the old feudal rule and a corporal staff as a symbol of uncontrolled state violence. Replicas of books classified as “reactionary”, “anti-national” or “un-German” were also destroyed (including works by August von Kotzebue , Karl Leberecht Immermann , the “Germanomania” by the Jewish writer Saul Ascher , and the Code civil ) . However, sources also state that the so-called "index" was burned. The old boys wanted to express that everyone could decide for himself what he wanted to read and learn.
Around 3,000 boys were present at each of the Wartburg festivals in 1818 and 1819, which was around a third of the entire student body of the German Confederation. The Germany-wide amalgamation of all fraternity members did not succeed, however, and the original fraternity in Jena also split up into different currents.
On the occasion of the dissolution of the Jena fraternity, August Daniel von Binzer composed a song in 1819, named after his first stanza We had built a stately house . In the 7th stanza it says:
- The ribbon is cut
- Was black, red and gold
- And God suffered
- Who knows what he wanted!
The triad black-red-gold was first mentioned here, which then became the symbol of the fraternity and democracy movement in Germany.
Another symbol of the new national movement was a special form of dress and hairstyle, which had already emerged during the wars of liberation and was called old German costume , although there were no historical models. This costume was intended to counterbalance “French fashion follies” and consisted of a long, closed skirt with a shirt collar that was open at the top, very wide-cut trousers and a large, velvet beret . Long, unkempt hair and a wild beard were considered essential. This costume was so provocative and inflammatory that it was partially banned by the authorities.
From the beginning the fraternities were political organizations with political demands: especially for democratic reforms and Germany's unification. The corps, on the other hand, saw themselves as associations for the common regulation of student life.
The authorities took no account of these contradictions: after the Hep-Hep riots in 1819 - outbreaks of hatred that turned against Jewish citizens in many German cities - and the political murder of a fraternity member, the German Confederation banned all self-administered student associations. These Karlovy Vary resolutions were valid until 1848. They were handled with varying degrees of severity, but led to prison sentences, professional bans and expulsion for some fraternities.
The regular persecutions by the authorities made it necessary to close and re-establishments. But that prevented neither the corps nor the fraternities from expanding and developing. It turned out that the standardization of all students in a single fraternity was practically not enforceable. The merger did not succeed because the corps continued to exist and sometimes several fraternities were formed per university. The reason for this was among other things directional and power struggles between Arminism and Germanism .
Over time, the fraternities dropped some demands for reform regarding student culture and partially adapted to the older corporation tradition.
Changes around 1848
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Even before the March Revolution , the Christian religious element was formed and wanted to make it part of their traditional community life. They were also the first to reject student fencing as a means of honorary trades. In 1836 the newly founded Uttenruthia (Erlangen) renounced duels and mensur from the start. That was downright revolutionary at the time.
This resulted in numerous Christian student associations , again in very different forms, on both the Protestant and the Catholic side. The oldest Catholic student union has existed since 1844. What they all have in common is that they reject student fencing.
Especially at the time of the Kulturkampf of Prussia against the Catholic Church , the number of Catholic student associations as well as other Catholic lay organizations rose sharply. The Catholic associations deliberately distinguished themselves from the other student associations and in some cases were even purely Catholic associations with the principle of life union . They were also viewed as unsatisfactory by the striking connections and therefore rejected by them. Only in the course of the emancipation from the striking connections did many Christian connections take over the outward form of the older types of corporation.
At the same time (1840s), in the context of the political emancipation of the bourgeoisie, the so-called “ progress movement ” developed at the universities, which, following on from the ideas of the original fraternity, wanted to adapt the student traditions to the bourgeois culture of the time. But also the resulting new "progress connections" - among them a new type of country teams - and the increased formation of inter-corporate associations of various types, such as B. the Academic Choral Societies and Academic Gymnastics Associations could not replace the already established student culture.
In 1848 the first democratic national assembly in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt forced the repeal of the Karlsbad resolutions . The now possible liberalization of German society marks a deep turning point in the history of student associations. Forbidden "underground organizations" of insubordinate youths became associations of the nation's academic elite . The fraternity colors black, red and gold were even declared to be the colors of the German Confederation . From now on the whole variety of the German student associations unfolded.
The "former members" - now known as the old gentlemen - now confessed to their former student union. Since many of them had now taken top positions in society, they were able to exercise their influence in the National Assembly, for example. Many old corps students and fraternity members were represented there. The first foundation festivals were celebrated with the "alumni". To be there, working academics took the new train to their old university town for a few days. The possible closer connection was the basis for the later old gentlemen's associations.
The increasing industrialization required new and more highly qualified professions on a broad front. New training courses emerged, newly founded technical schools, for example for agriculture and technology, forest and mountain academies gained greater importance ( see also: Student Forestry Association ). They were forerunners of today's technical universities and technical colleges . Student unions soon formed at these new institutes, too, adopting traditional forms of association. Student associations formed at the grammar schools and secondary schools .
The “old gentlemen” openly carried student culture into bourgeois life. So their customs increasingly gained influence on the language and habits of the German population. Student expressions such as “pub”, “lad”, and idioms such as “pump up”, “give a rebuff”, “come into disrepute” became part of everyday language. It became fashionable to mimic student mores. For example, in the 1870s, so-called student hats were introduced for secondary school students based on the pattern of student hats , which classified the students according to school and grade level - even without any affiliation.
The repeal of the Karlovy Vary resolutions made it possible to revive civil associations. The many gymnastics and singing clubs that still exist today were founded and soon celebrated Kommerse and foundation festivals.
Even for the sons of ruling aristocratic houses ( Prussia , Württemberg , Baden , Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Schaumburg-Lippe etc.) it was now opportune to be in a student union. However, only corps selected according to certain criteria were considered.
The imperial era
The founding of the German Empire in 1871 did not meet all but some of the demands of the bourgeoisie , especially the fraternity movement : above all, the unity of Germany and a common imperial constitution . General human and civil rights such as the right to vote, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech remained severely restricted.
The empire was ruled and shaped by the upper class and the nobility. Their political goals became very similar. The fraternity students now belonged to the established leadership class and supported it. Its members occupied the highest positions in the state: Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II became corps students when they were studying.
The industrialization now left in the working class a political force created: They met for about 1,860 in trade unions , since 1871 in the newly founded SPD . Some fraternity students like Karl Marx , Wilhelm Liebknecht and Ferdinand Lassalle also played an outstanding role there.
Nevertheless, the workers saw the student associations predominantly as opponents, as they embodied the conservative-national ideas and goals of the bourgeoisie. This constellation still exists today: representatives of the left-wing political spectrum often sharply criticize the entire system of connections.
The anti-Semitism (until 1945) of the time also gripped student associations. Reactions to anti-Semitism and the extent of anti-Semitism in associations differed from umbrella organization to umbrella association and from association to association; also, in an umbrella organization, the view of anti-Semitism often changed several times over the years. For the first time in 1817 there was exclusion of Jews, which reached a peak around 1880. Nevertheless, important Jews were to be found again and again in the corporation scene, for example the fraternity member Theodor Herzl . However, he left the connection after only three years, before completing his studies, because of anti-Semitic remarks by other connection students. The VVDSt was an umbrella organization originally founded to be anti-Semitic .
Then Jewish student associations were founded . The imperial constitution of 1871 theoretically guaranteed legal equality for Jews for the first time. The new fatherland, dominated by Prussia, promised them a step forward over the absolutist, small-state and counter-Enlightenment positions of the Restoration period.
In addition to most of the Jewish student associations who professed German patriotism , there were also Zionist associations that linked student traditions with Zionism : For example, the patriotic song Die Wacht am Rhein was sung as “Die Wacht am Jordanstrand”. Numerous Jewish connections in Austria named the resigned fraternity member Theodor Herzl an honorary member.
Jewish student associations attached great importance to proving themselves to be of equal value to the other associations through particular zeal in the mensur and duel .
Around 1900 women were gradually admitted to regular university studies. The first associations of female students formed as early as 1899, some of which had a relationship-like character (see women's association ).
The number of students also increased sharply around this time: some sources speak of over 1,300 student associations and 49 different umbrella organizations. The German Empire is still considered the heyday of student associations: less because of the absolute number of members, more because of the high social reputation in large parts of the population.
The increasing social establishment and the increasing involvement of the elderly changed the life of communion fundamentally. A new financial basis was created, especially through the establishment of the first old gentlemen's associations (Association of Alter Corps Students 1888). Employees - also called faxes , couleur or corps servants - made many connections and soon built the first corporation houses , mostly as splendid Art Nouveau villas or historicizing “knight castles”.
The First World War ended this "old lad glory". All healthy young men had to go to war. This also brought many students and academics to the draft, the end of their careers or death. University life practically came to a standstill. Old men or wounded soldiers returning from the war were only able to keep the business up and running with difficulty. The universities did not close, but many connections had to be suspended. Some did not recover from it. Especially women's associations were not reactivated after 1918.
Nevertheless all connections affirmed the war as a service "for the fatherland" and supported it. Many academics chose a career as an officer after the war. For many, a world collapsed when the last Imperial Chancellor, the Corps student Max von Baden , announced the emperor's abdication and handed over the business of government to the Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert .
Free Student Movement and General Student Committees
Towards the end of the 19th century, under the influence of the youth movement, free student movements emerged at many universities, which joined together in so-called finches or free student bodies . The German Free Student Union was founded in 1900 as a general association of German free students . According to the statutes, the free student bodies saw themselves as representatives of the entire non-corporation student body and therefore did not limit their right to representation only to their own members. The corporations, on the other hand, demanded that non-incorporated students be given the right to choose which group they want to be represented by.
In the period that followed, however, the cooperation between university administrations, corporations and free student organizations resulted in the first general student committees (AStA) . Some of them formed a short-lived association of German universities in 1905 , which demanded binding committees on a parliamentary basis for all students, but which soon broke up again due to its involvement in the Academic Kulturkampf .
The early General Student Committees, which arose from compromises by the groups involved, often only existed for a short time; only after the First World War there was a renewed wave of foundations.
See also: History of the composed student bodies
Weimar Republic
In 1919 the first elected government of the Weimar Republic declared the black, red and gold tricolor to be the official colors of the state. The German song, composed by the fraternity member Hoffmann von Fallersleben , became the national anthem .
Previously, the not yet elected Chancellor Friedrich Ebert had made a momentous decision: He had so-called Freikorps set up to prevent the socialization of the economy, which was decided by the provisional government on November 16, 1918 and confirmed by the Reichsrätekongress in December, and to put down anticipated mass strikes. Thereupon the provisional government dissolved before the general elections (see November Revolution ).
These volunteer corps consisted mainly of returnees from the First World War and - unlike earlier volunteer associations before 1848 - were a gathering place for radical nationalist forces. They and the regular volunteer associations of the Reichswehr also had numerous members of student associations.
The Freikorps shot a few hundred workers in street fighting in Berlin in January 1919 with the aim of preventing a left-wing coup. They also murdered the leaders of the newly founded KPD , Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg . Afterwards there were civil war-like clashes all over Germany for months, with thousands dead. After the elections and the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919, the Freikorps initially remained. Student companies were also involved in the suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April / May 1919.
But most of the students returned to the universities, where they revived their traditions. The student associations - including those that were actually apolitical - continued to support conservative and national ideas and were more popular than ever before. The majority of its members rejected the new republic. "Old men" were still represented in the leadership elite, such as Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach , Wilhelm Cuno , Gustav Stresemann , Heinrich Brüning and Wilhelm Marx . But many “active people” were convinced that Germany had to overcome the “chaos” of the Weimar democracy and the “humiliations” enforced by the “Versailles dictate” in order to recover from the world war.
The way to get there remained controversial. Connections did not form parties and did not join any party line. Party political activities were left to the individual. But from now on a large part propagated the anti-republic conservative revolution . Many of them later joined Hitler's party , the NSDAP .
In 1920 the German fraternity decided at the Eisenach Burschentag to expel all Jews and those who were married to Jews. This “racial standpoint” now became a question of prestige for other umbrella organizations that still had tolerant admission conditions during the imperial era (including the Kyffhäuser Association, German Landsmannschaft, representative convention of the German gymnastics associations). Many associations thus took on a pioneering role in the exclusion of Jews from academic and other public life.
In 1921 beating and non-beating student associations signed the Erlangen Association and Honorary Agreement . For the first time, this offered a basis for settling disputes between these groups.
The 1930s were then characterized by an ever increasing engagement with and alignment with the ideas of the competing "National Socialist German Student Union" ( NSDStB ).
Third Reich
Adolf Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor and the victory of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in the Reichstag elections in March 1933 were enthusiastically welcomed by many students, even if they did not belong to the NSDAP. The first violent measures against communists, social democrats and Jews were accepted or approved by many associations.
The new rulers pretended to treat so-called "workers of the forehead" (academics) and "workers of the fist" (workers) equally. From 1934 was obvious that they are not student organizations from the DC circuit would exclude.
The NSDAP sought student and academic members at an early stage, and they also flocked to it. In 1926 she founded the National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB) for this purpose . This organized its members in local " comradeships " and aimed to be barracked in a "comradeship house" to be created. This goal was to be transferred to all students in 1934 through the Feickert Plan , named after the then Nazi leader of the German student body . Traditional forms of organization were denounced as “reactionary”, “stuffy” and “ old-fashioned ”.
The Restoration of the Civil Service Act should also be rigorously applied to all connections. The kinship and descent relationships had to be queried in each connection using a questionnaire . As a result, every connection had to exclude not only all Jews, but also all non-Jews who were “ Jewish-infused ”, members married to “half” and “quarter Jewish women ” and report enforcement. Violations led to classification as a "non-Aryan organization" to which no student was allowed to belong.
Affected connections tried it in part with requests for exemptions and delay tactics. Many of the elderly gentlemen concerned left voluntarily so as not to damage their own connection. But the convents often did not accept this, so that all that remained for them was the voluntary cessation of active operations (suspension).
In order to bridge the conflict between the interest in the students and the rejection of their values, the Nazis pursued a "carrot and stick" strategy: obedience was rewarded, delaying tactics punished.
The compounds responded differently. Some umbrella organizations saw their task as fulfilled when the National Socialists came to power and dissolved, either voluntarily or because of government pressure. Others tried to "hibernate" and adapted externally. They did not want to dissolve, but rather to preserve their values and traditions for future generations. They hoped that Hitler's rule would only be short-lived, so they made many compromises. A few defended their internal structures offensively.
The conflicts were also carried out on the streets. There were more and more jostling and fighting between fraternity students and members of the National Socialist comradeship. The so-called Göttingen riots were particularly violent , in which regular street battles between supporters of the National Socialists and fraternity students took place over two days in July 1934. In the end, the police with drawn sabers and rubber truncheons, but also the fire brigade with water cannons, attacked the fraternity students, some of whom were arrested. The highlight was the events surrounding the Heidelberg asparagus meal , at which in May 1935 some students from the Corps publicly expressed their displeasure with Adolf Hitler.
The National Socialists immediately took advantage of these incidents with the help of the press, which had been brought into line, to put journalistic pressure on the student associations to be brought into line as well. The NSZ Rhine Front wrote on July 12, 1935:
- Nests of reaction
- Away with the corporations!
- Three quarters of all student corporations refuse to be a National Socialist leader
- As is well known, on July 10th the deadline expired by which the corporations should report to work together with the student union. As reported from individual districts, hardly a quarter of the corporations have committed themselves to this voluntary cooperation.
- The Universities of Cologne, Aachen and Bonn reported that out of a total of one hundred and five corporations, only twenty-five agreed to cooperate in the National Socialist sense. Only they want to undergo political training and leadership by the National Socialist Student Union. ...
- It is quite clear that the consequences of this behavior on the part of the corporations will be drawn by the National Socialist Student Union. Yesterday's decree by Chief of Staff Lutze that wearing couleur in SA uniform is forbidden is in line with this line.
In 1935 and 1936, several decisive resolutions were passed. On June 25, 1935, Albert Derichsweiler, as leader of the NSDStB, issued guidelines for ideological training in the corporations. Shortly thereafter, on July 7, 1935, Baldur von Schirach forbade members of the Hitler Youth (HJ) from membership in a student association. The trigger for this was the "despising of the Führer" at the asparagus dinner of the Heidelberg Corps Saxo Borussia.
In the spring of 1936, Rudolf Hess, in his function as the Führer’s deputy , forbade all student members of the NSDAP from membership in a student association.
Between 1934 and 1936, most of the fraternities either dissolved themselves or were forcibly dissolved. The old gentlemen's associations and a few (mainly Catholic) active student associations still existed until around 1938 ( Himmler decree of June 20, 1938 ). Since the National Socialists needed the old men to finance the comradeships, many connections disguised themselves as comradeships in order to pass on as many old values and customs as possible in spite of the strict prohibition. After that, the great majority of the students were members of the now numerous comradeships that had been established . These now also took over the houses of the student associations.
In 1938, Reichsstudentenführer Gustav Adolf Scheel announced the end of traditional student associations.
During the war, however, the surveillance of the universities decreased again from around 1941. Almost only wounded war returnees studied there. In this way, some local connections could secretly re-establish themselves, hold events in different colors and even fencing scales . In the Nazi Lecturer Association , the comradeships were soon seen as "imitations of bad corporations". In 1944, Kösener Corps students from Leipzig, Würzburg, Tübingen and Bonn even planned to re-establish their umbrella organization and celebrated a pub in Couleur on the Rudelsburg , the traditional meeting place of the association. But the correspondence required for this was noticed. The Gestapo initiated a preliminary investigation into "founding new parties and high treason ". However, the investigation files were destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in Berlin in the spring of 1945.
A number of fraternity students made careers in Hitler's party and state. Others participated in attempts to resist. They belonged to the inner leadership circle of the assassins of July 20, 1944 , to the Kreisau Circle , to the Confessing Church or died as lone fighters or clergy in Gestapo custody and concentration camps .
Although exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, it can be assumed that tens of thousands of fraternity students died in the war or died as a result of the war.
History since the post-war period
After 1945 the Allied military governments banned a large part of the German associations, including the student associations. This general ban was lifted for student associations in 1950.
From around 1947 onwards, some student associations in West Germany and Austria tried to re-establish themselves . By 1950 the revival of the corporation was very advanced.
Federal Republic of Germany
In 1949 the West German Rectors' Conference in Tübingen declared :
"In the image of the coming student community there will be no more space for events of courses, the assertion of a special concept of honor, the holding of mindless and noisy mass feasts, the exercise of a non-freedom club discipline and the public wearing of colors."
Many universities changed their university regulations in accordance with the Tübingen resolution of the WRK. Some universities specifically tried to create alternatives for student coexistence as an integral part of the university. The university's ban on corporations was found to be illegal in court a few years later. However, some universities tried to keep connections (especially striking ones) away by not registering them as associations at the respective university. At the TU Berlin, for example, Corps Lusatia was not recognized as the first connection with a scale length requirement until 1963. The same connection forced official recognition by the Free University of Berlin in a test case before the administrative court in 1968 . Bans by some universities to wear colors on campus were upheld by the courts at the time; however, they are no longer relevant today.
Due to the difficulties and the negative attitude from different sides, the first gauges after the Second World War were fought secretly and with an unclear legal situation. Police persecution took place and equipment was confiscated. In 1951, the students of Studnitz (were Corps Bremensia Göttingen ) and Saalbach ( Corps Hannovera Göttingen ) to an outwardly organized Pauktag in Göttingen "drafted". Thereupon a trial took place before the Grand Criminal Chamber in Göttingen. The verdict of December 19, 1951 was an acquittal, since a Mensur is not a duel with deadly weapons. Bodily harm with consent is not punishable (Section 226 a StGB) and is also not immoral. After a revision by the public prosecutor's office, the Federal Court of Justice confirmed the judgment on January 29, 1953 (BGHSt 4/24) ( see also: Göttinger Mensurenverfahren ). The prerequisite for impunity, however, was that the scale was not used to carry out honorary trades and that the protective weapons used ensured that fatal injuries were excluded.
On January 29, 1952, the three-person disciplinary committee of the University of Göttingen imposed the penalty of disregarding a semester due to beating of the scale against von Studnitz and seven members of a student country team . The Hanover Administrative Court, Hildesheim chambers, overturned the decision (judgment of March 25, 1954, DVBl 54/680; NJW 54/1384). The Free University of Berlin wanted to refuse registration to the Weinheim Corps student Janssen because he had confessed to beating the scale. This decision was overturned on October 24, 1958 by the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwGE 7/287, with reference to the decision of the Federal Court of Justice of January 29, 1953).
The renunciation of honorary trades with the weapon was then also made towards the then German Federal President Theodor Heuss at a personal meeting on April 8, 1953 by the delegations of all the relevant trade associations ( Kösener Seniors Convents Association , Weinheim Seniors Convent , German Burschenschaft and Coburg Convent ) confirmed. With that, student duels were finally a thing of the past.
At the SPD party conference on May 4, 1954 in Berlin, at the instigation of Erich Ollenhauer and the SDS, an incompatibility resolution was passed, according to which active membership in a student association was incompatible with membership in the SPD. The decision was abandoned after previous talks with the student associations in January 1967, because the SPD wanted to open up more to the political center as part of its Godesberg program . In this context, the SDS itself then fell victim to an incompatibility decision.
The government's full recognition of the connections came to an end in 1961 when the corporation associations were included in the funding of the Federal Youth Plan.
The connections to universities in the GDR , from the former Königsberg , Danzig , Wroclaw , Prague and Brno had meanwhile also moved to West Germany or Austria. Many had merged with friendly connections to concentrate their resources on the reconstruction.
The Baltic connections , which had developed their own culture in Riga and Dorpat , but also in Moscow and Saint Petersburg , founded two new corps in Göttingen and Hamburg as well as a non-striking connection in Munich after the war.
Little by little, many umbrella organizations also gave up confessions of guilt for their behavior in the “Third Reich”: initially Christian-oriented connections such as the Schwarzburgbund , which leaned on the churches.
Jewish student associations have not been re-established to this day. An emigrated Jewish umbrella organization still exists in New York .
From 1961 to 1965 the German Bundestag (fourth electoral term) consisted of a total of 76 of 499 members of a student corporation. That corresponds to a rate of 15 percent. Of these, 61 were members of the CDU / CSU, ten of the FDP and five of the SPD.
The student movement
The continuing economic upswing after the war and later educational reforms in the Federal Republic of Germany gradually gave children from all social classes access to higher education from 1960 onwards. From 1970 new universities and comprehensive colleges were founded. a. in Bochum, Salzburg and Linz in Austria. Here new connection offers to interested students found a fertile, but sometimes negative field.
Because with the student movement that had emerged since 1965, there was strong competition between the connections. This was part of the international reformist awakening, which in 1968 reached from Berkeley (USA) via Paris, Berlin to Prague. The German "68" generation rebelled against the silence of the crimes of the "Third Reich" by the parents' generation and uncovered the unresolved entanglements of considerable parts of German science during the Hitler era . The part of the students who determined the discussion at the time saw the thorough reappraisal and renunciation of compromised traditions that had prepared the Third Reich as a prerequisite for any further scientific and social progress.
The social upheaval reached beyond the universities: In the Federal Republic of Germany , the newly formed social-liberal coalition began a policy of reconciliation with the East and thus created essential prerequisites for today's German unity. The sexual revolution , third world solidarity, the ecological movement , the squatter movement , but also the RAF terrorism were just a few aspects that showed the profound changes in the social climate.
The conservative German student associations had hardly any part in this. The driving out of the " muff from 1000 years under the robes " also affected their customs and traditions. Many saw this as an attack on all existing social structures, against which they defended their traditions all the more. Part of today's reservations about student connections stems from this persistence. It is less about their community-building elements than about the retention of forms, ideas and the associated (assumed) political positions that are perceived as outdated.
The student movement has had a lasting impact on the university landscape: an expanded participation - third and quarter parity - in the committees of academic self-government opened up a wealth of new political opportunities for students. Today there is a pluralistic variety of associations at universities. These include self-governing student bodies such as AStA units for university and socio-political issues (e.g. gay units, foreigner units), political departmental initiatives, leisure facilities, e. B. Student cafés, entrepreneur associations and spin-off initiatives to promote careers. Student umbrella organizations like the fzs consciously see themselves as a counterbalance to conventional connections, reject them and openly fight them.
As a result of these new facts, the connections initially had to accept a relatively sharp decline in the proportion of corporates and the absolute number of members. Many connections had to cease their active operation. Some, who previously only accepted men, tried to stabilize themselves by accepting female students . It succeeded in some cases, but not in most. The downward trend did not come to a standstill until 1980. An increase in new members has been observed since around 1985. Many connections that had ceased active operations since 1970 have resumed active operations. Most of these connections follow their traditional roots, a significantly changed content orientation is rarely observed.
German Democratic Republic (GDR)
In the German Democratic Republic , student associations were considered a relic from bourgeois and feudal times, when the children of the working population were barred from entering universities. From the point of view of the new communist leadership, the children of the workers should now study; there was no longer any room for the symbols and rituals of the class enemy. The Marxism-Leninism became an important part of the program, not only in the humanities and social sciences.
Nevertheless, even in the early phase of the GDR, old gentlemen from student associations - without addressing their past - were represented in the leadership of the new state. Heinrich Homann , for example, was chairman of the NDPD from 1972 to 1989 , deputy chairman of the Council of State from 1960 to 1989 , a member of the Corps Thuringia Jena and the Corps Brunsviga Göttingen . Reinhold Lobedanz , a member of the Corps Lusatia Leipzig , was President of the GDR Land Chamber from 1949 until his death in 1955 . Johannes Dieckmann , member of the VDSt Berlin, was a co-founder of the “Liberal Democratic Party of Germany” ( LDPD ) in Saxony. He was deputy chairman of the LDPD and president of the People's Chamber of the GDR (1949-1969) as well as deputy chairman of the State Council of the GDR (1960-1969) and president of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) (1963-1968).
However, this had no effect on the conditions at the universities. The student associations based on the territory of the GDR tried to save as much material and memorabilia as possible to the West and to build a new life there at another university. The old gentlemen who remained in the GDR behaved inconspicuously. The memory of the old traditions was largely erased from the consciousness of the population.
But as early as the early 1960s, students in the GDR began to be interested in student traditions again, although they had to carefully and clandestinely gather material from attics. The first point of interest was the old student song , then came the traditions of the pub and the Kommerses . Some also began to be interested in student fencing ( mensur ).
While in the 1960s and 1970s the activities were unsystematic and non-targeted and were geared towards pure leisure time activities, the first student associations were formed in the early 1980s.
The oldest known connection in the GDR is the Keynhausia zu Leipzig, which was founded in 1964. The gradually developing connections resulted in more and more contacts with one another.
In 1985 the GDR author Klaus-Dieter Stefan published his paperback book Blind as in the times of the emperor - Sabers, Seidel, Schmisse: Neue "Burschenherrlichkeit" (Burschenherrlichkeit) in the East Berlin publishing house Neues Leben .
- They are not knights of sad form fighting against windmills. They are not tragic, not funny, but extremely dangerous - if resistance does not prevent them. They drink, bawl and fight like in the old days and fight their way through to the center of power. From the scale to ministerial or monopoly, always on a crusade against progress and peace. They are relic and reality in one and make headlines like seldom before - fraternities and corporations in Germany.
This work makes no reference to the development of the establishment of student associations in the GDR itself, but treats the topic exclusively as a phenomenon of the capitalist society of West Germany. The subject matter and argumentation are similar to those of the corresponding literature critical of the relationship from the political left in the Federal Republic ( see also: Burschi-Reader ).
On May 29, 1986, there was a first official meeting of representatives of various associations from Dresden , Erfurt , Halle (Saale) , Jena , Leipzig and Magdeburg in Schmiedeberg in the “Zur Schmiede” inn.
On June 20, 1987, the Salana Jenensis hosted its first Allianzkommers at the Rudelsburg .
In January 1988 the state authorities tried to control the whole affair, which had been going underground until then. For this purpose, the Kulturbund -friends group “Student Cultural History” was founded in Halle (Saale) and existed until May 1989. During this period, the state also produced two records with student songs.
The development ended on February 10, 1990 with the founding of the Rudelsburger Allianz (RA). This is a friendship bond. Associations that had a tradition in the GDR before November 9, 1989 can become members of the RA. The members of the RA are free to join other umbrella organizations.
Reunification
After the fall of the Berlin Wall (GDR) , it became possible again to revive the student associations originally located there at the universities. Many connections moved from West Germany to their home universities such as Jena, Leipzig, Halle, Rostock, Greifswald, Dresden, Freiberg and Tharandt. In some cases, new university cities such as Potsdam, Magdeburg and Frankfurt (Oder) were opened up for connections.
The student associations in the area of the new federal states had to struggle, especially in the early days, with the fact that their tradition had been negatively proven by the prevailing political systems since 1933, i.e. for over 70 years. In the beginning, too, the elderly gentlemen who were important for the social life in the vicinity of the respective university town were missing.
The Kösener Seniors Convents Association and the Association of Old Corps Students have been organizing the Congress and the Congress of Representatives in Bad Kösen again since 1994 .
Europeanization and Globalization
In the meantime there are also efforts on a European level to work together with student associations in other countries. One example of this is the European Cartel Association , an association of Catholic student associations and associations founded in 1975. Another approach was taken with the first World Corporation Day held in Würzburg in November 2002 . It was a meeting of student associations from all over the world that ended with a joint resolution.
Since the independence of the Baltic states, there has also been a lively cooperation between the German-Baltic connections in Germany and the Estonian and Latvian connections in Dorpat , Riga and Reval , which were founded on the German model . Joint events and campaigns aim to promote the integration of the Baltic States into the European Union.
The tradition of the scale length is also popular with student associations outside of German-speaking countries. For example, a Flemish student association from Leuven is currently trying to get accepted into the compulsory Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband (KSCV) and for this purpose proposes scales at various university locations in Germany.
Although today some connections (mainly in the German fraternity) only accept ethnic Germans as members due to their “solidarity with the German people” , most connections - in some cases since the 19th century - naturally also had foreign members. Due to globalization, the trend is of course increasing. Today there are “German” fraternity students not only from almost every country in Europe and various parts of America, but also from Asia and Africa.
Aydin Karaduman, a Turkish citizen and Muslim, became the local spokesman for the Weinheim Seniors' Convent , the umbrella organization for corps that are primarily based at technical universities, in 1993 . He was the first foreigner to head a German corporation.
At the request of some young party and Juso members, the federal party congress of the SPD in Karlsruhe on November 16, 2005 commissioned the party executive to examine whether “membership in a student fraternity or in a corps ” is fundamentally incompatible with membership in the SPD can be. The Juso university groups had made a similar incompatibility decision in previous years . After protests by various student associations and the Convent of German Academic Associations (CDA) against this application, the SPD board decided on March 27, 2006 that membership in the SPD was incompatible with membership in a fraternity of the fraternity . Membership in another association is not sufficient for incompatibility with membership in the SPD. Here, as usual, the individual assessment continues to apply. As a reaction to the internal party discussion in 2006, the Lassalle-Kreis was founded on July 22nd , an independent network of men and women who belong to both a student union and the SPD. The namesake was the fraternity and social democrat Ferdinand Lassalle . The Lassalle-Kreis has set itself the goal of representing the interests of corporates within the SPD and acting as a point of contact for all questions relating to fraternity within the party.
Single receipts
- ^ Matthias Asche , lecture given at the Bensheim Talks 2011 with the title: Secret Elites . Abbreviated reprint in FAZ of August 3, 2011, page N5 Nursery school for righteous men useful for the fatherland
- ^ Erich Bauer : Schimmerbuch for young corps students , 4th edition, o. O., 1971, p. 7ff.
- ^ Herbert Neupert : Other corporations and common institutions. A. The common principle . In: Board of the Association of Alter Corps Students e. V. (Hrsg.): Handbook of the Kösener Corps student . Volume I, 6th edition, Würzburg 1985, p. 283
- ^ Rolf-Joachim Baum: Foreword by the editor. In: Rolf-Joachim Baum (Ed.): "We want men, we want action!" - German corps students from 1848 to today . Siedler, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88680-653-7 , pp. 7-12.
- ^ Rainer Pöppinghege: Between radicalism and adaptation. 200 years of student history. In: Jan Carstensen, Gefion Apel (Hrsg.): Ready-to-use! Student associations in the empire. Reader and exhibition catalog on behalf of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association for the exhibition in the Westphalian Open-Air Museum Detmold from August 15 to October 31, 2006, p. 12 f. ISBN 3-926160-39-X ISSN 1862-6939
- ↑ Herman Haupt (ed.): Sources and representations on the history of the fraternity and the German unity movement , Volume 1, C. Winter, 1910. P. 124.
- ↑ Eva Maria Schneider, Origin and Forms of Distribution of the “German National Costume of the Wars of Liberation” as an expression of political sentiment
- ↑ Michael Freyer: History of student clothing. In: Max Liedtke (Hrsg.): Handbook of the history of the Bavarian education system. Vol. 4. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn / Obb. 1997. pp. 273-299. ISBN 3-7815-0664-9
- ↑ Christian Käselau: The cartel convent of the tendency connections of German students of the Jewish faith as an example for Jewish corporation associations in the German Empire and in the Weimar Republic (full text: archived copy ( memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: the archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )
- ↑ Michael Grüttner: The corporations and the National Socialism. In: Harm-Hinrich Brandt and Matthias Stickler (eds.): “ Der Burschen Herrlichkeit”. Past and present of student corporation . Würzburg 1998, p. 142
- ^ K. von Freytag-Loringhoven: Education in the college house. Reform efforts at the German universities in the American zone of occupation 1945–1960 , Stuttgart 2012, pp. 146–267.
- ↑ Convent 53, 71 with reference to Ollenhauer's announcement of war in the SDS organ Unser Standpunkt in November 1953
- ↑ Hard on the head in Der Spiegel 6/1967 of January 30, 1967
- ^ GDR history, studies
- ↑ Henner Huhle: At that time - hard to believe. Einst und Jetzt 36 (1991), pp. 229-234
- ^ Kurt U. Bertrams (ed.): Student associations in the GDR. WJK-Verlag Hilden 2006, ISBN 3-933892-99-6 Gaudeamus igitur. Let's be happy. Historical student songs ( Memento from July 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Henner Huhle: The Prewendalen Couleuriker and the Rudelsburger Alliance , E. Ferger Verlag Bergisch Gladbach, 1st edition 2006, ISBN 3-931219-32-1
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from December 21, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ “Turk is corps chief” , cousin
- ^ Position of the Juso-HG on the fraternities
literature
Older reference works
- Ernst Hans Eberhard : Handbook of the academic associations at the German universities: [the academic associations at the universities of the German Reich, as well as at the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Akademie, the technical, veterinary and agricultural university, the military-veterinary academy and the Bergakademie zu Berlin, at the technical and veterinary University in Munich, the Aschaffenburg Forest University and the Academy for Agriculture and Brewery Weihenstephan] . Leipzig 1904.
- Ernst Hans Eberhard: Handbook of the student liaison system at the universities of the German language area . Leipzig 1925.
- Oskar Scheuer : The historical development of the German student body in Austria with special consideration of the University of Vienna from its foundation to the present. Vienna 1910. GoogleBooks
- Otto Erich Ebert , Oskar Scheuer: Bibliographical yearbook for German higher education , Vol. 1. Vienna Leipzig 1912. GoogleBooks . - Reprint Nabu Press (2011), ISBN 978-1-24564055-8 .
history
- Hans-Georg Balder: History of the German fraternity. WJK, Hilden 2006, ISBN 3-933892-25-2 .
- Rolf-Joachim Baum (Ed.): We want men, we want action! - German corps students from 1848 to today. Siedler, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88680-653-7 .
- Martin Biastoch : Students and Universities in the Empire - An Overview. In: Marc Zirlewagen (ed.): "We win or we fall". German students in the First World War , Cologne 2008 (= Treatises on student and higher education 17), pp. 11–24.
- Edwin A. Biedermann: Lodges, clubs and brotherhoods. 2nd Edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 3-7700-1184-8 .
- Harm-Hinrich Brandt , Matthias Stickler : The lad's glory - past and present of the student corporation. Historia Academica, Vol. 36. Würzburg 1998, ISBN 3-930877-30-9 .
- Michael Doeberl , Otto Scheel , Wilhelm Schlink, Hans Sperl, Eduard Spranger , Hans Bitter, Paul Frank (eds.): The academic Germany. 4 volumes and a register volume, edited by Alfred Bienengräber, Berlin 1930–1931.
- Paulgerhard Gladen : Gaudeamus igitur - The student connections then and now. Callwey, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-7667-0912-7 .
- Paulgerhard Gladen: History of the student corporation associations. The hitting and non-hitting associations. 1985, ISBN 3-925615-13-X .
- Frank Grobe: Compass and gear. Engineers in the bourgeois emancipation struggle around 1900 - The history of the technical fraternity (= representations and sources on the history of the German unity movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Vol. 16), Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2009, XVIII + 702 pp., ISBN 978-3- 8253-5644-6 .
- Michael Grüttner : Students in the Third Reich. Schöningh, Paderborn 1995, ISBN 3-506-77492-1 .
- Harald Lönnecker : "... giving the German student body and our legal life some impetus" - between association and connection, self-help organization and student association. Legal associations at German universities approx. 1870–1918 (= Rostock legal history series, vol. 13). Shaker Verlag , Aachen 2013, IX u. 634 pp., ISBN 978-3-8440-2166-0 .
- Ernst Meyer-Camberg : The emergence of the universities and their corporations - The struggle for co-determination in high schools . Einst und Jetzt , special edition 1985, pp. 11–64.
- Robert Paschke : Student History Lexicon. GDS archive for university history and student history, supplement 9. Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-89498-072-9 .
- Friedrich Schulze, Paul Ssymank : The German student body from the oldest times to the present. 4th edition. Verlag für Hochschulkunde, Munich 1932.
- Matthias Stickler : University as a way of life? Thoughts on the self-regulation of student socialization in the long 19th century. In: Rüdiger vom Bruch (ed.): The Berlin University in the context of the German university landscape after 1800, around 1860 and around 1910 (= writings of the historical college, colloquia 76). Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-486-59710-3 , pp. 149-186
- Heinz-Joachim Toll: Academic Jurisdiction and Academic Freedom. The so-called demagogue persecution at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel after the Karlsbad resolutions of 1819. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979, ISBN 3-529-02173-3 . (Series of sources and research on the history of Schleswig-Holstein, Volume 73.)
- Sven Waskönig: The everyday life of the Berlin fraternity students in the Third Reich using the example of the Kösener Corps at the Friedrich Wilhelms University. In: Christoph Jahr (Hrsg.): The Berlin University in the Nazi era. Vol. I: Structures and People. Steiner, Stuttgart 2005. ISBN 3-515-08657-9 , pp. 159-178.
- Harald Lönnecker: "To have always served Germany is our highest praise!" Two hundred years of German fraternities. A commemorative publication for the 200th anniversary of the founding day of the fraternity on June 12, 1815 in Jena . Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-8253-6471-7 .
regional customs
- Martin Biastoch: Duel and scale in the empire using the example of the Tübinger Corps Franconia, Rhenania, Suevia and Borussia between 1871 and 1895. SH-Verlag, Vierow 1995, ISBN 3-89498-020-6 .
- Martin Biastoch, determinations, PP and duels in the Tübinger SC between 1880 and 1890, in: Einst und Jetzt, Vol. 35, 1990, pp. 8-3.
- Library on the historical German language for students and pupils. Vol. 1-6. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel . Berlin; New York 1984 (Vol. 1: Historical German student and pupil language. Introduction, bibliography and word index by Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper-Jensen and Georg Objartel; Vol. 2: Dictionaries of the 18th century on German student language. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel; Vol. 3: Dictionaries of the 19th century on German student language I. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel; Vol. 4: Dictionaries of the 19th century on German student language II. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel; Vol. 5 : Scientific monographs on historical German student and school language. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel; Vol. 6: Smaller scientific contributions to historical German student and school language. Appendix: German translation dictionaries. Edited by Helmut Henne and Georg Objartel).
- Jan Carstensen, Gefion Apel (Ed.): Quick-witted! Student associations in the empire. Reader and exhibition catalog on behalf of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association for the exhibition in the Westphalian Open-Air Museum Detmold from August 15 to October 31, 2006. In: Materials of the Westphalian Open-Air Museum Detmold - State Museum for Folklore No. 2, Westphalian Open-Air Museum, Detmold 2006, ISBN 3- 926160-39-X / ISSN 1862-6939 .
- Christian Helfer : Kösener Customs and Customs. A corps student dictionary. 2nd, expanded edition. Akademie-Verlag, Saarbrücken 1991, ISBN 3-9801475-2-5 .
- Peter Krause : O old lad glory. The students and their customs. 5th, completely revised edition. Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-222-12478-7 .
- Raimund Lang (Ed.): Ergo cantemus! Texts and materials for the student song. In: Association for German Student History : GDS archive for university history and student history , supplement 13. SH, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-89498-112-1 .
