Student unrest at the University of Helmstedt
The student unrest at the University of Helmstedt in the winter of 1790/1791 was a conflict between students at the University of Helmstedt and the craftsmen of the city of Helmstedt .
background
The University of Helmstedt was founded in 1576 as the first decidedly Protestant university in the northern half of Germany. At times it was the third largest university in the German-speaking area. In the course of the almost 250 years of its existence, a total of around 400 professors trained around 45,000 students. The student body in Helmstedt was already considered particularly rowdy and violent at the end of the 16th century.
The university's decline began in the second half of the 18th century. There was significant competition with the University of Göttingen , which was founded in 1734 . The University of Helmstedt, at which up to 500 students enrolled annually in its heyday, transformed into a purely provincial university for the residents of the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In 1795 only 97 young men were studying in Helmstedt. The last lectures were given in the spring of 1810.
course
In the course of 1790 there were increasingly violent clashes and clashes between students and local journeymen. In one of these clashes the hostel of the shoemaker's journeyman was almost destroyed by the students. According to other sources, only the guild sign and several doors of the guild house were affected by the destruction. The government of the principality tried to compensate and had the shoemakers' guild allocated a sum of money as compensation.
Under criminal law, the students were subject to academic jurisdiction . However, the university's senate failed to maintain calm and discipline the students. Thereupon the Mayor of Helmstedt Georg Fein had a vigilante group formed, which, armed with pitchforks and clubs, successfully opposed the opponents. It is reported that a master butcher hung a stolen, torn braid of hair from a student as a trophy between his meat display.
The situation escalated on February 17, 1791, during a tumult in the town's marketplace, when the crowd of students fired pistol shots, fired incendiary devices and fired cannon strikes in front of the mayor's office. Then about a hundred student troublemakers left the university town. The destination of the move was the neighboring village of Harbke , only about an hour away from the gates of Helmstedt. However, Harbke was already on Prussian territory and thus beyond the access of the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel.
From Harbke, the students sent a written ultimatum to the university on February 26, demanding an amnesty and the punishment of the involved shoemaker and miller journeyman, but above all the strictest punishment of the mayor. Otherwise they would not return to the university. All demands were uncompromisingly rejected by the university management. The Prussian authorities refused a request for the students to be extradited because they had been quiet in Prussia. A committee of students watched over the order in Harbke. B. also the later statesman, judge and historian Gottfried Philipp von Bülow belonged.
In another letter, the students moved away from demanding that the mayor be punished. This enabled Mayor Fein to travel to Harbke in order to mediate in the dispute due to the deadlocked positions as negotiators. At the same time, the ducal government acted on the university administration and urged that students be treated carefully when they return. On March 1, 1791, the students sent a letter to the mayor in which they "after careful consideration" assured that they would follow his advice. The following day they returned to the university town.
For the University of Helmstedt, this student extract was the only one in its history. Renewed acts of violence between students and craftsmen in Helmstedt were reported back in 1792.
literature
- Stefan Brüdermann : The Göttingen student excerpt from 1790. Craftsmen's honor and academic freedom . Wallstein, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-89244-020-4 .
- Tamara Cipolla: Friedrich Karl von Strombeck life and work . de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-89949-835-6 ( preview in Google book search).
- Georg Objartel: Language and way of life of German students in the 18th and 19th centuries . de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-045399-7 .
Individual evidence
- ^ P. Baumgart: David Chytraeus and the foundation of the University of Helmstedt . In: Braunschweiger Jahrbuch , Volume 42 (1961), pp. 35–37.
- ^ Sabine Ahrens: The teachers of the University of Helmstedt (1576-1810). Publications of the Kreismuseen Helmstedt, Volume 7, Landkreis Helmstedt, Helmstedt 2004, ISBN 3-937733-70-1
- ^ F. Hermann Meyer: Studentica. Life and manners of German students in earlier centuries . Hermann Hartung, Leipzig 1857 ( preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ a b Objartel, p. 29 ff
- ↑ a b c Brüdermann, p. 51 ff
- ↑ Gottfried Philipp von Bülow : Review of my life . Fleckeisen, Helmstedt 1844.
- ↑ Cipolla p. 32