The Writing of University History and University Jubilees: German Examples

Abstract

University history has a long-standing record. The early formation of university historiography materialized not only as a result of scientific self-reflection, but also as an occasion-driven practice tied to anniversaries. Therefore, it was linked to a concrete context of utilization and application. Thus, university history was often some sort of casual remittance work, carried out on the occasion of a jubilee by historians who were chosen rather for their local availability than for their special knowledge. This holds true even today, in spite of the fact that since the mid-1990s there has been an increased research interest in university history, both on the national and international level. Thus, it still seems productive to ask what anniversaries mean for the writing of university history. In what follows, I will address this question by a three-step approach. First, I am going to roughly sketch out the history of university jubilees to illuminate the historical background of this particular production context. In step two, I will turn to some basic and systematic reflections about how university history can and should be written. Finally, step three will provide a short screening of the (German) anniversary publications that came out in recent years.