HEIDELBERG - STUDENT PRISON AND MUSEUM
Student Life of Old Heidelberg University
Heidelberg is most
definitely a college town. On every bus, tram and in the market squares
young energy abounds, with students from around
the world. It has been so since 1386 when, with the formal approval of
the Pope, the Palatine Elector Ruprecht I, (essentially the prince of
the Rhineland region) opened the university in his royal seat. Heidelberg
University was the first in Germany and the third such intellectual center
to be established in the Holy Roman Empire of the German kings, after
Vienna and Prague. After Heidelberg found its way under the control of
the land of Baden, its potentate Karl Frederick re-organized the University
in 1803 so that its official name is Ruprecht-Karls Universität
Heidelberg. But for visitors to Heidelberg not there to take classes
but to discover the sights of the city, the University presents a colorful
exploration of the student life of its historic past.
The Student Prison
What better way to
get out of class and avoid those boring pesky tests than to be sent
to jail. At least it was so for the wealthy upper crust
students of the 19th Century at Heidelberg University. Sons of the rich
for whom schooling was a rather secondary activity, more a chance for
socializing than study (okay, college hasn’t changed that much).
At Heidelberg, the chance to escape the classroom with a stint in the
student prison was a charming draw. For most of its five hundred years,
until 1886, the university held exclusive jurisdiction over the legal
disposition of its students and after that for internal discipline. From
1823 until the commencement of the First World War in 1914 students at
Heidelberg University would be incarcerated in a campus jail for the
usual student transgressions of carousing and disturbances of the public
order.
At the Student Prison
or Studenten Karzer, depending on the seriousness of the offense, a
student’s imprisonment could last from 2 days
to 4 weeks. The students were still allowed to attend lectures, so the
prison was more like a restrictive dormitory, and those in residence
there would occupy their time with immortalizing their stay with wall
graffiti. It was not uncommon for a student to create mischief just to
be sent there, often to join their friends. A particularly popular method
to accomplish this was pig chasing. One need only chase a local Heidelberg
family’s pig from the yard for a complaint to be made and the guilty
student to be hauled off to the camaraderie of their fellows. The college
officers would arrive at the student's room and ask he remand himself.
The brash rake would casually demand a later appointment as he was currently
much too busy for jail, though such a plea would be politely refused.
The student prison
remains behind the Old University building at Augustinergasse 2 with
stairs up to the darkened rooms of the prison. There are no bars,
just scarred tables and beds, and very inch of wall filled with fraternity
house symbols, family crests, scribbled spontaneous poems and clever
epithets, and silhouettes of the captive student’s faces filled
in with shadows capped with the red cap of the University uniform of
the 19th Century. Friends and fraternity brothers held together would
line their faces in silhouette group portraits, for every joined as proud
mischievous miscreants (see Red Ox Inn).
The University Museum
The ground floor of
the Old University building located on University Square in the heart
of the old city houses the University Museum. The
building itself was built between 1712 and 1728. Three rooms of exhibits
cover the half-millennium of the school’s history. The first room
features the period of the Palatine Electors from founding of the university
to its change to the Baden. A second room covers the age of romanticism
which brought Heidelberg to the world’s attention and the addition
of modern natural science to the curriculum. The last room explores the
events of the 20th Century including the school's role during the Third
Reich and the admission of women students. Guided audio tours are available
in German and English.
The Old University Great Hall
The
Old University’s
most distinctive feature is the Great Hall. Designed in 1886 by Architect
Josef Durm for the 500th Anniversary of
the founding of the university, a magnificent example
of ornate neo-Renaissance
revivalism
of rich dark wood galleries three stories high above the floor seats
of red velvet. The great hall is still used for formal
events, lectures and graduation ceremonies.
On
the front facing wall above the lectern is a bust of the Grand Duke
Frederich of Baden who presided over the land at the time
of the construction. To the right of the bust is a portrait of the
Margrave Karl Frederich who endowed the university when Heidelberg
was ceded to
Baden. On the front wall a painting by Ferdinand Keller depicts Athena
(or Minerva if you prefer the Roman to Greek) the goddess of wisdom
and the arts. On the ceiling are four frescoes depicting the learning
disciplines
of
law,
medicine,
theology
and philosophy.
Visiting Heidelberg University Museum and Student Prison
A combined ticket
gives access to the Student Prison, the Museum and the Great Hall.
Tickets can be purchased at either the Old University
museum desk or at the Student Prison where the Campus Shop with logo
gifts, sportswear and accessories is also located. Admission is €3
with a discount price for students and seniors of €2. The Student
Prison is open daily, while the Old University is open Tuesday thru Sunday,
10am to 6pm April to September, 10am to 4pm October to March. The Great
Hall may be closed if in use for special occasions or events. The University
has several other museums as well, from Eqyptology to Zoology, Antiquities
and Medicine.
Other Sites of Heidelberg Student History
For
other sites of historic student life in Heidelberg, the Philosopher’s
Walk lies across the Neckar River (see Philosopher's
Walk Poets View), and near
the old bridge, down Haspelgasse street from iconic front of the Ritter
St
Georg along
the
Hauptstrasse
pedestrian zone (see Hotel
Ritter St Georg) you’ll find the Knösel
Sweet shop, Heidelberg's oldest chocolatier where the Student Kiss chocolate
was created, bearing the silhouette image you’ll recognized from
the prison, still available to present to a sweetheart (Student
Kiss),
and the Schnookelodj Restaurant where students of olden days carved their
initials in the
tables for eternal posterity. Though don’t carve your own in
the historic tables, jail time for modern vandalism isn't as charming
as
it used to be. © Bargain
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