Background

Ruperto Carola - Germany's Oldest University

Founded in 1386 by Elector Ruprecht I, Heidelberg University remains one of the most prestigious research universities in Europe to this day.

1386: a university born of church politics

When Elector Ruprecht I was granted permission to found a university in Heidelberg in 1386, the motive was less scholarly than political. The Western Schism had driven German scholars out of Paris, and the Palatinate seized the opportunity. Teaching began in October 1386 with a few dozen students.

That makes Heidelberg the oldest university in what is now Germany. Only Prague (1348) and Vienna (1365) are older within the Holy Roman Empire, and both lie outside modern German borders.

Where the double name comes from

The official name is Ruprecht Karl University, Ruperto Carola for short. Ruprecht I is the founder. The second name arrived more than 400 years later: Heidelberg passed to Baden in 1803, and Margrave Karl Friedrich reorganised the near-bankrupt university as a state-funded institution.

The motto Semper apertus, always open, refers to the open book on the university seal.

What the university does to the city

Roughly one in five Heidelberg residents studies or works at the university, which shapes the housing market, the restaurants and the rhythm of the year.

The university is spread across the city rather than gathered on one campus: humanities in the Old Town, sciences and medicine in the Neuenheimer Feld across the river.