THE HISTORY OF OUR UNIVERSITY 5: Academic Traditions at the JMU
This article was originally published in German. The English version is an automatic translation and may contain errors. The German original is authoritative.
JMU was once rich in rituals and symbolic forms: academic robes, rector chains, flags, archives full of documents. Much of that has disappeared – through war, reforms and the cultural break of the 1960s. Yet some tradition lives on quietly.
Whoever visits a rectoral celebration at our university today still sees a relic from centuries past: the rector wears a heavy chain – a piece from the early 19th century that symbolises dignity and continuity.
Well into the 20th century, this ceremonial was embedded in a rich academic ritual framework.
Academic gowns: symbols between tradition and provocation
Academic gowns – the traditional scholarly robes – are still taken for granted in Anglophone countries today. In Germany, however, they have largely disappeared. "Ironically, it was precisely the National Socialists who abolished academic gowns first," explains Dr. Marcus Holtz, head of the University Archive at Uni Würzburg. "They hated this independent academic tradition, which eluded their ideology."
After 1945, academic gowns initially return. But in the 1960s, they become a symbol again, this time for something different: for supposedly "reactionary" tradition. For in the student protests of the 68s, anger and frustration also bundled against academic gowns. According to Holtz, everything was thrown into one pot – academic tradition, the Nazi era and authoritarian structures.
The fact that the National Socialists themselves hated and abolished academic gowns was barely reflected upon. In the end, they had disappeared – of their own accord, but under strong political pressure.
Rituals that have survived
Academic tradition has not completely disappeared in Würzburg. Some rituals are carried on, often unconsciously:
- cum tempore: When an event begins at 15:00 "s.t." or "c.t.", there is tradition behind it. 15:00 c.t. means 15:15.
- Rituals when toasting: For example, making direct eye contact when toasting – this too stems from academic etiquette.
Many of these things one internalises in university life without knowing how old they actually are, according to the head of the university archive.
The burnt archive
A watershed event for university history is 16 March 1945: Würzburg is largely destroyed in a bombing raid.
"The university archive had already been practically abolished beforehand," reports Holtz. "Shortly before 1933, there was a jubilee, and afterwards people thought: 'Now we have published everything important, we don't need the rest anymore.' The documents therefore lay unprotected in cellars and burned in the bombing night.
There are still substantial records, but also huge gaps. Entire chapters of university history are therefore difficult to reconstruct. Architectural tradition was also lost: the new university was an ornately decorated representative building with flags, coats of arms and symbols of academic self-presentation. Much of it exists only in photographs today.
Between loss and rediscovery
Today, Uni Würzburg is approaching its own traditions anew – carefully and reflectively. "It is not about simply copying old forms," emphasises Holtz. "Rather, it is about understanding what they meant and deciding what we consciously want to carry forward from them."
The rector's chain is one such sign: a visible symbol that academic dignity and responsibility are more than a job title on paper.