From Mediocrity and Existential Crisis to Scientific Excellence: Heidelberg University Between 1803 and 1932

Abstract

Universities are sometimes idealistically seen as an institutional embodiment of academic ideas, as prominent places of research where universally valid scientific truths are generated and taught, or as havens of intellectual freedom. From the outset, however, universities have been shaped by political, economic, religious, and ideological interests. They have depended on external financial resources, suffered from internal and external conflict, interacted with their cultural environment, and derived part of their intellectual vigor from the extent and character of their spatial relations. One can use many diverse approaches to investigate the intellectual ups and downs of universities, drawing on several indicators of research output and scientific reputation.