"New University" at Sanderring

A Tour of the Building's History

"What do you mean, 'New University'? Surely, that's the one up at Hubland!" A comment frequently heard from confused first-semester students new to Würzburg. By their first impression, calling the building at Sanderring Neue Universität is a misnomer. After all, the imposing edifice is anything but new – it was inaugurated as early as October 28, 1896.

Our first-semester student has his classes at Hubland. He has seen the inside of New University only during registration and will only rarely enter the place again in the future. For him, the word "new" is associated with the buildings on the Hubland expansion grounds. Compared to them, the structure at Sanderring clearly is "old," especially since he has never heard of the real Old University compound at Domerschulstrasse.

"You only know a thing once you know its history." There is wisdom in the old saying, and so, only a little history lesson will make it clear to the puzzled student why the "new one" is not the "old one", despite its age. At the beginning of the history of the institution of higher learning founded by Prince Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn in early 1582, stands the Old University Building on Domerschulstrasse, completed after nine years of construction in 1591 – a colossal structure by the standards of the time, providing more than enough space for the academic activities then envisioned.

More Students – Lack of Space

Yet the University kept growing, particularly in the 19th century, when Medicine and the Natural Sciences saw an enormous upturn. Space in the University building became scarce. As a result, new institutes gradually were established at other sites in the city, all of them at today's Röntgenring. Between 1853 and 1896, the number of students almost tripled, from 606 to 1,624. Ultimately, the newly-founded facilities would prove too small, too. The Main Building, today's Old University, not only housed classrooms, but also science and arts collections, apartments for the Rector and the professors, administrative offices, and the library. No wonder that complaints about the cramped and overcrowded space were getting louder and louder.

Relief came in the early 70s of the 19th century, after the ring of fortifications around the city had been torn down. At that time, the Academic Senate of the University adopted the idea of alleviating the space situation with another new building. Nobody, however, had any intention of constructing a new Main Building – to abandon the venerable and familiar rooms seemed irreverent. The first plans merely foresaw moving the bookstock of the University to a new home. Yet the search for a suitable building site still was to take up several years.

Books Do Not Need Airy Rooms

The Library was to be as close as possible to the Main Building, while yet situated in a quiet and secluded location and offering space for future extensions. Various properties were inspected, among others, the area between Rennweg and St. Johanniskirche or the site where the District Court Building stands today. But all of them were rejected, sometimes for aesthetic concerns, sometimes due to political obstacles.
The building site at today's Sanderring was selected in December 1876. Over the following years, however, the plans were almost forgotten, as other new construction projects seemed more important. Eventually, it was Professor Georg Schanz, who turned the situation around. During the Senate meeting of March 9, 1885, he put forward the proposal to devote the old University building entirely to the Library and the Museum of Art History and to erect a college building on the site intended for the Library. Once again, he pointed out the dearth of lecture halls in the Old University, their shabby condition, and the noise caused by the heavy traffic of horse-drawn carriages in the busy streets around the University. Why should airy and sunny rooms be created for the books, while human beings were reduced to "pursuing their duties in gloomy and noisy caves"?

The idea met with approval. Late in 1892, construction was begun under the guidance of architect Rudolf Ritter von Horstig. Horstig, born 1858 in Michelbach near Alzenau, had studied Architecture in Munich and been involved in the construction of the Central Station there. Since 1883, he had been living in Würzburg, where he became President of the Royal University Building Inspectorate in 1892.

"Words of Warm Recognition" at the Inauguration

The day of inauguration, October 28, 1896, was duly celebrated. In the morning, the academic community assembled at the Old University, to bid farewell to the old familiar rooms. The festive procession then made its way to the new structure, where the guests of honor were waiting. After the opening ceremony, the program called for a tour of the building, which "inspired words of warm recognition and admiration of the happily achieved marriage of beauty and utility in all those present," as it reads in a publication of the Academic Senate from 1897 ("The New University Building of the Royal Bavarian Julius-Maximilians University at Würzburg. Its History of Construction and Inauguration").

However, on this 28th day of October in 1896, the structure was not yet finished. The roof of the central part was still bare. The group of statues, designed by Munich sculptor Hubert Netzer, was added only later. It represents Prometheus, brandishing the Torch of Intellectual Progress – against the dark powers of Ignorance and Bestiality, for Truth and Justice. The figures are supplemented by a bronze plaque with the inscription "Veritati" – the edifice was to be unmistakably consecrated to Truth. The inscription goes back to Würzburg theologian Herman Schell, then Rector of the University. It was his personal motto.

Busts on the Façade

Two busts still adorn the building's façade today. One represents the second founder of the University, Prince Bishop Julius Echter, the other shows Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria. A likeness of the first founder, Prince Bishop Johann von Egloffstein, presides over the side portal, looking over Geschwister-Scholl-Platz. Originally, the structure was asymmetrical, the west wing merely a stump compared to its eastern counterpart. Only after an extension added between 1915 and 1918 did the New University have two side wings of equal size.

Pursuant to a decree of the Senate, the edifice was named "New University," as by then it had evolved into more than just a lecturing facility – the new Main Building of the University, complete with all the offices of its self-government. In addition, there were lecturing halls for the Theological, Legal, and Philosophical Faculties, the apartments of the janitor and the mechanic in the basement, rooms for the heating units, filing departments, storage areas for coal reserves, and a washhouse.

Even a 175-m2 gymnasium was provided. But where once students engaged in the pursuit of physical fitness, rather the opposite is the case today. Students no longer exercise but indulge their caffeine habits – the former sports facility now serves as a cafeteria. The use of other rooms has changed as well, a former lecture hall on the second floor, for instance, was converted into the office of the University's President. That the new structure would see many changes in the future must have been clear to everyone attending its inauguration. Yet hardly anyone in the festive assembly could have had an inkling that, after less than 50 years, von Horstig's creation would already be reduced to rubble.

Lectures among the Ruins

During the bombing raid on the night of March 16, 1945, the New University met with the same fate as the rest of the inner city. Bestiality, against which he was raising high his torch, did not spare Prometheus either – broken and decapitated, he was left enthroned on a mere ruin. But rebuilding began in the summer of the very same year. Many helpers volunteered for the job of clearing away debris and procuring building materials, quite a few professors and students among them.

No later than the autumn of 1945, the Theological Faculty started teaching classes again, even if only on a makeshift basis. In January 1946, the Faculties of Philosophy and of Natural Sciences followed suit. For today's students and educators, it must be hard to imagine having class on a construction site. The first proper seating was installed in lecture halls as late as 1949. By the end of 1950, 2.15 million Deutschmark had been spent on the rebuilding of the New University, as shown by the records of the University Planning and Building Office – an amount corresponding to about ten million euro in our time.

In 1954, it was decided to furbish the Auditorium Maximum, the largest lecture hall, as a "purely functional space" with around 500 seats. One year later, the Audimax was inaugurated. "The new ceremonial space differs from the earlier assembly hall in its sober architectural note, which has replaced the grand marble columns and lavish stucco work that expressed the desire for representation of a bygone era," noted Main-Post, the local newspaper, at the time. The Audimax has retained its businesslike atmosphere until today – not counting the three huge arched windows with integrated doors that provide access to the balconies and allow daylight to flood the space. The great windows might have been a dire necessity to making lectures bearable, as smoking was banned in the lecture halls only in 1963.

A Fourth Wing for Still More Students

In 1960, the University Planning and Building Office officially presented the edifice to the University – at a time when the next extension in the form of a fourth wing was already in the planning stage, for the University kept on growing. In the summer semester of 1957, 2,935 students were registered. Three years later, their number had risen to almost 4,800, and in the summer of 1965, it went past the 7,000 mark. This also was the year for the foundation stone of the first building on Hubland Campus to be laid.

For the fourth wing, which today houses the various Departments of Economics, several models were debated, such as, for instance, the erection of a highrise structure that was to annex the west wing. Eventually, the new wing was designed in such a way that it connects with the three wings of the old structure to enclose a huge hall, the Atrium, suitable for exhibitions, festivals – or even for sit-ins. Although, as far as Würzburg was concerned, such incidents during the time of student unrest usually occurred at Studentenhaus, New University also occasionally became a target for protest. In the night before July 13, 1968, stones crashed into the glass of the main doors. The University Planning and Building Office recorded the damage on photographs, laconically commenting, "12 stones, 10 hits." At the time, however, it was rumored that the stones had not been thrown by Würzburg students, but by activists from Frankfurt, transported to Würzburg expressly for the purpose.

The Old City Wall at the Parking Lot

In order to implement the fourth wing project, the Main Staircase (see photograph) had to be torn down. Würzburg writer, painter, art critic, and monument conservator Heiner Reitberger (1923-1998) published a regretful commentary in the Main-Post, under his pseudonym of "Kolonat," the name of one of the Guardian Apostles of Würzburg and Lower Franconia: "In the immediate future, something will be demolished, which always … has been the best about the New University, the Main Staircase. Although the Neo-Baroque stucco work damaged in the bombing and the firestorm has never been renovated, and the short, urn-crowned pillars holding up the banisters of the stairs between the second and the third floor are missing, as are the original decorative trellises, … on the whole, the staircase still exudes an air of great dignity."

While the Main Staircase as a historical structure was sacrificed for the construction of the annex, another one was gained: When excavating the building pit at the back of New University, workers struck the remains of the walls of the medieval keep from the 15th century. The ancient city fortifications were partially built up again, eventually being integrated into the extension. They now line both the access ramp down into the underground parking lot and the parking facilities above ground. Reconstruction also included creating somewhat lower replicas of the semi-circular towers along the wall. Partially overgrown by ivy, they lend a special charm to the space between the compound of the Government of Lower Franconia and New University.

Modern Sculpture in the Atrium

The topping-out ceremony for the annex was held in October 1970. Ever since then, the Atrium has been the spacious center of the New University Building. Alcoves in the east and west walls contain statuary and sculptural representations alluding to the University's goals and its history: Adam and Eve confronting the Tree of Knowledge, and the historical seal of the University facing the Coat of Arms of the Free State of Bavaria. Other works symbolize the globe and the City of Würzburg, with its colors of red and gold, in the manner of a mobile. Lastly, Julius Echter's portrait appears graven in stone, the work of Würzburg sculptor Helmuth Weber.

And so, the artworks in the Atrium offer a number of clues for historical research to the first-semester student puzzling out the difference between the "Old" and the "New" Universities: Beginning with the founder of Old University, Julius Echter, whose likeness is certain to be familiar to the student, as it graces the labels on the wheat beer bottles of the local brewery, he may now trace the architectonic development of the University. At the end of his quest, he will, as it were, have reached the "Tree of Knowledge," finally knowing why the New University is not the Old one.

Robert Emmerich