The University Archives performs the tasks of a public archive for the University in accordance with the State Archive Law of Baden-Württemberg. As the historical "memory" of the Eberhardina-Carolina, it preserves rich holdings of documents, registers, protocols, files, scholars' estates and collections on the university’s history. They go back to the time before the foundation of the university and are continuously expanding.
We provide you with access to about 5000 linear meters of archival materials going back more than 500 years.
Following is a selected thematic list:
History of law: The consiliaries (expert opinions) of the law faculty are a unique source for the legal and social history of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Medical history: The Archives holds the administrative and medical records of Tübingen's University Hospitals. Other important holdings on the history of medicine are the administrative and medical records of the psychiatric clinic "Bellevue" in Kreuzlingen near Konstanz and the estate of the psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger.
Bequests: The University Archives owns bequests, especially from the 20th century, of renowned representatives of almost all disciplines represented at the university.
Student records: There are files on every student going back to the first third of the 19th century. These records mainly contain lists of the courses attended, written by the students themselves. The collections of Georg Schmidgall, a historian of student life, and the archives of individual fraternities document student life since the beginning of the 19th century. The period of the student movement of the 20th century is represented by a comprehensive collection of pamphlets.
Serial sources: Senate protocols, which have been available since 1524, and the university registers, which date back to 1477, represent more than 500 years of university history.
