From a Promise to the Rhineland to the Founding Charter
On October 18, 1818, Prussian king Frederick William III signed the University of Bonn's founding charter in Aachen and issued an order to Chancellor Hardenberg to open it as soon as possible. The document recalled the promise of a university made to Rhineland residents on April 5, 1815, linking scholarship, religious life, and standards of conduct with governance of territories newly under Prussian rule. The signing took place in Aachen; the institution itself was in Bonn on the Rhine.
The location had been contested. Drawing on archives, library historian Wilhelm Erman records rival claims from Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Koblenz, Cologne, and other towns, with the final debate focusing on Cologne and Bonn. A royal order of May 26, 1818 chose Bonn, advantaged by large existing state-owned buildings. The October charter was therefore an important outcome of preparations, not the sudden beginning of every preparatory activity.
Former Palaces, Annual Income, and Student Support
The king assigned Bonn's palace and associated facilities to the university and promised use of nearby Poppelsdorf Palace as needed, with conversion costs borne by the state. An on-site account in the 1819 yearbook reported twelve lecture rooms completed in Bonn Palace, alongside plans for a library and medical facilities. Reusing palaces enabled a relatively rapid start, but projects described as planned in the same report should not all be treated as already built.
The charter promised annual revenue sufficient to maintain the institution and authorized the chancellor to arrange funds, without specifying in these clauses a sum that could be copied as total founding capital. Annual income was also to provide meals and other aid for poor, diligent students of suitable conduct, whether Catholic or Protestant. Twice-yearly church collections in the Rhineland and Westphalia were prescribed as supplementary support. State provision, material facilities, and public donations thus worked together.
Five Faculties and an Evolving Administrative System
The charter established five faculties: Protestant theology, Catholic theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. The two theology faculties had equal status and alternated annually whenever precedence had to be assigned. Philosophy extended far beyond today's philosophy department: provisional regulations included mathematics, natural science, history, philology, and political and administrative studies. Courses were to complement one another, rather than isolated chairs determining students' entire training independently.
On October 21, 1818, the ministry responsible for religion, education, and medical affairs issued provisional regulations signed by Altenstein. Until formal statutes were prepared, the assembly of all ordinary professors performed academic senate duties, while the state appointed the first rector and deans. A royal curator exercised direct supervision and managed financial and treasury matters. The elections envisaged in the charter must therefore be distinguished from provisional appointments at opening; the university was not wholly autonomous from its first day.
Enrollment and Course Selection Require Specific Procedures
The provisional regulations required applicants to provide a leaving certificate from their former public school and establish their identity. Assisted by the secretary, the rector registered them, read the rules aloud, replaced an oath with a handshake, and issued matriculation papers and a copy of the rules. Students then registered with their faculty. Those formally reported expelled by relevant universities were separately excluded. Entry meant joining an academic community governed jointly by faculty, rector, and regulations.
Lectures also required financial and administrative procedures: students prepaid fees for selected paid courses to the university cashier, presented receipts to professors, and received seat numbers. Meanwhile, ordinary and extraordinary professors had to offer one free public course every half-year. Paid attendance and free public instruction coexisted; early teaching was neither universally free nor organized like present-day admissions.
References: [2]
The Philological Seminar Turns Reading into Research Training
Regulations issued on February 16, 1819 for the philological seminar reveal teaching in greater detail than faculty names alone. Professor Heinrich directed it with Professor Naeke's assistance, providing interpretation of Greek and Latin authors, composition in classical languages, specialized papers, and scholarly debate. Applicants generally needed at least half a year of university study, a Latin written exercise, and an oral examination; ordinary membership was provisionally set at eight.
Members had to submit a paper every eight weeks. A teacher could first assign it to another member for criticism before organizing discussion, and written work was to be retained as evidence for evaluation. An annual 350 thalers supported members' purchase of scholarly reference works, allocated on the director's proposal and released after ministerial approval. This was one seminar's annual student-aid provision, not the university's total budget or a payment received by every student.
References: [4]
Moving Books and New Courses Expand Academic Connections
Buildings did not automatically provide knowledge resources. Erman notes that Bonn lacked a large available public collection when selected, requiring organizers to build a library separately. The 1819 yearbook records purchase of Erlangen scholar Harles's philological and antiquarian collection and receipt of books from the dissolved University of Duisburg, supplemented by duplicates from Trier and Düsseldorf. Purchases, transfers, and gifts brought literature accumulated in different regions into the new institution.
The university chronicle that year records that Schlegel's lectures on Indian languages and literature attracted professors as well as students, while acknowledging that the Catholic theology faculty still needed fuller staffing. Early Bonn thus combined interdisciplinary curiosity and incoming materials with continuing shortages of personnel, books, and facilities. Its formation is best understood through this practical work, rather than merely through later famous alumni.