Prince - University - Money. A comparative study of the finances of the universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg until the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jörg Peltzer
• Subject Area: Medieval History ; Early Modern History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 453591512

This project analyses the finances of the universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg in a diachronic and comparative way. It thus aims to contribute to a better understanding of how the relationship between prince, principality and university developed from the late Middle Ages to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. This serves not only to promote a systematic comparative history of university finances, but also to overcome the traditional demarcation between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times. The term finances means in this context the endowment of the university as well as its annual income from rents and student fees. Particular attention is paid to the universities’ investments in professorial recruitment and student bursaries. Both aspects have so far not been studies in a systematic and comparative way.The approach via the finances allows for a differentiated analysis of the university’s significance for the prince and his rule. How did the prince influence the university and how did this affect its development? How did the quality of the prince’s influence change from the late Middle Ages to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War? What was, from the prince’s point of view, the value of the university, what was it worth and why? To what extent served the recruitment of professors and the financial support of students the development of the principality? To answer these questions contributes to a nuanced debate on the term and the nature of the premodern Landesuniversität, its significance for the ruler and whether there existed prominent differences between the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Times? This in turn offers further aspects to the ongoing debate on the transition from the late medieval principality to the early modern territorial state. Finally, the comparison Heidelberg-Freiburg enables us to analyse to what extent the different confessional orientation of their respective principalities influenced the finances and the role of both universities. Did it weaken or strengthen the relationship between prince, university and principality? Is it at all possible to answer that question in a general way or did other factors play a much more important role in determining that relation? To answer these questions means also to address the effects of confessional politics in terms of their range and depth.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants