University of Tübingen: University initiates critical examination of its name

The University of Tübingen has started a critical review of its own name. On Thursday, the university’s senate commissioned the rectorate to form a working group of historians to deal with the two namesake of the university, Count Eberhard and Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg. “It will be the task of the experts to check the sources on both personalities and arrive at a scientifically sound assessment of both rulers,” said the rector of the university, Professor Bernd Engler. The director of the Institute for Historical Regional Studies at the University of Tübingen, Professor Sigrid Hirbodian, will lead the working group.

As the rector explained, the experts are to present a report on Count Eberhard and Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg in the course of the winter semester 2021/22. On the basis of this report, a senate commission should then draw up a recommendation for a resolution on the name of the university. All status groups of the university will be represented in this Senate Commission.

Engler said that over the past few years, the university had been approached repeatedly by students as to whether the name of the Eberhard Karls University was still up-to-date. Both namesake are not representative of the current values of the university, argued the students. Count Eberhard von Württemberg founded the University of Tübingen in 1477. In 1769, Duke Karl Eugen had determined the name of the university, which is still valid today, which, as Eberhard Karls University, refers to the first names of both rulers.