Eberhard-Karls-Universitätsarchiv Tübingen

The University Archives [Universitätsarchiv] are as old as the University itself. When the University was established by Count Eberhard the Bearded [Graf Eberhard im Bart] in 1477 with papal permission, the new body was granted a number of important privileges such as self-administration, tax exemptions and autonomous jurisdiction. The documents containing the grants or confirmations of these privileges by subsequent rulers of the Duchy of Württemberg, which were of vital importance to the University's academic freedom and its independence from city and provincial authorities, were secured along with other valuables (such as the silver treasure [Silberschatz] and cash assets) first in the vestry of the St. George's Collegiate Church in Tübingen, an then, beginning in 1549, in a vault under the Main Assembly Hall [Alte Aula]. By the mid eighteen hundreds, however, these documents had lost their original importance, since the University hade been completely reorganized and stripped of its traditional privileges during the Napoleonic era and the years thereafter. Therefore in 1865 the Senate, in order to make archival materials more easily accessible to historians, turned over the old Archives and most other University records originating prior to 1750 to the Library. The Archives formed a separate section within the Library's manuscript collection until they were placed under the control of a professional archivist in 1967. This was done as part of the preparations for the upcoming 500th anniversary celebrations, but was also motivated by the rapidly expanding amount of non-current records throughout the University. Today the holdings amount to approx. 4.800 linear metres. (Source: http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/einrichtungen/universitaetsbibliothek/universitaetsarchiv.html)