University of Basel

The University of Basel was founded in connection with the Council of Basel. It was during the years the catholic clergy resided in Basel, a temporary university was established between the years 1432 und 1448. In May 1432 it was authorized for Simon de Valla from Venice to lecture on canon law, in 1434 Jacques d'Attigny from France and was also permitted to lecture on canon law in Basel. d'Attigny had before been lecturing canon law at the University of Rome. In 1437 Demetrius was called to lecture Greek language. Also the function of a bedel is mentioned, but there was no mention of a dean or a university order. The same year Pope Eugene IV attempted to move the council to Ferrara, but many involved in Basel stayed and kept negotiating and in 1439 the council elected a counter pope in the figure of the Duke of Savoy Amadeus VIII, who would become known as Felix V. Felix V then established a formal "University of the Clergy" (German: Kurienuniversität), which was inaugurated in November 1440 with a mass in the Barfüsser Church. In 1448, the German King Frederick III came to an agreement with Pope Nicholas V, the successor of Eugen IV and ordered the city to remove the security of the councilors. The university was then formally closed in July 1448 and the clergy moved on to Lausanne. After they left, the former lecturers urged for a regular university to be established. The deed of foundation given in the form of a Papal bull by Pope Pius II on 12 November 1459 in Mantua and the official opening ceremony was held on 4 April 1460, the day of Saint Ambrose in the Minster of Basel. Originally the University of Basel was decreed to have four faculties—arts, medicine, theology, and jurisprudence. From 1497, the Grand Council of Basel discussed whether the university was to be closed and only in 1501, the year Basel joined the Swiss Confederation, it was decided not to close the university. The faculty of arts served until 1818 as the foundation for the other three academic subjects. In the eighteenth century as Basel became more commercial, the university, one of the centres of learning in the Renaissance, slipped into insignificance. Enrollment which had been over a thousand around 1600, dropped to sixty in 1785 with eighteen professors. The professors themselves were mostly sons of the elite.

Over the course of centuries as many scholars came to the city, Basel became an early centre of book printing and humanism. Around the same time as the university itself, the Basel University Library was founded. Today it has over three million books and writings and is the largest library in Switzerland.

Located in what was once a politically volatile area, the university's fate often ebbed and flowed with regional political developments, including the Reformation, the Kantonstrennung (separation of the Canton of Basel City from Basel Land), and both World Wars. These factors affected student attendance, funding, university-government relations. In 1833 the Canton of Basel split in two with the Federal Diet requiring that the canton's assets, including the books at the university library, be divided—two-thirds going to the new half canton of Basel-Landschaft. The city, Basel-Stadt, had to buy back this share and the university became so impoverished that it drastically reduced its course offerings. Students were expected to continue their education after two years or so at a German university.

Student enrollment surged after the university shed its medieval curriculum (including the elimination of Latin as the official language of the course catalog in 1822) and began to add more faculties, especially those in the humanities and sciences. Liberal Arts became a faculty in 1818, from which the Philosophy and History and Natural History faculties were derived in 1937. The university subsequently established the Faculty of Science (1937), the Faculty of Business and Economics (1996), and the Faculty of Psychology (2003). During the 20th century, the university grew rapidly, from one thousand students in 1918 to eight thousand in 1994. The first woman who was admitted to the university, Emilie Frey, began her medical studies in 1890.

After the seizure of power in the year 1933 by the Nazis in Germany, numerous renowned German professors decided to emigrate to Basel and started to work at the University of Basel. Several Swiss scholars also returned, inter alia the Law Professor Arthur Baumgarten (1933), the Theologians Karl Barth (1935) and Fritz Lieb (1937), and after World War II the Philosopher Karl Jaspers from Heidelberg University (1948), as well as the surgeon Rudolf Nissen (1952).

On 1 January 1996, the University of Basel became independent from the cantonal government and thus earned its right to self-government. In 2007, the Canton of Basel-Landschaft voted in favor to share the sponsorship of the university in parity with the Canton Basel-Stadt.

Seal

Since 1460, the seal of the university showed a Virgin surrounded with sun rays standing a crescent moon as mentioned in the Revelation of John. Below the moon is the coat of arms of Basel. In her right hand, she holds a scepter, and on her left arm sits Jesus the child. The religious motive is described to denote the religious bond the university counted with at the beginning of its existence. The seal was also used after the reformation and used continuously until 1992.