Press release on the Senate decision on 25.01.2023

You can read the press release here [de].

Final Report of the Project "Zur Sache WWU", December 31, 2023

You can download this final report in German here .

Interim report of the project "Zur Sache WWU", April 6, 2022

The report before the Senate of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster is first dedicated to the parts of the project that have already been implemented, followed in the second part of the report by the presentation of the elements that are currently still being developed.

Review

The project's website has been online since April 2021 and provides information on the project itself, the history of the name, and supplementary topics relevant to the project's research question. The website is regularly updated and offers readers the opportunity to comment on and add to the content presented. The website can be accessed at https://www.uni-muenster.de/ZurSacheWWU/.

In addition to the discussion on the project website, the project team also follows the debates in the (local) press and social media. News about name discussions at the WWU are commented on very lively, especially in the social media - in addition to numerous comments - in addition to quite stereotypical objections that fundamentally question debates of this kind, there are also posts that argue very informed on a substantive level and are often critical of Wilhelm II as the namesake of the WWU Münster.

The information segment for the freshman welcome was realized as a short film. Due to the pandemic, this film was presented on the freshman page of the WWU homepage in October 2021 and can also be found on the WWU's Youtube channel and on the page of the project "Zur Sache WWU". With the target audience in mind, the film is kept quite casual and calls for discussion about Wilhelm II as the namesake of the university. There has already been praise from experts on several occasions.

The series of panel discussions began in June 2021 with an event on the question "What's in a Name?" but had to take place online due to pandemics.
During the discussion, science historian Prof. Dr. Mitchell Ash (University of Vienna), taking a broad look through university history, noted that universities with founding names tend to be the exception. Marketing expert Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmann (University of Bremen) emphasized the advantage that universities have over industrial companies - here the status of the university as well as the place name form an easily understandable "brand name". Prof. Dr. Johanna Weber (retired rector of the University of Greifswald) impressively described how the debate about Ernst Moritz Arndt was instrumentalized by forces close to the AFD during the election campaign. Jürgen Kaube (editor of the FAZ) asked whether such debates were not also instigated out of a desire to argue.

The panel discussion was comparatively well attended, with 85 to 100 people in the audience. However, the impression grew that an online panel was not the right format for the desired lively discussion. Therefore, the discussion series was paused in the winter semester and will be continued in the summer semester.

Collaborations

The project staff also participated in seminars at the WWU and cooperated with projects in the city: In a practical seminar at the History Seminar in cooperation with Radio Q under the direction of Dr. Lena Krull, a radio program on Wilhelm II was produced, which was broadcast on May 12, 2022. In a project seminar at the Institute of Geography, students under the direction of Dr. Kirsten Linnemann created podcasts that also addressed the name debate at the WWU. The project "Münster postcolonial" of the Münster City Archive also makes the colonial traces at the university visible. Prussia in Münster is the subject of bicycle tours developed by the Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Westfalens, Villa ten Hompel, the LWL Media Center and the project "Zur Sache WWU".

New archive finds
During its research, the project team came across new sources on the history of the name of the WWU Münster: The name Maximilian-Friedrichs-Universität / Akademie was also in use for Münster University or Academy before 1902, after the university's first founder, Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels. Findings range from documents from the late 18th century to various editions of Brockhaus to the archival estate of geographer Richard Lehmann, who as rector led the negotiations for the university's elevation. According to a memorial record of these negotiations in the Prussian Ministry of Culture in 1902, Lehmann also brought this naming into play in Berlin and lent more weight to the wish from Münster that Wilhelm II lend his name to the university. There, however, one was annoyed about the fact that this initiative was already reported in the newspapers without a first assessment having been obtained from the court. For this reason, Berlin initially declined.
The repeatedly circulated assumption that the university was named after Wilhelm I is not confirmed in the sources. It is true that there are individual sources that do not explicitly refer the name "Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität" to the reigning Prussian king. However, the majority of sources are unambiguous: the university was named after Wilhelm II.
In 1929, the statutes of the Prussian universities were unified. The respective traditional names were not mentioned in the text of the statutes, so they were omitted. Upon inquiry from the universities, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that the tradition names could not be subsequently inserted into the statutes, but that Berlin agreed to the continuation of the tradition names. The fact that the 1929 statutes of the University of Münster thus carry the tradition name on the cover in a single Münster print is by no means a special act of resistance.
Further research is still needed to understand the events surrounding the University's return to the traditional name in 1952. The University was reopened in 1945 under British military administration as the "Westfälische Landesuniversität Münster". Various sources suggest that this name met with little approval. Whether the impulse to rename it back came only from the Faculty of Law and Political Science and how the opposing position argued (there were two opposing votes in 1952) is not yet known.

The question of the cultivation of tradition at the university should also be examined in greater depth. Currently, it can be seen that Wilhelm II did not play a role as the name giver at the university anniversaries in 1930, 1952, 1980 and 2002. Instead, Franz von Fürstenberg is placed at the center of all anniversary celebrations as the central historical figure in the university's history. There is also a monument and several portrait busts on campus depicting Franz von Fürstenberg, while portraits of Wilhelm II at the university can currently be identified. A full-length portrait that had hung in the Academy's auditorium as part of an emperor's gallery since 1895 was dismantled in the 1920s to make room for a slide projection screen.

Preview
An exhibition is planned for the summer that will provide information about Wilhelm II and present various aspects of his governmental actions for discussion. This exhibition is currently being developed by students of FH-Design under the direction of Prof. Dr. Claudia Grönebaum and Prof. Dr. Henning Tietz in cooperation with the project team. It is explicitly aimed at a young audience. Therefore, the pedestrian tunnel between Schlossplatz and the lecture hall building was chosen as the exhibition location. Whether or not there will have to be a break during the summer weekend is currently being examined on the part of the city. The exhibition has an explicitly experimental character and will also contain various elements that make an exchange with the visitors possible.

The series of panel discussions is to be continued in the summer in Präsenz. The underlying question is what it means when we refer to Wilhelm II today.

The project results will be summarized in a project brochure, which will be published before the end of the project, i.e. in the winter semester 2022/23.

The installation of information boards on various university buildings, as proposed by the Senate working group, will be postponed until the question of how to deal with the university's namesake in a contemporary manner has been discussed again. Alternatively, posters will be used to draw attention to the project and events.

Articles on the project in the UniKunstKultur Magazine [de]

In addition to the sources and materials made available on the project page, the project team publishes supplementary texts in the UniKunstKultur Magazin, which is published at the beginning of each semester by the Central Custody and the Cultural Office.

These texts, which are available here as PDF files (in German), address the status of the project, the public debates about the name(s) of the WWU Münster, and new insights gained in the context of the project.

On the matter WWU - summer semester 2021 [de]

The text addresses the start of the project and the associated reactions in the local press and social media. The history of the name of the WWU is presented and the debate about its namesake is compared with the discussions about the name of other universities for classification. 

Wilhelm II is up for debate. The discussion about the namesake of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität has begun - winter semester 2021/22. [de]

The second project report focuses on the current debate, which takes the form of letters from readers, comments on the project page, letters to the WWU, and Facebook comments. The contributions to the discussion are presented, analyzed and classified.

On the matter WWU - three debates, three contexts. summer semester 2022 [de]

In the third project report, the debates about the university name in 1952, 1997 and 2022 are briefly outlined and placed in their contemporary historical context. An appendix summarizes the latest findings on the prehistory of the university name.

"Contemporary? Wilhelm II in Discourse" Two Questions, One Review Winter Semester 2022/23 [de]

The fourth project report provides insights into the discussion that took place in the context of the exhibition "Contemporary? Wilhelm II in Discourse." Different arguments are contrasted and commented on.