Tübinger Stift

Tübinger Stift

Tübinger Stift is a hall of residence and teaching; it is owned and supported by the Protestant State Church in Württemberg, and located in the university city of Tübingen, in South West Germany. The Stift was originally founded as an Augustinian monastery in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, in 1536, Duke Ulrich turned the Stift into a seminary which served to prepare Protestant pastors for Württemberg. To this day the scholarship is still given to students in preparation for the ministry or teaching in Württemberg. Students receive a scholarship which consists of boarding, lodging and further academic support.

Some of the well known "Stiftlers" are the astronomer Johannes Kepler, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, the philosophers Georg Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, as well as the theologians David Friedrich Strauß, Johann Albrecht Bengel, Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, Ferdinand Christian Baur and Eberhard Nestle, and the philologist August Pauly.

Famous students from the past

• Nikodemus Frischlin, poet, playwright, humanist, mathematician, astronomer (1547 - 1590)
• Michael Maestlin, astronomer, mathematician (1550 - 1631)
• Johannes Kepler, astronomer (1571 - 1630)
• Johann Valentin Andreae, theologian (1586 - 1654)
• Wilhelm Schickhardt, theologian, astronomer, universal scientist (1592 - 1635)
• Johann Albrecht Bengel, theologian (1687 - 1752)
• Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, theologian (1702 - 1782)
• Karl Friedrich Reinhard, French politician and diplomate (1761 - 1837)
• Karl Philipp Conz, poet, writer (1762 - 1827)
• Friedrich Hölderlin, poet (1770 - 1843)
• Georg Hegel, philosopher (1770 - 1831)
• Friedrich Schelling, philosopher (1775 - 1854)
• Gustav Schwab, minister, poet, writer (1792 - 1850)
• Ferdinand Christian Baur, theologian (1792 - 1860)
• August Pauly, philologist (1796 - 1845)
• Wilhelm Hauff, writer (1802 - 1827)
• Wilhelm Waiblinger, poet, writer (1804 - 1830)
• Eduard Mörike, minister and poet (1804 - 1875)
• Friedrich Theodor Vischer, writer, professor of literature (1807 - 1887)
• David Friedrich Strauß, theologian, philosopher, writer (1808 - 1874)
• Hermann Kurz, poet, writer (1813 - 1873)
• Eduard Zeller, theologian, philosopher (1814 - 1908)
• Georg Herwegh, poet, revolutionist (1817 - 1875)
• Ferdinand von Hochstetter, geologist, naturalist (1829 - 1884)
• Albert Schäffle, economist, sociologist, politician (1831 - 1903)
• Eberhard Nestle, theologian, orientalist (1851 - 1913)
• Hans Vaihinger, philosopher (1852 - 1933)
• Johannes Hieber, politician (1862 - 1951)
• Karl Heim, theologian (1874 - 1958)
• Edwin Hoernle, politician (1883 - 1952)

Quote

• "One need merely say «Tübingen Stift» to understand what German philosophy is at bottom—an insidious theology." – Friedrich Nietzsche

Literature references

• Martin Leube: Das Tübinger Stift: 1770 – 1950; Geschichte des Tübinger Stifts. Stuttgart, Steinkopf (1954)
• Reinhard Breymayer: Freimaurer vor den Toren des Tübinger Stifts: Masonischer Einfluss auf Hölderlin? In: Tubingensia: Impulse zur Stadt- und Universitätsgeschichte. Festschrift für Wilfried Setzler zum 65. Geburtstag. Hrsg. von Sönke Lorenz und Volker [Karl] Schäfer in Verbindung mit dem Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Universität Tübingen. Redaktion: Susanne Borgards. (Ostfildern:) Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2008 (Tübinger Bausteine zur Landesgeschichte, 10), pp. 355 – 395. - ISBN 978-3-7995-5510-4.

External links

• Tübinger Stift