Kiel University

The University of Kiel was formally inaugurated on 5 October 1665. While Kiel's city fathers clearly intended to enhance the city's long-term economic success, they could never have foreseen that one day the university would be its largest employer. Two developments instigated the university's establishment: firstly, the dramatic rise in demand for well-educated priests as a result of the Reformation, and secondly, the admission of growing numbers of well-educated commoners to the administration as civil servants responsible for important duties. The duchies were having to recruit staff from foreign universities, from Copenhagen, Rostock and Greifswald, or further afield, from internationally renowned universities such as Paris, Leiden and Bologna. Hence, ever since the time of the Church Constitution of 1542/1544, Bugenhagen had been suggesting that the duchies should establish an educational institution of their own. But the division of the territory in 1544 prevented them from implementing the plan effectively. In the Gottorf region, the Schleswig Cathedral School was expanded – albeit without great success – into a university of sorts, a "Paedagogicum publicum". In his part of the territory, Duke Hans the Elder converted the Bordesholm Monastery into a similar educational institution in 1566. Duke Hans died in 1580 and Bordesholm passed to the Gottorf line, which now boasted two academies of higher education - one more than they could afford. The Paedagogicum publicum in Schleswig fell dormant, whilst Bordesholm continued to receive support.