When universities commemorate their founding

Interview: Gunda Achterhold

Dr Guhl, what do you find so fascinating about university anniversaries?

Anton F. Guhl: An anniver­sary marks the point when the past and present meet – and I find that fascinating. As a historian, my perspective on the way we engage with the past is rather specific. An anniversary broadens this view and to some extent democratises it: no longer is the anniversary solely the domain of historians, and the circle of those who are interested in history – and indeed of those who help document history – is enlarged.

You talk about “staging history”. What do you mean by this?

Guhl: “Staging History” is the title of a collection of essays I co-edited with Gisela Hürlimann, a professor in Dresden, and refers to the way history is presented or interpreted. With anniversaries, it’s not so much about the past ­itself, but the way the past is viewed from the perspective of the present day. In this sense, an anniversary pieces history together.

An anniversary event is frequently prepared many years in advance, tying up capacities and resources that are often very limited at universities. Is it all worthwhile?

Guhl: Each euro can only be spent once, so essentially it’s a conflict over resources. What ­Vienna-based historian Mitchell Ash criticises in this context is the phenomenon of frequent “eventisation” – the fact that anniver­saries are often celebrated first and foremost because of their public impact. It does indeed make a big difference whether marketing is the key focus or whether it’s a question of engaging with history. We see many positive examples of universities that give the matter considerable thought early on and initiate research projects. And in some cases anniversaries actually lead to pivotal research findings.

So the benefits are two-fold: on the one hand anniversaries provide fertile ground for insightful research, and on the other they offer scope for marketing activities?

Guhl: If the goal is to tell as many people as possible about a university, an anniversary can be skilfully employed to this end. In terms of marketing, an anniversary involves a great deal of contact with the general public. What often annoys historians is when truncated versions of stories are told – which can of course easily happen. In my view as a historian, however, an anniversary also presents an opportunity to offer non-historians a methodologically sound representation of history, and to help such non-experts view the university’s past activities in their proper historical context.

“With anniversaries, it’s about the way the past is viewed from the perspective of the present day.”

Sometimes it seems that university anniversaries are being celebrated more and more often these days. Has this in fact been the case over the past ten or twenty years?

Guhl: I think it just seems that way. Universities have been celebrating their anniversaries for centuries and hold cere­monies to commemorate the history of their founding. That said, the expansion of tertiary education does mean there are more universities than there used to be, and therefore more players. Furthermore, the trend towards professional science management – especially at the top tiers of higher education – is also leading to new forms of public relations work. New messages are being created and conveyed via new media – and emotions are assuming greater significance. The DAAD for instance is also ­using social platforms such as ­Instagram to mark its centenary.

What do universities hope to achieve by celebrating an anniversary?

Guhl: External communication is a key element of anniversary activities. Being institutions that rely on funding providers, universities are keen to showcase their own relevance, yet that’s easier said than done. How should a university – which after all is a somewhat amorphous entity – convey its importance to the outside world? In this context, the way it came into existence, its history and its past successes play a major role. At the same time, a university paints a rather different picture of itself when it celebrates an anniversary than the one it presents in everyday life – or than those perceived by its members at the various different levels.

So an anniversary has an impact within the university, too?

Guhl: Yes, absolutely. One particularly fascinating aspect is that a university’s goals can change each time it celebrates a new anniversary. Anniversaries can be used – especially by younger institutions – to forge an identity for themselves. I studied how this happened in the 19th century, using the example of the Polytechnika (i.e. polytechnics), which are the forerunners to today’s Technische Universitäten (technical universities). This phenomenon is also clearly evident at the Gesamthochschulen (comprehensive universities) that were established in the 1970s. In some cases, they take a retrospective view every five years, constructing their own self-image bit by bit as they celebrate each of their milestones.

What role do alumnae and ­alumni play when universities celebrate anniversaries?

Guhl: An important one. It was the Polytechnika that recognised the significance of their former students in the mid-19th century. Letters were written and adverts placed in newspapers to discover what had become of the graduates and to show which rele­vant branches they had ended up working in – for example in the railways sector.

And today?

Guhl: People in Germany tend to cultivate less close ties to their alma mater than in the USA, for example. Anniversaries therefore offer universities a special opportunity to reconnect with their alumnae and alumni. Not infrequently, famous former students are invited to give lectures at anniversary events. And indeed, it is generally noticeable that more and more universities are employing professionals to keep in touch with their former students.

There are different models for celebrating anniversaries. In Karlsruhe, you curated an exhibition of 100 objects to tell the story of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Guhl: This is an approach that was popularised by the British art historian Neil McGregor and has been frequently used and adapted. Artefacts have stor­ies to tell and shed light on the past. In Karlsruhe we asked the local population, as well as KIT staff and students, to propose objects that would tell personal stories of relevance to KIT. One particularly touching document was a photo album of a graduate who had died young. In it, his fellow students had documented the time they had spent together at the university. At the same time, the object reveals how years at university are remembered by most people as a positive experience, as a phase in their lives that was characterised by youth and freedom.

Do personal stories make for a greater sense of belonging and togetherness?

Guhl: Anniversaries help ­unify a complex reality. At KIT we told 100 stories with the goal of understanding the institution as a whole by scrutinising its constituent parts. Incidentally, I can also see this same pattern in the way the DAAD is celebrating its centenary, where the emphasis is on the stor­ies of alumnae and ­alumni. The DAAD is presenting itself as the sum of many small bursts of inspiration and changes in the lives of people who were able to spend a period of time abroad, who benefited from funding and are now part of a global network of ­alumnae and alumni. —

Dr Anton F. Guhl is a historian. At the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology he studied how universities, since 1800, have been marking the anniversaries of their founding. Currently he is working in the Graduate School team at Leuphana University Lüneburg.