Universität Trier

Posted on Thursday, December 1, 2011

This was posted in Universities in Germany

The Universität Trier in the German city of Trier, was founded in 1473. Closed in 1798 by order of the then French administration in Trier, the university was re-established in 1970 after a hiatus of some 172 years. The new university campus is located on top of the Tarforst heights, an urban district on the outskirts of the city. Universität Trier has six faculties with around 470 faculty members. In 2006 around 14,000 students were matriculated, with 43.5% of the student body male and 56.5% female; the percentage of foreign students was approximately 15.5%.

In 1455 Pope Nicholas V granted the Archbishop of Trier, Jakob von Sierck, the right to establish a university. The University of Trier was founded March 16, 1473. Battling financial problems for decades, the university was acquired by the Jesuits in 1560. They emphasized the philosophical and theological faculties at the expense of medicine and law. In the 1580s Peter Binsfeld was president of the university. In the 1730s Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim was also a faculty member. After the French occupation of the Rhineland, the French administration ordered the universities of Cologne, Mainz, Bonn and Trier closed, the latter closing on April 6, 1798.

The Universität Trier still uses the seal of the historical university in its corporate design. It contains the Latin motto “Treveris ex urbe deus complet dona sophiae” (God completes the favors of wisdom from the city of Trier). In 2000 an alternative logo incorporating that seal was introduced, but this met with resistance.