STUDENTS WHO STUDY IN HEIDELBERG.

Otago Witness, Issue 2735, 15 August 1906, Page 76

STUDENTS WHO STUDY IN HEIDELBERG.

(For the Witness.) 9^ XdlT* SIABM GttOSSXAY, M.A, Foreigners hear so much about the Korps Studenten of Heidelberg that they nearly all imagine there is nobody else ia "the place, and that everyone' attending the University behaves like Karl Heinrich' and his friends. The Corps Stuidents really are in evidence everywhere, and they give the place its peculiar character. Butr-after all they are only a small ~ fraction of the 2000 and odd students pf the University, "these come from all gentries, and include English, Swiss, Austrians, Spanish,' Jews of all nationalitjes,v and a large ' number of Russians. Then there are many from other university iowns '111 - Germany, for- the German sUu . «3ent has the singular habit of'wandering * from "one university to another during His

course, studying perhaps one year |it Leipzig,- another at' Jena, and. another at Heidelberg:' In New Zealand tfipre is a very- slight inclination towards the same ibabit springing up in the. various university, colleges ; .but'.prdbab'ly- always -.'as . a „ matter of ' coivenieno©, ';imd 'not ' froin-diiH^ "Derate preference for variety. 'I^-iEng-land it "ie inconceivable. .keeps -its men .from beginning ; to end of their course, fend Oxford its -own, and Xiondon has nothing . to . do with 'either * Cambridge ,or Oxford. £ ' . . Sdmei of these "miscellaneous students imifatfe the Korps Studenten, and form as^eiations on something the same model. "Jhese-are verbindung, or .union?. Some of them have their own hall, their own

coloured fight duels with other unions, cultivate the habit of swallowing as much

fceer as possible, and generally follow the nfodel of the corps. Other verbindnng may be of a more literary or dialectic character, and not destructive of scholarly habits. n

The University colleges in which ar« the jlecture rooms are situated in Ludwig'6 Platss, a little to the 'south of the Haupt Strausse, and in Alt Heidelberg. Lud-

■wig's' Plate is an open square of stony ground^ surrounded on all four sides by tows of fine lime trees, with a bronze equestrian statue in the centre. The college lecture rooms are on* two sides' of the 6quare, while, on the other is an Archaeological Museum, with plaster casts and some marble statues,, and the fourth side, is open to' the street. The buildings are of a peculiar -grey, ajid have no architectural pretensions at all on the ex-

lerior, though this whole corner of Heidel- j berg v hadT the suggestion' of.-, xepoat ,and'] aloofness from the common herd that makes i

xnost university colleges attractive to every jborn scholar. All tho windows are barred in the old-fafchioned style. The interior of / *fie" hail, or aula, is fine, and most lavishly decorated. It is of some dark •wood/ walls and galleries and roof richly; carved and decorated with pictures and •with bronze statues of Fame, . the jfrenias of knowledge, the four "Faculties oLLearning, busts of the Grand Duke Frederic of Baden, and .medallions of the fpnnder of the University, Rupert I, and it is also inscribed in gold letters with the names of the most celebrated men who have taught here. The Kerksr, or special prison for students, I have already described, and the lecture rooms on both eides of the square are in no way remarkable. These buildings date only" from 1711, for the -University, like most of Heidelberg, was wrecked and burnt by the French and th*e Swedes. After the capture of the city by Lilly in 1623, nearly all the fine collection of books and precious MSS., which had just^been gathered ihere under the direction ot "Melancthon, ■was sent to the Pope. The part of the Vatican Library in which these treasures ■were placed is to this day called by the name 'Talatina." -<• Under Napoleon, many were sent from Rome to. Paris, and at the end of the Napoleonic wars some of these were at last, after an exfle of about 200 year*, restored to Heidelberg. They now form the most ancient and valuable part of the University Library, and are exhibited, to' strangers-, in the PaUtina Zhnffler. . Though the building is comparatively modern, the University as an institution is the oldest in Germany, and can trace its. history back to 1386. In 1886 a grand celebration of its five-hundredth a^aiverßary was held, and was attended by- foreigners *fropi 511 parts of Europe. .Since its refounding at the beginning of the eighteenth century it has borne the title of Ruperto-Carolo, apparently a combination of the names of ite first founder, Rupert I, and its restorer, the Grand Duke Charles (Frederick). • .

Beside these mauT buildings there are several others belonging to the University. All the hospitals are beyond the* new bridge, near the Gardens. They a^3 solid, dull buildings, with strips of garden and with avenues of chestnuts in front. Still, in the new part of the town, but near Alt Heidelberg, is the Botanical Institute. There are also in various parts of the town an Anatomical Institute, an Archaeological Institute, a Chemical Laboratory, Hygienic Institute, Palseontological Museum, Physics, Physiological and Zoological institutes. Altogether these University buildings, scattered over different streets, occupy a very considerable portion of the town. There are also fencing 6chools for students, and in the new part the houses of the professor?. Heidelberg in short is almost entirely fe university town, unpolluted, as fts students boast, hy trade. Outside the ranks of tho corps, the Heidelberg students study just as they do ♦Jsewhefe, possibly a little less, because ifchere is something festive and seductive about the beautiful town and the Neckr.r •flTalley, with its numerous ruined castk6, lovely villages, open-air restaurants, its daily concerts in- summer, its skating in printer, its facilities for walking, boating, driving, and its varying charms of lauj-

•caps 1 -anti atmosphere. ~ Even amongst the Corps Students there are some whoare considered not "active" members — i.e., who read and attend lectures ; and there are several even amongst the high-born young men who live a recluse life of genuine scholars. Heidelberg has had many learned professors, and has produced many learned students, and there is still a good deal of hard study done with 'a the walls of its old dwelling-houses. ' Most English people, however, forget all about this serious -side of its life, and remember only the " musical comedy" of its Corps Students.