University | The History of the University of Konstanz
A Modern Campus University
With the University of Constance, the prototype of a modern and compact campus university was built.
In 1965 the founding committee of the University developed the concept of a reform university with new forms of study and teaching, a central administration and central facilities for technology, computers and language training. New forms of self-administration replaced traditional university structures. This new spirit found its expression in the establishment of a central, free-access library.
In 1966 the University began its work in a wing of the Inselhotel, formerly a Dominican monastery.
The beginning was makeshift - in the middle of Sonnenbuhl on the edge of the town quarter Petershausen on the right side of the Rhine, with a handful of professors and a few dozen students. Starting in 1967, today's campus was developed through individual construction projects on the hill known as the Gießberg. Until today, the university has continued to be structurally altered and expanded.
From the start, the University was planned as a place of life and learning, in which the new forms of research and teaching should be reflected in the architectural style. Dense construction, short paths, the absence of large auditoriums in exchange for a large number of seminar rooms, as well as the variety of work, traffic, and quiet areas, are all part of the architectural concept. In addition, there was the idea of creating lasting "Kunst am Bau" (structural art) accents, so that the building of a desolate concrete landscape could be avoided in an effective manner.