Transnational Philanthropy by Thomas Adam

Author:Thomas Adam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Making the Case of Being a Transnational Institution

With the death of Frida Mond, the University of Heidelberg, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and the City of Cassel sought legal ways and legal interpretations of British law and the Treaty of Versailles that would allow them to come into the possession of these significant funds. Both the University of Heidelberg and the City of Cassel were quite creative in their legal strategies. They did not challenge the application of the Treaty of Versailles, but they tried to make a case for recognizing their institutions not as German institutions but as transnational institution. Karl Heinsheimer, professor of law at the University of Heidelberg, argued that Mond had selected his alma mater because he considered this university not just a German institution but an institution that served the world. Mond knew from his own experience that the university had always attracted foreign students, and American and English students in particular. And in the world of chemistry, Heidelberg occupied in Mond’s mind—at least this is how Heinsheimer saw it—a preeminent position. Heinsheimer interpreted Mond’s decision as a desire not to just support a German research university, which would only benefit Germany’s interests, but rather to endow with his legacy an internationally renowned university that attracted students from all over the world. 10 Heinsheimer and other legal experts from the university’s law school suggested that an argumentation that focused on the recipients/beneficiaries, that is, the students of the university rather than on the university itself, might sway the legal experts in Great Britain. They argued that such an argumentation was common to English legal practice, while it was completely alien to German legal practice. 11

Heinsheimer, furthermore, suggested that the university administration should supply statistics to the British government about the share of foreign students among the Heidelberg student body to illustrate Heidelberg’s service to the global scientific community. This line of argumentation was very welcomed by the university administration, which embraced this point of view for its negotiations with the British government. Its representatives subsequently pointed to the fact that in the course of the nineteenth century a large number of British and American scientists had been trained at the University of Heidelberg. 12 The university, thus, sought to portray itself as a university that served, even after the conclusion of World War I, an international rather than a national audience. Such an argumentation was, of course, not entirely without merit. The universities at Göttingen, Leipzig, and Heidelberg had a long tradition of attracting foreign students, including American and English students. And Heidelberg surpassed, according to Anja Becker, by the middle of the nineteenth century, its three rivals with regard to the share of American students, and took a leading position. It seems then to have lost some appeal to American students after the creation of the German Empire in 1871, which allowed the University of Leipzig to take over a leadership position. 13

Our knowledge about the origin of foreign students at German universities in general is still rather limited.

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