Foundations laid with some resistance

The actual laying of the foundation stone for Bielefeld University, more precisely for the Aufbauzentrum in Kurt-Schumacher-Straße, was preceded by a ceremony at the University of Education. At this ceremony, NRW Minister President Heinz Kühn, Rudolf August Oetker and the Mayor of Bielefeld Herbert Hinnendahl, among others, addressed many guests of honour from politics, business and science.

Sheep without will?

Although there were no students enrolled yet at Bielefeld University, student protests took place on the sidelines of the ceremony to lay the foundation stone. About 1000 students of the Bielefeld School of Engineering and Economics sought to draw attention to their concerns with a sit-in protest and a blockade of the transfer bus, which was to bring the dignitaries to Kurt-Schumacher-Straße. They fought to anchor their institutions in higher education. Special criticism was directed at the NRW state government and especially at the Minister of Education, Fritz Holthoff, for the new German Higher Education Framework Act: the students believed the policy would turn them into a sheep in the system, with no agency of their own. In a creative turn, protesters brought along sheep to underline their cause.

After the blockade was lifted by the police, the actual laying of the foundation stone took place without any further incident. But while the celebration was to continue in the Rudolf-Oetker-Halle, another crowd of protesting students had formed outside its entrance. Minister President Kühn tried to reassure the demonstrators by making a speech with a megaphone. Thus, student protests accompanied the “groundbreaking ceremony” of Bielefeld University.

The Aufbauzentrum was finally completed in the summer of 1969, so that the University’s teaching activities could start as planned in the winter semester of 1969/70. The official handover of the keys for the centre followed on 1 December 1969 – a few weeks after the building went into operation.