Student Prison (Studentenkarzer)

The Student Prison (Studentenkarzer) is a set of detention cells at Augustinergasse 2 in Heidelberg's Old Town, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, attached to the university buildings. From 1778 until 1914 the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität used it to punish students for offences such as disturbing the peace, drunkenness, noisy nights, or minor damage. Because the university held its own jurisdiction, students could be sentenced by university authorities instead of the city courts. Sentences ranged from a few days to a couple of weeks, and the cells were quickly regarded as a rite of passage rather than a disgrace. Prisoners were allowed to attend lectures, receive food from outside and have visitors, and they often decorated the walls and ceilings. What survives today is a remarkable record of this culture: the cells are covered with silhouettes, caricatures, poems, coats of arms, names and dates, left in ink and soot from candles. The rooms are plain, with wooden bunks, simple benches and a few furnishings. The curatorial approach is immersive rather than didactic, since visitors enter the cramped cells and read the graffiti at close range, with the interpretive material provided in the neighbouring University Museum. The site is closely tied to the Old University building, and the combined ticket covers both. Preservation work has concentrated on protecting the fragile wall and ceiling markings from damp and handling. The prison closed with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and it has since served as a museum space presenting daily life of students in the Baroque, Enlightenment and Imperial periods in a university city founded in 1386.