20.11.2025 Heidelberg's ‘Schurman Day’: Film recordings from 1928 released

Heidelberg University Library is publishing historical film recordings from 1928 for the first time. The film, which is about five minutes long, shows the visit of American diplomat Jacob Gould Schurman to Heidelberg, an event that has gone down in the history of the university. The film was shot with the university's permission by Berlin cameraman Eugen Hamm (1869–1944) for Fox Film Corporation.

Jacob Gould Schurman (1854–1942) was a professor of English literature at Cornell University in New York State and its president from 1892 to 1920. After his academic career, he served as United States Ambassador to Germany from 1925 to 1929. He remained closely connected to Heidelberg, where he had spent part of his studies in 1878/79, throughout his life.

At the end of the 1920s, Schurman initiated a fundraising campaign to expand lecture hall capacity in Heidelberg. With the support of prominent patrons such as Walter P. Chrysler and John D. Rockefeller, he succeeded in raising more than half a million US dollars, a sum that laid the foundation for the construction of the New University. On the occasion of his visit on 17 December 1928, the ‘Foundation of American Citizens for the Construction of a New Lecture Hall Building’ was established.

The film shows scenes from that day: in addition to Schurman, Rector Karl August Heinsheimer (1869-1929), recognisable by his rector's chain, and architect Karl Erwin Gruber (1885-1966) can also be seen. Gruber had won the competition for the new building and explains the model of the planned building. At the end of the film, Schurman's wife Barbara Forrest Monroe (1865-1930) and other family members appear.

On the same day, Jacob Gould Schurman was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Heidelberg. The initiative he launched led to the construction of the New University in the following years, which was completed in two phases between 1930 and 1934. Today, a section of road on the banks of the Neckar in Heidelberg, a commemorative plaque and a bronze bust in the New University, as well as the Schurman Library for American Studies in the History Department, commemorate him.