The New International Encyclopædia/Burschenschaft
BURSCHENSCHAFT, bōōr'shen-shäft (Ger.
Bursche, fellow, apprentice, student, from MHG.
burse, purse; society, especially of students, with
a common purse). An association of students
in the German universities to promote patriotism,
morality, and love of liberty. The earliest
organization was at Jena in 1815, and its
membership was chiefly made up of students
who had fought in the War of Liberation.
The idea spread to Tübingen, Heidelberg, Halle,
and Giessen. In 1817, the occasion of the three
hundredth anniversary of Luther's initiation of
the Reformation, a general gathering took place
at the Wartburg, and the following year a
constitution was adopted by delegates from fourteen
universities. Black, red, and gold, since taken as
the national colors of the new German Empire,
were adopted as the colors of the association.
The murder of Kotzebue by Sand, a fanatical
student, in 1819, injured the movement for
freedom in Germany and led to repressive
measures, such as the Karlsbad Decrees (q.v.),
which required the suppression of the Burschenschaft,
but secret meetings were still held, and
there was a revival of the organization in 1827.
The Burschenschaft participated in the Liberal
demonstration known as the Hambach Festival
in 1832. A revolutionary attempt took place at
Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1833, in which nearly
2000 students were implicated, and in nearly all
of the German universities students were arrested,
imprisoned, and disfranchised. The ideals of
the Burschenschaft were unattainable and vague;
but they served well at a trying time to keep
alive the spirit of German unity.