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 MUHLENBERG COLLEGE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF HALLE. 
 
 REPORT OF THE ^ CENTENARY AT HALLE 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. THEODORE L. SEIP, D. D., 
 
 President of Muhlenberg, College, Allentown, Pa 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. 
 

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 MUHLENBERG COLLEGE AND THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF HALLE. 
 
 The following report was recently presented to the Board 
 of Trustees of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa. : 
 
 Allentown, Pa., Jan. 22, 1895. 
 
 To the Board of Trustees of Muhlenberg College : 
 
 Gentlemen : — In view of the fact that your honorable 
 body, at its last annual meeting, granted me leave of absence 
 to visit Europe, and authorized me “ to represent Muhlenberg 
 College at the bi-centennial of the institutions at Halle and 
 present the congratulations of this institution and also fur- 
 nished me letters of commendation to institutions of learning 
 which I might wish to visit, I deem it my duty respectfully to 
 submit the following report : 
 
 During the month of July, while the universities were still 
 in session, I visited those at Berlin, Halle, Leipzig and Jena, 
 in Germany, in the order named, witnessed their active opera- 
 tions and heard some of their most eminent professors lecture. 
 I was most cordially received at all these institutions by their 
 rectors and the professors whose acquaintance it was my 
 privilege to make, and many of whom I had the pleasure of 
 meeting again at the jubilee celebration at Halle during the 
 first week in August. 
 
 At Leipzig, through the courtesy of Rector Wislicenus 
 and the American Professor Gregory, the eminent Greek 
 textual critic and the successor of Tischendorf, I enjoyed the 
 rare privilege of a personal meeting with the venerable Pro- 
 fessor, Dr. C. E. Luthardt, at his own palatial residence. The 
 impressions left on my mind by that interview are indelible, 
 
4 
 
 and his earnest and impressive benediction at parting will be 
 an inspiration to me as long as I live. 
 
 In the course of my travels, it was my privilege to visit, in 
 addition to the universities mentioned above, many other insti- 
 tutions of different ranks and types, during their vacation, some 
 of which were : The school, which was attended by Luther 
 as a boy at Eisenach, the cloister and university at Erfurt and 
 at Wittenberg ; the institutions and historical and scientific 
 collections at Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm and Dresden ; the 
 universities at Bonn, Heidelberg, Munich and Vienna, in Ger- 
 many ; the universities at Zurich, Geneva and Basel, in Switz- 
 erland, as well as the Mission Institute at the last place ; the 
 university at Brussels in Belgium, the Sorbonne in Paris, the 
 University of London, and the British Museum, Eton College 
 at Windsor, and the University of Oxford, England. At all 
 these places I saw much that will be of permanent interest and 
 value to me in my work. 
 
 In my preliminary visit to Halle, in July, I was cordially 
 received by the rector, Professor Beyschlag, and the chief 
 officials of the university, and presented my credentials as the 
 representative of Muhlenberg College at their jubilee. These 
 were placed in the archives of the secretary. The document, 
 in the German language, in addition to the certification of rqy 
 appointment and the object of my mission, also contained a 
 suitable address of congratulation. 
 
 This private visit and presentation of congratulations, 
 together with the official document in academic form in the 
 Latin language, which was prepared after I left home and was 
 fo be forwarded in due time, were intended to serve the pur- 
 pose of my mission in case I should be unable to return for 
 the public celebration. During my visit the authorities cour- 
 teously afforded me every opportunity of acquainting myself 
 with the operations of the university. 
 
 At this time I met Dr. Fries, the director or head of the 
 Francke Institutions, where Henry Melchior Muhlenberg 
 taught. He took great pleasure in personally showing me the 
 archives and every thing of interest in these extensive and 
 
5 
 
 beneficent institutions, so important in the history of foreign 
 missions, and especially in the planting and development of 
 our Church in this country. After I had made the necessary 
 arrangements pertaining to my mission with the authorities of 
 the university, I resumed my travels, and had gone as far south 
 as Nuremberg, when I decided to return to Halle and repre- 
 sent our college in person at the celebration, although it cost 
 me a week of precious time and a tedious journey of five hun- 
 dred miles over a route which I had previously travelled. I, 
 however, regard my time and labor well spent. The official 
 Latin document before mentioned had failed to reach me. 
 Therefore, on my return to Halle, I at once called at the uni- 
 versity, recovered the German document from the secretary 
 and arranged to substitute it, temporarily, in the formal pre- 
 sentation of congratulations in the “ Aula ” of the university. 
 It was agreed that the Latin document should take its proper 
 place in the archives when it reached them. 
 
 I have recently received a letter from the secretary, in- 
 forming me that it had been received and will be published in 
 the forthcoming “ Festbericht ” or jubilee volume, a copy of 
 which will be presented to us. With the document we sent a 
 finely bound copy of our College Book as a j ubilee gift, together 
 with other printed matter which has been placed in the Royal 
 University Library. 
 
 The celebration at Halle occurred on the ist, 2d and 3d 
 days of August, and concluded with an excursion to Witten- 
 berg on Saturday, the 4th/ 
 
 The city of Halle was arrayed in gala dress, its market 
 places and streets, its public and private buildings, being 
 elaborately decorated with bunting, greens and vari-colored 
 electric lights. Its streets were thronged with visitors and 
 citizens in holiday attire. On Wednesday evening, August 
 ist, Prince Albrecht, of Brunswick, the personal representative 
 of the Emperor, arrived and was received at the depot by the 
 authorities of the city and of the university, and escorted by a 
 magnificent procession of military and civic bodies to his hotel, 
 the “ Stadt Hamburg.” 
 
6 
 
 Soon after the arrival of the Prince, Rector Beyschlag met 
 the delegates from other institutions and countries at the same 
 hotel for the purpose of arranging the program for the formal 
 presentation of congratulations at the celebration over which 
 the Prince was to preside on the next day. As institutions 
 from all parts of Europe and foreign lands were represented, 
 and the number of delegates was large, one speaker for the 
 German institutions, Rector Weinhold, of Berlin, and one for 
 all other lands, Professor Solferini, of Italy, were elected by the 
 delegates to make the formal addresses of congratulation. The 
 names of the institutions were then to be called and their 
 delegates to appear before the Prince and Rector in person, 
 and present their gifts and documents with their congratula- 
 tions. This meeting had scarcely adjourned, when about two 
 thousand students of Halle and other institutions appeared in 
 torch-light procession, decked in the regalia and colors of the 
 various student corps, and, after paying their respects to the 
 Prince, paraded through the illuminated streets to the univer- 
 sity grounds, where, after singing college songs and burning 
 their torches, they disbanded. The festivities of the first day 
 ended with a “ Kommers ” or social gathering in the “ Reit- 
 bahn ” of the university. The celebration of Thursday, August 
 2d, began at 9 a. m. in the Cathedral Church, where, after 
 music of the highest order by a choir of 300 trained voices, the 
 pro-rector of the university, Dr. Hering, delivered the festival 
 sermon. 
 
 In this same church, two hundred years before, the uni- 
 versity had received its charter from the elector, Frederick 
 III., who seven years later (1701) became the first king 01 
 Prussia His coronation robes were presented to the univer- 
 sity, and were worn by the rector at all the different cere- 
 monies of the jubilee. 
 
 After the services in the church, the authorities of the uni- 
 versity and the delegates, headed by the Prince and his staff, 
 all in their magnificent uniforms and robes of offices, except 
 the American delegates, who always appeared in the simple 
 garb befitting the customs and institutions of their country,