History Academic Clothing

Ruprecht I’s decree founding the university contained strictures mandating academic clothing. The decree references the Sorbonne and was binding on all four original faculties:

“Every Magister and Bacchalarius shall pursue academic activities clad in cappas and church garments comparable to and in similar proportions as are currently common at the appropriate Parisian faculties.” Because the earliest European universities were ecclesiastical institutions, the students’ clothing resembled that of monks. The cappa, a wrap like a hooded coat, originally had one slit for the arms before a second slit was added and was complimented with a biretta.

Beginning in the 16th century, the original tunic-like garment gradually was replaced by a robe-like coat – the gown. The gown originated in the clerical habitus of the Reformation and was always embroidered with fur for academic purposes.

Faculty-specific colours have been widespread in Germany since the 17th century. Heidelberg used the following colour code: theology: purple; law: red; medicine: green; sciences and mathematics: yellow; philosophy: blue. By the end of the 17th century only professors wore gowns, a tradition that continued throughout the 19th century and up to the 1960s, when the gowns were abolished.