The business school, founded in 1906, ‘established by merchants and intended for merchants’ (as stated in the report on its opening on 27 October 1906), with its focus on business administration, provided a counterbalance to the Seminar for Political Science and Statistics at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (renamed the Institute for Economic Sciences in 1936), which had been in existence since 1886 and taught and conducted research in economics within the Faculty of Philosophy.

In 1920, the merchants’ guild was dissolved and the Berlin Chamber of Commerce took over the administration of the business school, which was also granted the right to award doctorates in the following years. As a public institution, it was also subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry. In 1935, it was renamed the Wirtschafts-Hochschule and affiliated with the university. In 1946, it was integrated into the university with the establishment of the Faculty of Economics, which, like the former Handelshochschule, was located on Spandauer Strasse, directly adjacent to the Berlin Stock Exchange.
In contrast to the chains of office of traditional faculties, which cannot be traced at Berlin University, Humboldt-Universität possesses the chain of office of the former Handelshochschule, which has become a faculty or dean’s decoration as a result of institutional changes.

While sceptres have been handed down since the Middle Ages as the most important insignia of universities – they were a sign of the rector’s judicial power and thus of the university’s autonomy – chains of office were uncommon until the 18th century. Occasionally, universities were awarded so-called Gnadenpfennige (pennies, respectively medals of favor) by the ruler as a sign of special privileges. These all bore the portrait of the respective head of state. For the most part, however, they were regarded as jewellery rather than honours. This changed in the 19th century with an overall transformation in the appearance of universities. Nevertheless, at least in Prussia and Bavaria, the king remained the one who decided on the introduction of chains of office. Thus, the profile portrait of Wilhelm II commemorates the Berlin Handelshochschule.

Author: Christina Kuhli

Literature:

Günter Stemmler: Rektorketten – Grundzüge ihrer Geschichte bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, in: Jahrbuch für Universitätsgeschichte 7, 2004, pp. 241–248;
Frank Zschaler: Vom Heilig-Geist-Spital zur Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät. 110 Jahre Staatswissenschaftlich-Statistisches Seminar der vormals königlichen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. 90 Jahre Handels-Hochschule Berlin, Heidelberg et al. 1997;
Ein Halbjahrhundert betriebswirtschaftliches Hochschulstudium. Festschrift zum 50. Gründungstag der Handels-Hochschule Berlin, Berlin 1956.

In the left window stands a young man, his left hand raised towards an atomic model, with a dove of peace and the head of Max Planck arranged in the image fields below. The man holds his right hand lowered, with fists raised towards him from below. The peaceful use of atomic energy under socialist leadership is propagated in its global dimension by the wind rose at the top. Nature has its place in the lower fields of the image with ears of corn and a fruit-bearing tree. But here, too, man intervenes, symbolised by a winding tower and an electricity pylon.

Eight additional busts were added to the art collection through a donation from the artist’s widow. The spectrum of techniques used, from reshaping and wrapping in ribbons to adding attributes until the model is almost unrecognisable, gives an insight into both the diverse biographical and scientific life of the Humboldts and the imagination and expressiveness of the artist, who was trained in Vienna and Berlin and worked for many years as a freelance artist in Berlin. Not only are the subjects closely associated with the university, Matzner began his series of sculptures in 1990 – at a time when the liquidation of Humboldt Universität was on the agenda. It is, so to speak, an artistic commitment to the two scholars and their ideals, but also to the tradition of Humboldt Universität and its continuation into the present and future. Matzner himself was drawn to Berlin by the student revolts of 1968. He worked primarily in terracotta, although in the 1980s he began to produce larger formats for public spaces, including the Corinthian column for the Rostlaube building at Freie Universität Berlin and the series of pocket pyramids.

The titles alone – such as Humboldt bucht eine Reise (Humboldt books a trip), Im Insektenschwarm (In the swarm of insects), Nach Worten ringend (Struggling for words), Die Vermessung des Alexander von Humboldt (The measurement of Alexander von Humboldt), Humboldt mit Reisetasche (Humboldt with travel bag) or Abgewickelter Humboldt (Unravelled Humboldt) – refer to the creative and sometimes ironic treatment of these great men. The Humboldts are populated with plants, animals such as frogs and beetles, but also with bags, telephone receivers and garden gnomes. Amusing, sometimes sombre, not always immediately aesthetically appealing, the busts are intended to stimulate reflection. What do the scientific curiosity and industriousness of the Humboldts mean to us today? Which of their achievements do we recognise in the narrative portraits, and what impact do they (still) have? Furthermore, the alienations refer us back to ourselves; Matzner’s distortions are ‘the “natural cast” of our civilisation, the portrait […] of our world, frightening and bitterly amusing’ (Sperlich 1991, p. 24).