Kants Magisterpromotion im Sommersemester 1755 – Versuch einer Rekonstruktion

Abstract

My study attempts to reconstruct the procedure and ceremonial form of a Magister promotion at the Philosophical Faculty of the Albertus University of Königsberg in the mid-eighteenth century, with a special focus on Immanuel Kant’s promotion on 12 June 1755. It argues that “graduation” in this context must not be understood as a modern academic degree, but as a faculty-based act of professional admission to the academic teaching community. On the basis of previously underused or even neglected manuscript records of the philosophical faculty, statutory evidence, and Königsberg occasional prints (invitations, diplomas, festival materials), the essay establishes a stable institutional sequence of five steps: registration with the dean, submission of a (usually handwritten) specimen, the examen rigorosum, an official invitation (usually issued by the brabeuta or the dean), and the public promotion act. Comparative reconstruction of the better-documented case of Friedrich Johann Buck (1743) and the jubilee promotions of 1744 provides a framework for interpreting the sparse record for Kant. The study offers a coherent chronology for 1755 (specimen De igne, rigorosum, invitation, public act), clarifies offices and functions (dean and brabeuta), and outlines the symbolic meaning of the rites and insignia as described in Johann Bernhard Hahn’s dissertation on the academic titles of the Hebrews.