The university policy of Brandenburg-Prussia in the early stages of the University of Halle (1688-1740)

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What were the intentions of the Prussian government while founding the university of Halle? In which way did the government try to promote the success of the institution? What kind of criteria did they have to define the success of the university? Can we identify a specific kind of policy of the government of Frederick III./I. and Frederick William I. in relation to the universities of the country, particular in relation to the university of Halle? These are the leading questions of our research project.The project challenges the current view of the university of Halle in the first decades of its history: Can we identify any indications that the government intended to found the university of Halle as an institution with a programme of reform and innovation, as an university which should be different from the already existing "Landesuniversitäten" in the Holy Roman Empire? Was the founding of the university of Halle part of a political strategy to promote specific programmes or concepts like "Enlightenment" or "Pietism"? All these interpretations are common in the current historiography about the university of Halle although the policy of the government towards the universities in Brandenburg-Prussia has not yet been investigated. We would like to focus on four different topics: the different ways of communication between the government in Berlin and the university in Halle and the relation between official and informal communication; the interests and intentions of the members of the government in relation to the university of Halle and its members; the different ways how the government could intervene in university matters; and how far the government promoted concepts and projects of individual members of the university who asked the government for support for their own academic projects and strategies.