Student and Private Teacher
(1740-1755)
The Albertina: "A University for the Growth of the Sciences"?E
MANUEL'S LIFE changed radically when he entered the University
of Königsberg. During his previous school years, all his activities had
been highly regimented. Upon entering the university, he experienced for
the first time the freedom to study any subject that interested him and to
spend the day as he chose. No one could tell him what he had to do and
when. No one could force him to search his soul for depravities. He now
was on his own. He left the house of his father, but did not enter any of the
boarding houses that existed for students of lesser means.l Rather, he took
up his own quarters. Having become a member of the university, or an "ac¬
ademic citizen" {akademischer Bürger), he was not directly subject to the
rules administered by the officials of the city of Königsberg, but was first
and foremost subject to the officials of the university. Much like the guilds,
the university was a largely independent corporation. Emanuel's new sta¬
tus brought with it a number of rights and privileges. An academic citizen
not only had the right to go to the lectures and to use the resources of
the university, but also was free from the direct demands of the city and the
state, which included protection from being drafted into the army.^2
Emanuel's acceptance into the University of Königsberg was the be¬
ginning of a lifelong association with it. It was thus a highly significant
event for him when the rector of the university added on September 24,
1740, the name "Emanuel Kandt" to the registry. It meant that he, the son
of a master craftsman, had effectively moved from one guild into another.
Yet the academic guild, or the guild of the learned {literati), formed a class
or estate {Stand) of its own, which was in many ways closer to that of the
nobility than to those who made their living by working with their hands
or by selling goods.^3 The importance of the move from "town" to "gown"
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2