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Wartburg College

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Wartburg College
File:Wartburgcollegelogo.gif
MottoBe Orange
TypePrivate
Established1852
Endowment$35 Million
PresidentJack R. Ohle
Academic staff
150
Undergraduates1,811
Location
Waverly
,
Iowa
,
USA
Campusrural, 118 acres (47.75 ha)
ColorsOrange & Black
NicknameKnights
AffiliationsEvangelical Lutheran Church in America
Websitewartburg.edu

Wartburg College is a four-year liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Waverly, Iowa. Wartburg also operates a satellite campus in Denver, Colorado, referred to as Wartburg West.

The most popular programs of study at Wartburg are, (in order): business administration, biology, communication arts, elementary education, and psychology. Wartburg's social work program is the oldest undergraduate program of its kind in Iowa. Wartburg is the only private college in Iowa offering a music therapy major. The college has an 89 percent medical school placement rate and a 100 percent placement rate in other fields of medicine.

In 2007 US News and World Report rated Wartburg College 6th for academic excellence among Midwestern comprehensive colleges which primarily award bachelor's degrees, and 2nd in terms of "bang for the buck" (i.e. best value when tuition costs, scholarship aide, and academics are compared).

History

Wartburg College was founded in 1852 in Saginaw, Michigan, by Georg M. Grossman, a native of Neuendettelsau, Bavaria. Grossmann was sent by Pastor Wilhelm Löhe to establish a teacher training school for German immigrants. The location of the college moved many times between Illinois and Iowa until permanently settling in Waverly in 1935.

The longstanding rivalry between Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and Wartburg College has produced colorful moments over the years. The origins of the rivalry are vague. Stories of pranks date back to the 1940s. The rivalry has, for the most part, been characterized by fun and good sportsmanship. The rivalry rose to new heights in October 1996, when two clever Wartburg cross-country runners rented a light plane, flew to Decorah, and dropped leaflets on the Luther campus. The incident was reported in every major newspaper in Iowa, got national mention on the ESPN network and made Rolling Stone magazine's list of the most memorable college pranks of the 1996-1997 year. The creativity in the rivalry continued when student staff members of the college radio station, link title[KWAR], secretly entered a float in the Luther College Homecoming Parade. The staff members decorated the float as an environmental club - the Organization of Nature Enthusiasts - from Luther College. In front of judges stand, the float quickly changed colors from blue and white to orange and black. The float continued all the way through town and onto Luther's campus, with numerous Wartburg students joining the procession from the crowd as the parade passed them. [1]

The college is named after Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where Martin Luther was protected during the stormy days of the Reformation. Student and alumni groups often travel to the castle, and the Wartburg Choir has performed in the castle several times. Waverly and Eisenach are sister cities, and they often swap foreign exchange students. The college is proud of its German heritage, and celebrates an annual student-declared holiday "Outfly", a deliberately mistaken translation of the German noun Ausflug. Another German element of campus life is the stone inscription on the Chapel: "Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott", which English-speaking Lutherans sing as "A Mighty Fortress is Our God".

Campus buildings are named after places and people in Wartburg's history, including Grossmann, Luther, Saginaw, Galena, etc. The college is nearing the end of a long-term effort to unify the architectural appearance of the campus, with new music, library, stadium, cafeteria, and science buildings over the past 15 years. An array of skywalks and building corridors now allows students to walk from one end of campus to the other without having to go outside. In 2005 the new Wartburg-Waverly Sports and Wellness Center was announced. This facility will replace Knights Gymnasium, the longtime home of Wartburg Basketball and Volleyball, as well as the adjoining Physical Education Center, with a new Physical Education building co-sponsored as an athletic center with the city of Waverly. Ground was broken on this new center in early 2006.

Famous alumni

Presidents of Wartburg

  • Georg Grossmann 1852-1868
  • John Klindworth 1868-1875
  • Georg Grossmann 1878-1894
  • Friedrich Lutz 1894-1905
  • Gerhard Bergstraesser 1905-1909
  • August Engelbrecht 1909-1933
  • Edward J. Braulick 1935-1945
  • Conrad Becker 1945-1964
  • John Bachman 1964-1974
  • William Jellema 1974-1980
  • Robert L. Vogel 1980-1998
  • Jack R. Ohle 1998-Current
  • Friedrich Richter 1894-1899 (Clinton IA)
  • Otto Kraushaar 1899-1907 (Clinton IA)
  • John Fritschel 1907-1919 (Clinton IA)
  • Otto Proehl 1919-1935 (Clinton IA)

Locations

Wartburg College has moved many times throughout its history[2]:

  1. ^ http://www.d3football.com/columns/midwest/00/wartburgluther.htm
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