Sorbonne University

Destruction at Sorbonne

Students demonstrate at the Sorbonne University in May 1968 (Gerard-aime/Getty Images)

Sorbonne Univeristy today (Times Higher Education)

Arrests at the Sorbonne: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/01/paris-student-protesters-raid-1968-uprising-antoine-gerard-guegan

Description and History of the Sorbonne

Sorbonne University is located on Rue de L’Écoles in the heart of the Latin Quarter of Paris. This location houses the scientific and medical research locations, and the faculty of arts and humanities. Standing on the site is a chapel commissioned by Richelieu with a Baroque façade. Though now a separate university, prior to 1968 Sorbonne was a part of Paris’ most prestigious and oldest university, the University of Paris. In the thirteenth century, schools came together to make the university faculties, which included liberal arts, medicine, canon law, and theology. In 1253, Richard Sorbonne, the chaplain and confessor of the King, Louis IX of France, founded the Sorbonne, a collegiate building attracted to the University of Paris. This college was for poorer students who could not afford higher education. Under the Third Republic (1840-1940), the Sorbonne underwent consideration reformation and reconstruction. New construction started in 1885 where several old 17th century buildings were replaced and a library was built. The architect Henri-Paul Nénot gave the Sorbonne its Neo-Renaissance façades and classic peristyles and courtyard. During World War I, the university’s population plateaued but rose in the interwar period and the Sorbonne grew in numbers ten times what it had been built for as the criteria for enrolment was widened welcoming more women and international students. Following the war, the structures and facilities were outdated and needed to be changed to meet the new demands of mass education. New buildings were created in 1950s and 60s across Paris. Since the 19th century the Sorbonne especially the faculty of arts had always been an active centre of student politics, events including the Dreyfus Affair and the Algerian War in which generations of “Sorbonnards” (students of the Sorbonne) to take up cause and develop solid student unions.

On May 3rd 1968, the Sorbonne became occupied by both Sorbonne students and Nanterre University students in protest of the closure University of Nanterre due to student demonstrations.^{^[1]} The previous day, May 2nd, had seen the shutdown of the Nanterre campus just outside of Paris. The students at Nanterre were an alliance of anti-authoritarian socialist students who had begun in March to stage protests, refusing to participate in lecture and boycotted exams. By May 2nd the university decided to shut down and several students are summoned to sit in front of university board, one of them being Daniel Cohn-Bendit whom would be a very vocal and prominent face of the student protests to come.^{^[2]} The closure of Nanterre brought the student protests to the city, to Sorbonne University the next day. May 3rd was the beginning of the student and police conflict in Paris as violence would break out by the evening and several arrests were made before the day was over.

The morning of May 3rd began with a meeting of students who intended to plan the possibility of university strike against the closure of Nanterre on May 6th in the university's amphitheater.^{^[3]} However, the Sorbonne administration called the police to disperse the students from campus in groups. Women were let out separately and were allowed to leave the campus. When the men were released, the police were waiting and started to arrest the men. This appeared to the students as a surprise and a complete betrayal as they were told they could leave freely. They had negotiated with the police and agreed to leave peacefully. A crowd developed over the commotion and in response to the arrests, they began pushing against the police lines. Feeling deceived, several more protestors joined the moment in anger and the situation continued in the evening taking over the street, Boulevard St. Michel, and eventually into the rest of the Latin Quarter.^{^[4]} The night would end with more than a hundred civilians injured and 576 arrests.^{^[5]} This is where we see the start of the conflicts between student protesters and the police and it would continue for the rest of May.

[1] Margot Lyon "Sorbonne Revolt." New Statesman, May 10, 1968 in "Sorbonne Revolt" Government, Politics, and Protest: Essential Primary Sources. 2

[2] Roger Absalom, France: The May Events 1968 (London: Longman Group Limited, 1971), 24

[3] Absalom, 24

[4] Timeline from Le Monde:

[5]Absalom, 24

Location of Sorbonne

Selected bibliography

Absalom, Roger. France: The May Events 1968. London: Longman Group Limited, 1971.

Drupal "Heritage." Sorbonne Univeristié. March 2018. Accessed February 24, 2019. http://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/index.php/en/university/history-and-heritage/heritage.

Lyon, Margot. "Sorbonne Revolt." New Statesman, May 10, 1968 in "Sorbonne Revolt" Government, Politics, and Protest: Essential Primary Sources.

"Robert de Sorbon | French Theologian." n.d. Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed February 25, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-de-Sorbon.

"The Sorbonne in the Middle Ages - La Chancellerie des Universités de Paris." n.d. La Chancellerie Des Universités de Paris. Accessed February 24, 2019. http://www.sorbonne.fr/en/the-sorbonne/history-of-the-sorbonne/la-fondation-de-la-sorbonne-au-moyen-age-par-le-theologien-robert-de-sorbon/.

"The Sorbonne in the 20th Century - La Chancellerie des Universités de Paris." n.d. La Chancellerie Des Universités de Paris. Accessed February 24 2019. http://www.sorbonne.fr/en/the-sorbonne/history-of-the-sorbonne/la-sorbonne-au-xxe-siecle-de-lancienne-universite-de-paris-aux-13-universites-parisiennes/.

This point of interest is one of many on the GuideTags app –
a free digital interpretive guide that features thematic tours, routes, and discovery sessions,
and automatically tells geolocated stories about the places that surround us.
Download the app today, and start exploring!
Contact us if you would like to create your own content.
Report an error or inappropriate content.