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| Motto | Experience more. |
|---|---|
| Type | Privateliberal arts college |
| Established | 1852; 173 years ago (1852) |
Religious affiliation | Evangelical Lutheran Church in America |
| Endowment | $94 million (2023) |
| President | Rebecca Ehretsman |
Academic staff | 83 full-time and 60 part-time (fall 2022)[1] |
| Students | 1,563 fall 2022[1] |
| Location | , United States |
| Campus | Rural, 118 acres (48 ha) |
| Colors | Orange and black |
| Nickname | Knights |
| Website | wartburg.edu |
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Wartburg College is aprivateLutheranliberal arts college inWaverly, Iowa.
Wartburg College was founded in 1852 inSaginaw, Michigan, byGeorg M. Grossmann, a native ofNeuendettelsau,Bavaria. PastorWilhelm Löhe sent Grossmann to establish a pastor training school for German immigrants. The college moved many times betweenIllinois and Iowa before settling in Waverly in 1935. Also in 1935,St. Paul Luther College inSaint Paul, Minnesota, merged with Wartburg College.
The college is named afterWartburg Castle inEisenach,Germany, whereMartin Luther was protected during the stormy days of theReformation. While in the Castle, he translated the New Testament from its original Greek into German, the language of the people.[2] Student and alumni groups often travel to the castle, and theWartburg Choir has performed there several times.Waverly andEisenach are sister towns and often swap foreign exchange students. The college is proud of its German heritage and celebrates an annual student-declared one-day holiday, Outfly, a deliberately mistaken translation of theGerman nounAusflug. Outfly is the most enduring Wartburg tradition. The first mention ofAusflug comes fromMendota, Illinois, in 1883, when students went on a Friday-Saturday excursion to nearbyStarved Rock, now a state park. Faculty minutes for October 5, 1892, note thatAusflug was scheduled for the next day.[3][4]
Old Main, the oldest building on campus, was built in 1880 for the Wartburg Teachers Seminary. It was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1978 under the name Wartburg Teachers' Seminary.[5]
The longstanding rivalry between Wartburg andLuther College inDecorah, Iowa, has produced some colorful moments. The rivalry's origins are unclear. Stories of pranks date to the 1940s. For the most part, the rivalry has been characterized by fun and good sportsmanship. It rose to new heights in October 1996, when two 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 Iowa newspaper, got national mention onFox, and madeRolling Stone magazine's list of the most memorable college pranks of 1996–97. The creativity in the rivalry continued when student staff members of the college radio station,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 the judges' stand the float quickly changed color from blue and white to orange and black. It continued all the way through town and onto Luther's campus, with numerous Wartburg students joining the procession from the crowd.[6]
In 2022,Rebecca Ehretsman became Wartburg's first female president.[7]
Wartburg College has moved many times throughout its history:[9]
Wartburg College teams participate as a member of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association'sDivision III. The Knights are a member of theAmerican Rivers Conference (ARC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country,football, golf, soccer, tennis, track & field, andwrestling; while women's sports includebasketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance team, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field,volleyball, wrestling, and lacrosse. The women's lacrosse team competes in theMidwest Women's Lacrosse Conference (MWLC). In the spring of 2012, Wartburg's wrestling and women's track and field teams led Wartburg to become the only school inNCAA history to win two national team championships on the same day. Wartburg has had an individual or team national champion for 28 straight years includingmen's wrestling winning the 2022 NCAA DIII Wrestling Tournament.[10] The men's wrestling team has an NCAA DIII leading 15 NCAA national titles. Wartburg's softball team appeared in twoWomen's College World Series in 1971 and 2003,[11] while the baseball team has also played in twoCollege World Series, coming in 2000 and 2005.[12]
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42°43′45″N92°28′55″W / 42.72911°N 92.48197°W /42.72911; -92.48197
