History

Heidelberg was founded in 1850 by members of the German Reformed Church who named the College after the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563.

Seeking to minister to the German population of Ohio, the founders of the College established a church-affiliated institution staffed by a largely theologically trained faculty. Into the 1890s and beyond, the ideal of training Christian scholars persisted as the goal of a Heidelberg education.

No laymen served as President of the College until after World War II. Heidelberg tenured faculty members were required to be members of a Christian faith until the early 1970s. Today, many of the staff and the students are not members of the United Church of Christ. This denomination was formed in 1957 by a merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church with the Congregational Christian Churches.

In becoming an independent, church-related, liberal arts educational institution, Heidelberg has interpreted the educated person to be an individual who can articulate the relationship between academic learning and learning for life.

From five students in its first graduating class, Heidelberg has experienced periods of growth and contraction during its long and rich history. Today, Heidelberg offers 28 majors and employs 86 faculty (FTE). Its total enrollment is over 1,500 students in all programs.