[1] The name "Dokkyo" is the Japanese-style dual kanji-based abbreviation of Verein für deutsche Wissenschaften, or German Studies Society (獨逸學協會, Doitsu-gaku Kyōkai).

What was to become today's Dokkyo University was founded on 18 September 1881 by various people, among them scholars Nishi Amane and Katō Hiroyuki, diplomats Inoue Kaoru and Aoki Shūzō and statesmen Shinagawa Yajirō and Katsura Tarō as Verein für deutsche Wissenschaften, or German Studies Society (獨逸學協會, Doitsu-gaku Kyōkai) The first chancellor was Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa.

It developed into Schule des Vereins für deutsche Wissenschaften, or German Studies Society School (獨逸學協會學校, Doitsu-gaku Kyōkai Gakkō) in 1883, which opened its doors exclusively to boys in line with the custom at the time.

The 1920s saw its heyday when the school sent the highest number of boys into the nation's top Daiichi Kōtō Gakkō (第一高等学校, Daiichi Kōtō Gakkō) ("High School No.1") in Tokyo, popularly known as "Ichikō", which is today's Liberal Arts campus of the University of Tokyo.

[3][4] The Teiyu Amano Memorial Stadium, home of the university's baseball team, is located off-campus in Koshigaya.