The contest was announced by the "Founder's Organization for German Sciences" and the "Heinz Nixdorf Foundation".

[1] In 1954 the State of Baden-Württemberg founded a forestry school in Rottenburg am Neckar.

In the beginning the university served only as a training school for forest officers in the upper grade of the civil service of the states Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

The university is located in the "Schadenweilerhof" (Schadenweiler estate) about two kilometers (ca.

On the place where the university is located today, the village Schadenweiler was situated until the 15th century.