Transylvanian Saxon University

The Transylvanian Saxon University (Latin: Universitas Saxonum, German: Nationsuniversität or Sächsische Nationsuniversität, Romanian: Universitatea Națiunii Săsești, Hungarian: Szász Nemzeti Egyetem) was an official governing body of the Transylvanian Saxon community in Transylvania during the Late Middle Ages up until the late Modern Age.

[2] The Saxon University (Romanian: Universitatea săsească) was constituted at the royal order of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus in 1486.

The name can be quite problematic at first glance given the fact that it does not refer to a university per se but it rather signifies a medieval estate of the realm based on ethnic criterion, ascribing the entire ethnicity of Transylvanian Saxons who lived in Transylvania starting with the Middle Ages, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The Transylvanian Saxon University encompassed the seven seats of the Saxons (i.e. Sieben Stühle) in Transylvania (all under the high seat of Sibiu/Hermannstadt known as Hermannstädter Hauptstuhl), the later two seats of Șeica (German: Schelker Stuhl) and Mediaș (German: Mediascher Stuhl) as well as the two districts of Brașov and Bistrița, all of them previously inhabited by a significant Transylvanian Saxon population (an ethnic German group which was part of the larger Ostsiedlung process in Central and Eastern Europe) since the High Middle Ages up until the 20th century.

Former Sibiu/Hermannstadt mayor Thomas Altemberger received the rights of the Transylvanian Saxon University from King Matthias Corvinus (reinforcing what was previously stipulated within the Diploma Andreanum) for all Saxons living in Transylvania (i.e. universorum Saxonum nostrorum partium regni nostri Transsilvanorum).