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Located in Würtemberg; founded by Count Eberhard im Bart on 3 July, 1477, after Pope Sixtus IV had first undertaken by the Bull of 13 Nov., 1476 to endow the university from the property of the Church. The imperial confirmation followed on 20 Feb., 1484. The university had four faculties: theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, and altogether fourteen professorships. Among the distinguished professors at the beginning were the theologians Gabriel Biel, Johannes Heynlin von Stein (a Lapide), Conrad Summenhart, and the jurist Johannes Vergenhans (Nauclerus). A distinguished physician was Johannes Widmann. In the philosophical faculty should be mentioned the mathematicians Paul Scriptoris and Johannes Stöffler, and the Humanists Johannes Reuchlin, Heinrich Bebel, and Melanchthon. Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg was deposed in 1519 on account of his misgovernment of the country, but in 1534 was restored to power by the Lutheran Landgrave Philip of Hesse. In 1535 Ulrich introduced the Reformation into the country and university, notwithstanding the stubborn opposition manifested at the university, especially by its chancellor Ambrosius Widmann. The most prominent of the new professors were the theologians Johannes Brenz, Erhard Schnepf, Jakob Andreæ, Jakob Heerbrand, Andreas and Luke Osiander. Among the other professors were the jurists Johannes Sichard, Karl Molinæus (Du Moulin), and Christopher Besold, the physician Leonhard Fuchs, the philologists Joachim, Camerarius and Martin Crusius, the cartographer Philip Apian, and the mathematician and astronomer Michael Mästlin. To secure capable preachers Duke Ulrich established the Lutheran seminary, and Duke Christopher founded the collegium illustre for the training of state officials.

The university, like the country, recovered only slowly from the injuries inflicted by the Thirty Years' War. At first the old rigid orthodoxy still prevailed in the theological faculty; but in the eighteenth century a greater independence of thought gradually gained ground, especially through the efforts of the chancellor, Christopher Matthäus Pfaff, the founder of what is called the collegiate system. Pietism also was represented in the theological faculty. Towards the end of the eighteenth century Christian Gottlieb Storr exerted a profound influence as a Biblical theologian and the founder of the early Tübingen School in opposition to the "Enlightenment' and the theories of Kant. Among his pupils were, in particular, Friedrich Gottlieb Süsskind, Johann Friedrich Flatt, and Karl Christian Flatt.

Prominent in the faculty of law were Wolfgang Adam Lauterbach, Ferdinand Christopher Harpprecht, and Karl Christopher Hofacker, and in the faculty of medicine, Johann Georg Gmelin, Karl Friedrich Kielmeyer, and Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Autenrieth. During this era, marked by the spread of the Wolffian and Kantian doctrines, the faculty of philosophy had few distinguished members. The chancellor Lebret, however, ranked high as a historian, and Bohnenberger as a mathematician. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the university was in danger of having the faculties of law and medicine transferred to the school established at Stuttgart by Duke Charles Eugene, after whom the new school was named. This loss was averted, however, by the suppression of the new seat of learning in 1794.

Two causes led to a great development of the university in the nineteenth century. First, the Catholic university for Würtemberg, which at the beginning of the century had been established at Ellwangen, was transferred in 1817 to Tübingen as a Catholic theological faculty, and a Catholic house of study called Wilhelmsstift was founded to counterbalance the Lutheran seminary; second, a faculty of political economy was organized in 1817 (called the faculty of political science since 1822), and a faculty of natural sciences in 1863. These changes led to the erection of new university buildings: the anatomical building (1832-35); the new aula, intended to replace the old one dating from 1547 and 1777, and the botanical and chemical institute (1842-45); the clinical hospital for surgical cases (1846); the physiological institute (1867); the institute for pathological anatomy (1873); ophthalmic hospital (1875); medical hospital (1878-79); the physico-chemical institute (1883-85); the institute for physics (1888); the new hospital for women (1888-91), in place of the old one built in 1803; the hospital for mental diseases (1892-94); the mineralogico-geological and zoological institute (1902); the institute for chemistry (1903-07); the new ophthalmological clinic (1907-09). A new building for the library, housed till now in the castle, is in course of construction; the library contains 4145 manuscripts and 513,313 volumes. The regular professors numbered 56 in the summer term of 1911; honorary and adjunct professors, Dozents, 71; matriculated students, 2118, and non-matriculated persons permitted to attend the lectures, 145, making a total of 2263. Since the reign of King Frederick I the university has become more and more a state institution; its income for 1911 was 439,499 marks ($104,382), while the grant from the State for the year was 1,366,847 marks ($324,626).

In the Protestant theological faculty the critical view of theological history held by Ferdinand Christian Baur led to the founding of the later Tübingen School, to which belong, besides the founder, Albert Schwegler, Karl Christian Planck, Albert Ritschl, Julius Köstlin, Karl Christian Johannes Holsten, Adolf Hilgenfeld, Karl Weizsäcker and Edward Zeller. Other distinguished theologians, who were somewhat more positive in their views, were Johann Tobias Beck, and Christian David Frederick Palmer. David Frederick Strauss, a follower of Hegel, wrote his "Life of Jesus" while a tutor at Tübingen. The distinguished teachers and scholars of the Catholic theological faculty are often called the Catholic Tübingen School. The characteristic of this school is positive and historical rather than speculative or philosophical. Above all should be mentioned the great Catholic theologian of the nineteenth century, Johann Adam Möhler; further: Johann Sebastian Drey, Johann Baptist Hirscher, Benedict Welte, Johann Evangelist Kuhn, Karl Joseph Hefele, Moritz Aberle, Felix Himpel, Franz Quirin Kober, Franz Xaver Linsenmann, Franz Xaver Funk, Paul Schanz, and Paul Vetter. Distinguished professors of law were: Karl Georg Wächter, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Gerber, Alois Brins, Gustav Mandry, and Hugo Meyer. Among the noted members of the faculty of political science were: Robert Mohl, Albert Eberhard Friedrich Schäffle, Gustav Rümelin, Gustav Friedrich Schönberg, and Friedrich Julius Neumann. Among the noted members of the medical faculty were: Victor Bruns, Felix Niemeyer, Karl Liebermeister, and Johannes Säxinger. In natural science should he mentioned: Hugo Mohl, Theodore Eimer, and Lothar Meyer. Of the philosophical faculty should be mentioned Friedrich Theodor Vischer, writer on æsthetics; the philosopher Christopher Sigwart; the classical philologists Christian Wals and Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel; the Orientalists Julius Mohl, Georg Heinrich Ewald, and Walter Rudolf Roth; the Germanists Ludwig Uhland and Heinrich Adalbert Keller; the historians Julius Weizsäcker and Hermann Alfred Gutschmid; and the geologist Friedrich August Quenstedt.