The Tübinger Stift (German:[ˈtyːbɪŋɐˈʃtɪft]ⓘ) is a hall of residence and teaching; it is owned and supported by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, and located in the university city of Tübingen, in South West Germany. The Stift was founded as an Augustinianmonastery in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, in 1536, Duke Ulrich turned the Stift into a seminary which served to prepare Protestant pastors for Württemberg. To this day the scholarship is still given to students in preparation for the ministry or teaching in Baden-Württemberg. Students receive a scholarship which consists of boarding, lodging and further academic support.
"One need only utter the words 'Tubingen School' to get an understanding of what German philosophy is at bottom—a very cunning form of theology." — Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 1895, par. 10.
Martin Leube: Das Tübinger Stift: 1770 – 1950; Geschichte des Tübinger Stifts. Stuttgart, Steinkopf (1954)
Reinhard Breymayer: Freimaurer vor den Toren des Tübinger Stifts: Masonischer Einfluss auf Hölderlin? In: Tubingensia: Impulse zur Stadt- und Universitätsgeschichte. Festschrift für Wilfried Setzler zum 65. Geburtstag. Hrsg. von Sönke Lorenz und Volker [Karl] Schäfer in Verbindung mit dem Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Universität Tübingen. Redaktion: Susanne Borgards. (Ostfildern:) Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2008 (Tübinger Bausteine zur Landesgeschichte, 10), pp. 355–395. ISBN 978-3-7995-5510-4.