Universities can look back at a long tradition of jubilees and celebrations. After the establishment of Catholic jubilee years, Reformation jubilees, and Luther anniversaries, universities were the first institutions to create a modern jubilee culture.

Whether at the University of Basel’s first secular celebrations in 1660 and 1760, the grand celebration for 1860 amid the nineteenth century's trend of extraordinary jubilees, the annual Dies academicus, the inauguration of the new Kollegienhaus in 1939, commemorative ceremonies honoring famous scientists such as Leonhard Euler, or the 500th anniversary celebration in 1960, such events have always aimed to carefully maintain the university's profile and the sciences it represents, as well as its relationship to the city of Basel.

There are solid reasons for why historians interested in historical anniversaries: such events are a crucial part of memory cultures. Current studies on the importance of anniversaries, for example, investigate the ways in which universities have represented themselves inwardly and outwardly through jubilees and commemorations, their perspectives on history, and their instrumental aims with these celebrations. These questions will also be the focus of the following discussion of anniversary celebrations at the University of Basel over the past centuries.