Moving out of the town had been an established form of academic protest from the earliest days of European Universities. While in the Middle Ages these “part-time emigrations“ were conducted by the entire academic community, usually as a reaction towards threatening of epidemics, war, governmental repressions or social conflicts between town and gown, the character of this spatial practice changed completely in the following of the Reformation and the reorganisation of the universities. During the 18th century it was only the students that made use of secessions as a way of symbolic protest against academic or urban authorities. By leaving university and town, students apparently defined themselves as a distinct social group within the (local) academic and urban societies and utilised their temporary departure as a threat against townspeople and the university – both being highly dependent on the student’s economic power. Starting with the case of Giessen in 1776/1777 there are numerous examples to be compared with, such as Halle (1723/1750), Erlangen (1749/1751), Marburg (1754), Jena (1756/1757/1792/1795), Leipzig (1768), Giessen (1792), Göttingen (1790/1792), Helmstedt (1791) and Rostock (1794). On this basis cultural patterns and historical developments of student protest can be elaborated.