Friedensau Adventist University (in German "Theologische Hochschule Friedensau") is an institution run and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany, a protestant church. Its courses of study and degrees are state recognized. Throughout the hundred-year history of this institution, men and women educated here have shouldered their responsibility for humanity through mission work and pioneering development cooperation in many countries of the world. Even today, Friedensau has the goal of enabling individuals to assume responsibilities in the church, society and their country. In the fall of 1899, the Seventh-day Adventist Church founded its first school in Central Europe, and for this purpose it bought a centuries-old mill complete with the farm, meadows and fields. On November 19, 1899, lessons began for the first seven pupils under very simple conditions. Within the next ten years, a collection of large school buildings and living quarters emerged on the campus that still mark the appearance of Friedensau today.