Proof of course-related aptitude: History
University admission for applicants without a general higher education entrance qualification
Here you will find information on the examination for proof of aptitude for the subject of History. Please refer to the overview of the subject and the required subjects on the Studying without Abitur page.
If you have any questions, please contact the Student Advisory Service of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
Exam date
August 17, 2026, 9-12 a.m., online essay
If you have received an invitation from the phil: Examination Office, you can request the exam by e-mail from 8.45 a.m. on August 17, 2026 via the following e-mail address, which will be sent to you immediately as an attachment in a reply e-mail:
Reinhild.Kreis@uni-siegen.de
You can return your typed exam in PDF format as an attachment to the same e-mail address by 12 noon on August 17, 2026 at the latest.
You are responsible for meeting the deadline of 12 noon.
Note: For organizational and content-related reasons, no alternative or repeat dates will be offered.
About the audit
Contents
The admission procedure consists of a written paper lasting three hours. The areas examined are taken from the following list of topics. Prospective students who fail this written examination with a grade lower than "satisfactory (3.0)" must also take an oral examination.
The learning objectives and content of the upper secondary school in NRW serve as a guideline for the knowledge to be tested.
The focus of the subject-specific aptitude test in the 2026 academic year relates to the area:
Contemporary history (history after 1945)
Preparation
In a three-hour written exam, you will work on three essay questions based on the specified text in preparation (2026: Ulrich Herbert, Geschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert, Munich 2014, pp. 887-1022).
The exam is not about testing detailed knowledge, but rather your understanding of historical contexts and your ability to write a logically structured and argumentative text. In the exam, you should show that a) you can classify and describe the various events and developments within a historical period in relation to each other, and that b) you can recognize and reproduce the theses and arguments of a historical text. When preparing, it is therefore advisable to look not only at the event level, but also at how the author links and interprets these events and developments (possibly in contrast to other historians and their theses). The time frame of three hours is calculated in such a way that there is sufficient time for sketching considerations of a draft and its revision up to the writing of the final text, which you then submit.