At the end of the Second World War, the Old University and the Neubaukirche (newly built church) were severely damaged in a British bombing raid on 16 March 1945. On that day, the university library lost about 80 percent of its inventory. As early as in the summer of 1945, lecturers and students took part in removing the rubble from the destroyed university buildings and started the reconstruction. In the summer of 1946, student enrolment was at 1,279 again.
In the 1950s, the Old University was reconstructed as best possible with only a small budget in order to make it ready to be reopened. In the following years, the Martin-von-Wagner Museum with part of the university collections was transferred from the Old University to the south wing of the Residence (1963). In 1981, the university library moved to its new building on Hubland Campus.