On 3 December 1976, the then Rector of the University, Prof. Dr Rainer Krüger, called on lecturers in UNI-INFO to hold a vote in their seminars on whether smoking should be allowed.

What sounds absurd today used to be the norm in public buildings: in the 1970s and for a long time afterwards, smoking was also permitted in universities. Lecture theatres, seminar rooms and corridors were often filled with thick clouds of smoke. Even then, however, smoking was not without conflict: those who did not smoke repeatedly complained to the university management about the forced passive smoking and the stench of tobacco smoke.

Rector Krüger then wrote a letter to the lecturers and suggested that they organise votes on smoking in the seminars. If even a small proportion of students were against smoking, this request should be honoured. However, he also made it clear: "A general smoking ban in the university's event rooms seems to me to be too rigid a regulation, which I would like to avoid if possible." A general smoking ban was actually more than thirty years in the making: smoking has only been completely banned on university premises since 2007.