On 3 October 1991, the ceremony to name the University of Oldenburg after Carl von Ossietzky took place. Among the guests was his daughter Rosalinde von Ossietzky-Palm, who was named the university's first honorary citizen on this day.

The ceremony was preceded by a decision by the Lower Saxony state parliament, which finally allowed the university to bear Carl von Ossietzky's name after a two-decade-long dispute. "I would like to use this ceremony to apologise to you, Mrs Ossietzky-Palm, on behalf of the state government of Lower Saxony for what the state of Lower Saxony has done to your father's name." The audience responded to this statement by the then Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder with long applause.

In his speech, Schröder described Ossietzky as a "role model for our democracy" and as a man who "had a mind of his own". The then University President Prof. Dr Michael Daxner paid tribute to Ossietzky's work during the Weimar Republic and emphasised that the methods of critical science and critical journalism in Ossietzky's sense were very similar.

The ceremony was the highlight of a multi-day programme of exhibitions, lectures, theatre performances and readings. Numerous guests travelled from Germany and abroad, including friends and contemporary witnesses of Ossietzky. Honorary citizen Rosalinde von Ossietzky-Palm had previously been involved in the name dispute for a long time and also left her father's estate to the university. This is now in the University Archives.