The first "Ossietzky Days" took place at the University of Oldenburg on 4 and 5 May 1978.

Anyone visiting the university, or more precisely the lecture theatre centre on the Haarentor campus, will come across a memorial dedicated to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and namesake of the university, Carl von Ossietzky. The barbed wire sculpture was designed by Cologne artist Hans-Peter Reinartz and contains an inscription referring to the role of research in the First World War: "Science and technology were not primarily there to help. They created tools of destruction, tools of the most atrocious murder. We must make science human again." It is a quote from Carl von Ossietzky.

The memorial was unveiled by Rosalinde von Ossietzky-Palm on 4 May 1978, the 40th anniversary of her father's death. The memorial initially stood near building A11, but has been in its current location since 2005. Members of the university had collected money in the 1970s to finance the memorial. At the time, the university had to fight for a long time to be allowed to name itself after Ossietzky. The memorial was a clear statement in favour of Ossietzky in this naming dispute - as were the Ossietzky Days. The days were organised together with the International League for Human Rights, the DGB regional district of Lower Saxony and the Federal Youth Ring. The Ossietzky Days attracted high-ranking visitors: Among others, the Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams gave a speech. She had received the Nobel Peace Prize two years earlier for her commitment to a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Further Ossietzky Days were held later. In 1988, for example, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt came to the university and also spoke at the Esterwegen concentration camp memorial - the place where Carl von Ossietzky suffered several years of brutal treatment by the Nazi regime and later died as a result. More detailed information on the work of the University of Oldenburg's namesake and the name dispute can be found here.