Augsburg was the first seminary founded by Norwegian Lutherans in America, named after the Augsburg Confession, the confession of faith presented by Lutherans in Augsburg, Germany, in 1530. Augsburg opened in September 1869, in Marshall, Wisconsin, and moved to Minneapolis in 1872. Undergraduate classes first began in the fall of 1874 with the first class graduating in the spring of 1879. In 1893, Augsburg leaders formed the "Friends of Augsburg", which became the Lutheran Free Church in 1897. Women were first admitted to the college in 1921. The school was officially known as Augsburg Seminary until 1942 when the name was changed to Augsburg College and Theological Seminary although that name had been informally used since the 1910s. When the Lutheran Free Church merged with the American Lutheran Church in 1963 Augsburg Seminary merged with Luther Seminary in Saint Paul and the name of the school officially became Augsburg College. There was also a high school level Augsburg Academy on campus until it closed in 1933.
August Weenaas was Augsburg’s first president (1869-1876). Professor Weenaas recruited two teachers from Norway—Sven Oftedal and Georg Sverdrup. These three men clearly articulate the direction of Augsburg: to educate Norwegian Lutherans to minister to immigrants and to provide such "college" studies that would prepare students for theological study.
In 1874 they proposed a three-part plan: first, train ministerial candidates; second, prepare future theological students; and third, educate the farmer, worker, and businessman. The statement stressed that a good education is also practical. Augsburg’s next two presidents also emphatically rejected ivory tower concepts of education. This commitment to church and community has led to Augsburg’s theme of over 130 years: Education for Service.