Das Deutsches Kollegium was established by the Southwest German Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in affiliation with Iowa Wesleyan College for the theological training of German Methodist ministers to serve area German-speaking churches. It is associated with Rudolph Havighorst, president from 1873 to 1874, and Edwin Stanton Havighorst, president from 1898 to 1908. The Havighorst family honored their memory in 1963, and Mark Edwin Frels, of Iowa Wesleyan College's Class of 1976 and a great-nephew of Edwin Stanton Havighorst, restored it in 2001 and 2010.