The tower was one of the first city gate towers to be built at the end of the 15th century. During the Thirty Years' War in 1634 the roof of the tower burned down and was restored in 1673.
The Schülerturm is one of the older of Bautzen's city towers. The intersection of Wendischer Straße, An den Fleischbänken and Schülerstraße, located south of the tower, can be seen as the center of Bautzen's early town, which was granted its first city rights in 1157. Even though the tower is now somewhat off the beaten track of important roads, in earlier centuries it was one of the most important entrances to the city. The early course of the old Hohe Straße (Via Regia) crossed the Spree at the Hammermühle, ran along Gerberstraße and reached the protected city area at the Schülertor, turned eastwards from Schülerstraße after just a few hundred meters onto Wendische Straße and left the city area through the Wendische Tor at the Wendischer Turm. In later times, the Schülerturm was the second junction of the city's various defense systems in the east (moat in front of the city wall) and west (city wall on a rocky spur), alongside the Lauenturm. The tower was built at the end of the 15th century as a two-gate city entrance and Zwinger entrance. In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, the upper part of the tower burned down and was rebuilt in 1673 in the Mannerist style with four gables. After a lightning strike in 1833, the roof was changed. The strongly curved gate passage of the roundel built in front of the gate was demolished in 1840 and the moat in front of it was leveled. The previously pointed arched archway of the student tower was changed to a round arch.
The sandstone relief (created after 1400) that is still on the north side today was originally on the roundel in front of the tower. The tower knob of the weather vane contains various documents on the construction history of the tower, which were last added in 2004 during security work. Source: Wikipedia