from this site, program notes

Academic Festival Overture (1880) Op. 80

Johannes Brahms
Brahms had already declined one honorary doctorate of music from Cambridge on account of being too busy to make the journey from Vienna, when he was nominated in 1879 for the same degree by the University of Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), the chief city of Silesia, at that time part of the German empire. Apparently, the learned professors had little knowledge of this Brahms other than that he was from Hamburg, was a musician and, perhaps most significantly, had snubbed the great University of Cambridge! This time he was able to accept, since the degree could be conferred in absentia. The regents of Breslau did however expect some kind of thanks, typically in the form of a Latin address. Instead Brahms gave them one of his greatest compositions: the Akademische Fest-Overture. It employs the biggest orchestra of any of his works, and is a brilliant and decidedly irreverent arrangement of student tunes. It culminates in a hearty rendition of 'Gaudeamus igitur' (let us therefore rejoice) so that at least part of his thank you was based on Latin.

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This thread about the Christmas Carol, "When Christmas Morn is Dawning," has a little more info about Brahms' Academic Festival Overture tunes. Masato has a link to Fuxenritt.

The posts are out of order, despite the dates. ???