Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in the city of

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis'' by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 27,000 students today. Kiel University is the largest, oldest, and most prestigious in the state of

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

. Until 1864/66 it was not only the northernmost university in Germany but at the same time the 2nd largest university of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Faculty, alumni, and researchers of the Kiel University have won 12 Nobel Prizes. Kiel University has been a member of the German Universities Excellence Initiative since 2006. The Cluster of Excellence

The Future Ocean The Future Ocean is a Cluster of Excellence founded in November 2006 in line with the German excellence initiative by the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), the Muthesius Kunsthochschule (MKHS), the Institut für Weltwirtschaft (I ...

, which was established in cooperation with the

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel The GEOMAR - Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), former ''Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences'' (German: ''Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften'', IFM-GEOMAR), is a research institute in Kiel, Germany. It was formed in 2004 ...

in 2006, is internationally recognized. The second Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces" deals with chronic inflammatory diseases. The

Kiel Institute for the World Economy The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Institut für Weltwirtschaft, or IfW) is an independent, non-profit economic research institute and think tank based in Kiel, Germany. In 2017, it was ranked as one of the top 50 most influential think ta ...

is also affiliated with Kiel University. The university has a great reputation for its focus on public international law. The oldest public international law institution in Germany and Europe – the Walther Schuecking Institute for International Law – is based in Kiel.

History

Kiel University was founded under the name ''Christiana Albertina'' on 5 October 1665 by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. The citizens of the city of

were initially quite sceptical about the upcoming influx of students, thinking that these could be "quite a pest with their gluttony, heavy drinking and their questionable character" (German: ''mit Fressen, Sauffen und allerley leichtfertigem Wesen sehr ärgerlich seyn''). But those in the city who envisioned economic advantages of a university in the city won, and Kiel thus became the northernmost university in the German

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

. After 1773, when Kiel had come under Danish rule, the university began to thrive, and when Kiel became part of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

in the year 1867, the university grew rapidly in size. The university opened one of the first

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

s in Germany (now the Alter Botanischer Garten Kiel), and

Martin Gropius Martin Carl Philipp Gropius (11 August 1824, Berlin – 13 December 1880) was a German architect.Wirth, Irmgard (1966).Gropius, Martin Carl Philipp. In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie''. Band 7. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. . p. 132-133 retriev ...

designed many of the new buildings needed to teach the growing number of students. The ''Christiana Albertina'' was one of the first German universities to obey the ''

Gleichschaltung The Nazi term () or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied b ...

'' in 1933 and agreed to remove many professors and students from the school, for instance

Ferdinand Tönnies Ferdinand Tönnies (; 26 July 1855 – 9 April 1936) was a German sociologist, economist, and philosopher. He was a significant contributor to sociological theory and field studies, best known for distinguishing between two types of social gro ...

Felix Jacoby Felix Jacoby (; 19 March 1876 – 10 November 1959) was a German classicist and philologist. He is best known among classicists for his highly important work ''Fragmente der griechischen Historiker'', a collection of text fragments of ancient Gr ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Kiel University suffered heavy damage, therefore it was later rebuilt at a different location with only a few of the older buildings housing the medical school. In 2019, it was announced it has banned full-face coverings in classrooms, citing the need for open communication that includes facial expressions and gestures.

Faculties

*Faculty of

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

*Faculty of

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

*Faculty of

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

and

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

*Faculty of

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

*Faculty of

Arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

*Faculty of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

*Faculty of

Agricultural Science Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Profession ...

and

Nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

*Faculty of

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Notable people

Alumni

:''See also :University of Kiel alumni'' *

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

(1858–1942), anthropologist *

Alice Bota Alice Bota (born 15 December 1979) is a German journalist, presently working for the weekly ''Die Zeit'', and a book author. Born in Poland, she studied in both Germany and Poland and focuses on topics of Eastern Europe. Career Born in Krapkowi ...

(born 1979), journalist *

Georg von Dadelsen Georg may refer to: * ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also * George (disambiguation) George may refer to: People * George (given name) * ...

(1918–2007), musicologist, ''

Neue Bach-Ausgabe The New Bach Edition (NBE) (german: Neue Bach-Ausgabe; NBA), is the second complete edition of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, published by Bärenreiter. The name is short for Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750): New Edition of the Complete W ...

'' *

Gerhard Domagk Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk (; 30 October 1895 – 24 April 1964) was a German pathologist and bacteriologist. He is credited with the discovery of sulfonamidochrysoidine (KL730) as an antibiotic for which he received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Phy ...

, bacteriologist, Nobel laureate * Andre Franke, geneticist * Johanna Hellman (1889-1982), surgeon * Mareile Höppner, television presenter * Prof. Dr. Doris König, current judge of the

Federal Constitutional Court of Germany The Federal Constitutional Court (german: link=no, Bundesverfassungsgericht ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inc ...

, Germany's highest court *

Wolfgang Kubicki Wolfgang Kubicki (born 3 March 1952) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) and member of the Bundestag from 1990 until 1992 and 2017 onwards. He has been vice chairman of the FDP in Germany since December 2013. Sin ...

, politician, vice chairman of the FDP in Germany, from 1992 to 1993 and since 1996 he is faction leader of the FDP in the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...

, the parliament of

, member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

Oswald Pohl Oswald Ludwig Pohl (; 30 June 1892 – 7 June 1951) was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era. As the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office and the head administrator of the Nazi concentration camps, he was a key figure in ...

(1892–1951), Nazi SS officer executed for war crimes * Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff (1944–2013), German art historian and professor *

Gerhard Stoltenberg Gerhard Stoltenberg (29 September 1928 – 23 November 2001) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and minister in the cabinets of Ludwig Erhard, Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Helmut Kohl. He served as Minister-President ...

, politician, former prime minister of

, former finance minister of Germany *

Peer Steinbrück Peer Steinbrück (born 10 January 1947) is a German politician who was the Chancellor-candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the 2013 federal election. Steinbrück served as the eighth Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia f ...

, politician, former prime minister of

North Rhine Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabi ...

, former finance minister of Germany * Erich Walter Sternberg, composer * Dr. Sibylle Kessal-Wulf, current judge of the

, Germany's highest court * Dr. Surya Hermawan, lecturer at Petra Christian University, Indonesia

Academics

:''See also :University of Kiel faculty''

Nobel Prize Winners

There are several

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

Winners affiliated with Kiel University, including: * 1902

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...

(Literature) * 1905

Philipp Lenard Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (; hu, Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal; 7 June 1862 – 20 May 1947) was a Hungarian-born German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays and the discovery of m ...

(Physics) * 1907

Eduard Buchner Eduard Buchner (; 20 May 1860 – 13 August 1917) was a German chemist and zymologist, awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on fermentation. Biography Early years Buchner was born in Munich to a physician and Doctor Extraor ...

(Chemistry) * 1918

Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (, ; 23 April 1858 – 4 October 1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. Planck made many substantial contributions to theoretical p ...

(Physics) * 1922

Otto Meyerhof Otto Fritz Meyerhof (; April 12, 1884 – October 6, 1951) was a German physician and biochemist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Biography Otto Fritz Meyerhof was born in Hannover, at Theaterplatz 16A (now:Rathenaustrasse ...

(Medicine) * 1939

(Medicine) * 1950

Kurt Alder Kurt Alder (; 10 July 1902 – 20 June 1958) was a German chemist and Nobel laureate. Biography Alder was born in the industrial area of Königshütte, Silesia (modern day Chorzów, Upper Silesia, Poland), where he received his early schoo ...

and

Otto Diels Otto Paul Hermann Diels (; 23 January 1876 – 7 March 1954) was a German chemist. His most notable work was done with Kurt Alder on the Diels–Alder reaction, a method for diene synthesis. The pair was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ...

(Chemistry).

Points of interest

Botanischer Garten der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel The Botanischer Garten der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (8 hectares), or less formally the Botanischer Garten Kiel, is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Kiel. It is located at Am Botanischen Garten 1, ...

, the university's

Gallery

File:Universitätsbibliothek CAU Leibniz-Straße Luftaufnahme.jpg, "Some shine when you read them" - Aerial photograph of the University Library of the CAU on Leibniz Street File:Luftaufnahme IPN.jpg, The Leibniz Institute for the Education in Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Olshausenstraße File:Luftaufnahme ZBM Botanischer Garten.jpg, The Center for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ZMB) of the CAU at the Botanical Garden File:Luftaufnahme Leibniz-Straße Institute Universitätsbibliothek Mensa.jpg, Leibniz-Straße-based institutes, the cafeteria and the university library File:Luftaufnahme Otto-Hahn-Platz Max-Eyth-Straße Chemie Anatomie Biochemie.jpg, The Otto-Hahn-Platz and the Max-Eyth-Straße with the various chemical institutes and the Anatomical Institute File:Luftaufnahme CAU Kiel Sportstätten Institut Sportwissenschaft.jpg, The sports facilities and the Institute of Sports Science of the CAU File:Luftaufnahme Botanischer Garten CAU Kiel.jpg, The grounds of the botanical garden of the CAU Kiel File:Schaugewächshäuser Botanischer Garten CAU Kiel.jpg, The greenhouses of the Botanical Garden of the CAU

Holstein Study Award

CAU's most renowned award is the Holstein Study Award (Holsteiner Studienpreis), which is awarded to the university's top three students each year since 2001. The award's criteria include extraordinary academic achievements, a broad intellectual horizon and political or social involvement. It is endowed with a prize money of €500 for the 2nd and 3rd prize and €1000 for the 1st prize. The Holstein Study Award is funded by the association ‘Iuventus Academiae Holsatorum’. The award's expert jury includes professors of various faculties and the prizes are awarded by the university's president or vice-president in a formal ceremony in the top floor of the skyscraper on campus.

References

External links

Kiel University Web site

Kiel University International Affairs

Students' Association at Kiel University
{{coord, 54, 20, 20, N, 10, 07, 21, E, region:DE-SH_type:edu, display=title Universities and colleges in Schleswig-Holstein

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Educational institutions established in the 1660s 1665 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire