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The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...
, Germany. Founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, and starting classes in 1737, the Georgia Augusta was conceived to promote the ideals of the Enlightenment. It is the oldest university in the state of
Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
and the largest in student enrollment, which stands at around 31,600. Home to many noted figures, it represents one of Germany's historic and traditional institutions. According to an official exhibition held by the University of Göttingen in 2002, 44 Nobel Prize winners had been affiliated with the University of Göttingen as alumni, faculty members or researchers by that year alone. The University of Göttingen was previously supported by the German Universities Excellence Initiative, holds memberships to the U15 Group of major German research universities and to the
Coimbra Group The Coimbra Group (CG) is an international association of 41 universities in Europe. It was established in 1985. It works for the benefit of its members by promoting "internationalization, academic collaboration, excellence in learning and resear ...
of major European research universities. Furthermore, the university maintains strong connections with major research institutes based in Göttingen, such as those of the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz Association. With approximately 9 million media units, the
Göttingen State and University Library The Göttingen State and University Library (german: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen or SUB Göttingen) is the library for Göttingen University as well as for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and is the state l ...
ranks among the largest libraries in Germany.


History


Inauguration

In 1734, King
George II of Great Britain George II (George Augustus; german: link=no, Georg August; 30 October / 9 November 1683 – 25 October 1760) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electorate of Hanover, Hanover) and a prince-ele ...
, who was also Elector of Hanover, gave his Prime Minister in Hanover, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, the order to establish a university in Göttingen to propagate the ideas and values associated with the European Enlightenment. Initially, the only new buildings constructed for the opening of the university were a
riding hall A riding hall, indoor arena, indoor school (UK English), or indoor ring (US English) is a building (part of an equestrian facility) that is specially designed for indoor horse riding. Smaller, private buildings contain only space for riding, wh ...
and a
fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...
house, while courses were taught in the Paulinerkirche and associated Dominican monastery, or in the homes of professors. No university auditorium was built until well into the 19th century.


18th–19th centuries

Throughout the remainder of the 18th century the University of Göttingen was in the top rank of German universities, with its free spirit and atmosphere of scientific exploration and research. Famously, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was the first to hold a professorship (1769–99) explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. By 1812, Göttingen had become an internationally acknowledged modern university with a library of more than 200,000 volumes. In the first years of the University of Göttingen, it became known especially for its Faculty of Law. In the 18th century
Johann Stephan Pütter Johann Stephan Pütter (25 June 1725, Iserlohn – 12 August 1807, Göttingen) was a German law lecturer and publicist. He was professor of law at the university of Göttingen from 1746 until his death. He exerted great influence on the law insti ...
, a scholar of public law at that time, taught jus publicum for half a century. The subject had attracted students such as
Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...
, later diplomat and Prime Minister of Austria, and
Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...
, who later established the University of Berlin. In 1809
Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
, the German philosopher best known for his work ''The World as Will and Representation'', became a student at the university, where he studied
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
and
psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...
under
Gottlob Ernst Schulze Gottlob Ernst Schulze (; 23 August 1761 – 14 January 1833) was a German philosopher, born in Heldrungen (modern-day Thuringia, Germany). He was the grandfather of the pioneering biochemist Ernst Schulze. Biography Schulze was a professor a ...
, who advised him to concentrate on
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and Kant. By the university's centenary in 1837, it was known as the "university of law," as the students enrolled by the faculty of law often made up more than half of the university's students. Göttingen became a Mecca for the study of public law in Germany. During this time, the University of Göttingen achieved renown for its critical work on history as well. An Enlightenment institution, it produced the Göttingen School of History. However, political disturbances, in which both professors and students were implicated, lowered the attendance to 860 in 1834. The expulsion in 1837 of the seven professors – the so-called ''Die Göttinger Sieben'' (the Germanist
Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht (4 March 1800 – 22 May 1876) was a German constitutional lawyer, jurist, and docent. Albrecht was most notable as a member of the Göttingen Seven, a group of academics who in 1837 protested against the abrogation of ...
(1800–1876), the historian
Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (13 May 1785, Wismar5 December 1860, Bonn) was a German historian and politician. Biography He came of an old Hanseatic family of Wismar, then controlled by Sweden. His father, who was burgomaster of the town, int ...
(1785–1860), the orientalist Georg Heinrich August Ewald (1803–1875), the historian
Georg Gottfried Gervinus Georg Gottfried Gervinus (20 May 1805 – 18 March 1871) was a German literary and political historian. Biography Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he b ...
(1805–1875), the physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804–1891), and the philologist brothers Jakob (1785–1863) and
Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, i ...
(1786–1859)) – for protesting against the revocation by
Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover Ernest Augustus (german: Ernst August; 5 June 177118 November 1851) was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, he initially seemed unlikely to become a ...
, of the liberal constitution of 1833 further reduced the prosperity of the university. Otto von Bismarck, the main creator and the first Chancellor of the second
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
, had also studied law in Göttingen in 1833: he lived in a tiny house on the "Wall," now known as "Bismarck Cottage". According to oral tradition, he lived there because his rowdiness had caused him to be banned from living within the city walls.


Turn of the 20th century

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the University of Göttingen achieved its academic peak. Göttingen maintained a strong focus on natural science, especially mathematics. By 1900, David Hilbert and Felix Klein had attracted mathematicians from around the world to Göttingen, which made it a leading center of mathematics by the turn of the 20th century. Likewise, the
Faculty of Theology Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument), an instrument or warrant ...
in conjunction with other orientalists and ancient historians across the university became an international center for the study of religion and antiquity. In 1903, its teaching staff numbered 121 and its students 1529. Ludwig Prandtl joined the university in 1904, and developed it into a leader in
fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and ...
and in
aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dy ...
over the next two decades. In 1925, Prandtl was appointed as the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Mechanics. He introduced the concept of boundary layer and founded mathematical aerodynamics by calculating air flow in the down wind direction. Many of Prandtl's students went on to make fundamental contributions to aerodynamics. From 1921 to 1933, the physics theory group was led by Max Born, who, during this time, became one of the three discoverers of the non-relativistic theory of
quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
. He may also have been the first to propose its probabilistic relationship with classical physics. It was one of the main centers of the development of modern physics. During this time, the German language became an international academic language. A number of dissertations in the UK and the US had German titles. One might be considered having had a complete academic training only when one had studied in Germany. Thus, many American students were proud of having studied in Germany, and the University of Göttingen had profound impacts on the US. A number of American politicians, lawyers, historians and writers received their education from both Harvard and Göttingen. For example, Edward Everett, once Secretary of State and President of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, stayed in Göttingen for two years of study. George Ticknor spent two years studying classics in Göttingen. Even John Lothrop Motley, a diplomat and historian, had personal friendship with Otto von Bismarck during his two-year-long study in Göttingen.
George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...
, a politician and historian, received his PhD from the University of Göttingen in 1820.


"Great purge" of 1933

In the 1930s, the university became a focal point for the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
crackdown on "Jewish physics", as represented by the work of
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
. In what was later called the "great purge" of 1933, academics including Max Born, Victor Goldschmidt,
James Franck James Franck (; 26 August 1882 – 21 May 1964) was a German physicist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz "for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom". He completed his doctorate i ...
, Eugene Wigner, Leó Szilárd, Edward Teller, Edmund Landau, Emmy Noether, and
Richard Courant Richard Courant (January 8, 1888 – January 27, 1972) was a German American mathematician. He is best known by the general public for the book '' What is Mathematics?'', co-written with Herbert Robbins. His research focused on the areas of r ...
were expelled or fled. Most of them fled
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
for places like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Following the great purge, in 1934 David Hilbert, by then a symbol of German mathematics, was dining with Bernhard Rust, the Nazi minister of education. Rust asked, “How is mathematics at Göttingen, now that it is free from the Jewish influence?” Hilbert replied, “There is no mathematics in Göttingen anymore.”


Renovation after War

After
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the University of Göttingen was the first university in the western Zones to be re-opened under British control in 1945.


Campus

The university is spread out in several locations around the city. The central university complex with the Central Library and ''Mensa'' (student refectory/dining hall) is located right next to the inner city and comprises the faculties for Theology, Social sciences, Law, Economics/Business Administration and Linguistics. The departments of Ancient History, Classics, various languages, Psychology and Philosophy are nearby. Located to the south of the city is the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science with its main building, the Mathematisches Institut, on the same street as the German Aerospace Center and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation. In other parts of the city are the departments of Anthropology and Educational Sciences as well as the Medical Faculty with its associated hospitals. Just north of the city a new scientific center has been built in which most of the natural sciences (chemistry, biology, plant pathology, agronomy, forestry, geology, physics, computer science) are now located, including the GZMB. Other institutes are set around the inner city.


Library

Closely linked with the university is the
Göttingen State and University Library The Göttingen State and University Library (german: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen or SUB Göttingen) is the library for Göttingen University as well as for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and is the state l ...
(German: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, or SUB Göttingen). With around 9 million media units and precious manuscripts, the library is designed for Göttingen University as well as the central library for the German State of Lower Saxony (with its central catalogue) and for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, founded as the 'Royal Society for Sciences'.


Gardens

The university maintains three botanical gardens: the Alter Botanischer Garten der Universität Göttingen, the Neuer Botanischer Garten der Universität Göttingen, and the Forstbotanischer Garten und Pflanzengeographisches Arboretum der Universität Göttingen.


Organisation

Today the university consists of 13 faculties and around 31,600 students are enrolled. More than 400 professors and 4,000 academic staff work at the university, assisted by a technical and administrative staff of over 7,000. The post-war expansion of the university led to the establishment of a new, modern "university quarter" in the north of the city. The architecture of the old university can still be seen in the Auditorium Maximum (1826/1865) and the Great Hall (1835/1837) at Wilhelmsplatz.


Faculties, centers, and institutes

The University of Göttingen encompasses 13 faculties and a total of 36 additional centers and institutes (including associated centers and institutes but excluding institutes or departments within the faculties themselves). ;Faculties * Faculty of Agricultural Sciences * Faculty of Biology and Psychology * Faculty of Chemistry * Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology * Faculty of Geoscience and Geography * Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science * Faculty of Physics * Faculty of Law * Faculty of Social Sciences * Faculty of Economic Sciences * Faculty of Humanities *
Faculty of Theology Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument), an instrument or warrant ...
* Medical Center (Universitätsmedizin Göttingen) ;Centers and institutes Humanities and Theology * Centre for Global Migration Studies (CeMig) * Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) * Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS) * Centrum Orbis Orientalis et Occidentalis (CORO) – Centre for Ancient and Oriental Studies * The Göttingen Centre for Digital Humanities (GCDH) * Göttinger Center for Genderstudies (GCG) * International Writing Centre * Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ZMF) * Center of Modern Humanities (ZTMK) * Forum for Interdisciplinary Religious Studies (FIRSt) Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Informatics * Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen (BCCN) * European Neuroscience Institute (ENI) * Geoscience Centre * Göttingen Center for Molecular Biosciences (GZMB) * International Center for Advanced Studies of Energy Conversion (ICASEC) * Leibniz-ScienceCampus Primate Cognition * Center for Computational Sciences * Centre of Biodiversity and sustainable Land Use * Center for Integrated Breeding Research * Centre for Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain (CNMPB) * Center for Systems Neuroscience * Centre for Statistics (ZfS) Law, Economic Sciences, and Social Sciences * Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research (cege) * Courant Research Centre Poverty, Equity and Growth in Developing Countries * Göttingen Center for Genderstudies (GGG) * Diversity Research Institute * Interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Development (IZNE) * Center for Social Science Methods (MZS) * Centre for Empirical Research into Teaching and Schools (ZeUS) * Centre for Medical Law Associated Institutes * Academic Confucius Institute (AKI) * Information Network of Departments of Dermatology (IVDK) * Institute of Sugar Beet Research * Institute of Applied Plant Nutrition (IAPN) * Sociological Research Institute (SOFI) * Institute for Economics in Small Business Economics


Academics


Reputation and rankings

Within the framework of the 2006–07 German Universities Excellence Initiative, it won funding for its future concept "Tradition, Innovation, Autonomy," its graduate school "Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences," and its research cluster "Microscopy at the Nanometer Range." In the 2012 Excellence Initiative, Göttingen succeeded in obtaining funds for its graduate school "Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences" and its research cluster "Microscopy at the Nanometer Range", but failed in its bid for future concept financing. In September 2018, Göttingen succeeded in gaining funds only for its research cluster "Multiscale Bioimaging", and failed in the other applications. Consequently, Göttingen would no longer be eligible for the fourth round of future concept financing across the country in 2019. As of 2002, the University of Göttingen was associated with 44 Nobel laureates according to an official count released by the University of Göttingen in that year. By this number alone, the University of Göttingen ranked among global top 15. The most recent Nobel laureates associated with the university are Klaus Hasselmann (
Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
, 2021), Stefan Hell (
Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
, 2014), and
Thomas C. Südhof Thomas Christian Südhof (; born December 22, 1955), ForMemRS, is a German-American biochemist known for his study of synaptic transmission. Currently, he is a professor in the School of Medicine in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Phys ...
(
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
, 2013). Klaus Hasselmann received his PhD in physics from the University of Göttingen in 1957. Stefan Hell has been a lecturer (in Privatdozent capacity) at the University of Göttingen since 2004 and the director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in the Göttingen Campus since 2002. Thomas Südhof, currently a professor at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, worked on his doctoral thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in the lab of British biochemist Victor P. Whittaker and received his PhD in medical science from the University of Göttingen in 1982. As of 2021, four out of sixteen in-office Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court (german: Bundesverfassungsgericht; abbreviated: '), Germany's supreme constitutional court, are affiliated with the University of Göttingen: two of them ( Andreas Paulus & Christine Langenfeld) are, currently, professors at the Faculty of Law of the University of Göttingen, while two others (Ines Härtel & Henning Radtke) obtained their PhD in law (Dr.iur) from the University of Göttingen. Also in 2021, Georg Nolte, a former professor of public international law at the University of Göttingen, took office as Judge of the International Court of Justice on behalf of the
Federal Republic of 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 between ...
. However, Göttingen has declined overall in other international rankings in recent years. For example, in the Shanghai Ranking (ARWU) of 2018, it was ranked 99th, while in 2004 it was ranked 79th. More surprisingly, according to the
Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'' (often referred to as the THE Rankings) is an annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' (THE) magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarel ...
, Göttingen was previously ranked 43rd in 2011, but was ranked only 123rd in 2019.


Partner institutions

Within the Göttingen Campus the university is organizationally and personally interlinked with the following independent and semi-independent institutions: * Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry ( Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute) * Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine * Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, formerly Max Planck Institute for Flow Research *
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften'') is located in Göttingen, Germany. It is one of 83 institutes in the M ...
, formerly
Max Planck Institute for History The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften'') is located in Göttingen, Germany. It is one of 83 institutes in the M ...
* Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, formerly
Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (abbreviation: MPS; german: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung) is a research institute in astronomy and astrophysics located in Göttingen, Germany, where it relocated in February 201 ...
*
German Primate Center The German Primate Centre (German: Deutsches Primatenzentrum, DPZ, founded in 1977) is a non-profit independent research and service institute located in Göttingen. It is a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community and funded by ...
– Leibniz Institute for Primate Research * German Aerospace Center


Exchange programs

As Germany is a member of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
, university students have the opportunity to participate in the Erasmus Programme. The university also has exchange programs and partnerships with reputable universities outside Europe such as
University of Technology Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...
in Australia, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Fudan University in China, Tokyo University in Japan and the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, in the United States.


Summer school

The university organizes summer courses for international and local students. One of the courses are in Data Science, a two-week summer school. It aims at advanced MA- and beginning PhD students from any discipline who are interested in learning about the many facets of data science. In a series of lectures, the participants will be introduced to the field of data science from different vantage points. Practical sessions will allow students to apply different theories and methods in practice, both individually and in teams. The Social Program includes different events such as sightseeing tours, hiking trips or a joint barbecue. The summer school 2019 took place at the historic Alte Mensa building.


Traditions

The most famous tradition of the university is that PhD students who have just passed their '' Rigorosum'' (oral doctoral examination) or dissertation defense sit in a wagon – decorated with flowers and balloons and accompanied by relatives and friends, drive around the inner city and arrive at the Marktplatz – the central square where the old town hall and the Gänseliesel statue are located. The "newly born doctor" shall climb up to the statue of Gänseliesel (a poor princess in an old fairy tale who was compelled to keep geese by a wicked woman and later regained her identity), kiss the Gänseliesel and give bouquets to her.


Student life

There is an old saying about life in Göttingen, still inscribed in Latin nowadays on the wall of the entrance to the Ratskeller (the restaurant located in the basement of the old town hall): la, Extra Gottingam non est vita, si est vita, non est ita (''There is no life outside Göttingen. Even if it is life, it is no life like here''). The university offers eight snack shops and six ''Mensas'' serving lunch at low prices for the students. One ''Mensa'' also provides dinner for students.


Notable people

Notable people that have studied or taught at Georg-August University include the American banker J. P. Morgan, the seismologist Beno Gutenberg, the endocrinologist
Hakaru Hashimoto was a Japanese doctor and medical scientist of the Meiji and Taishō periods. He is best known for publishing the first description of the disease that was later named Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Biography Hashimoto was born on 5 May 1881, in th ...
, who studied there before
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, and several notable Nobel laureates like Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg. Heinrich Heine, the famous German poet, studied law and was awarded the degree of Dr.iur. Anthropologist
Marlina Flassy Marlina Flassy (born 1968) is an Indonesian anthropologist, who is the first woman to hold a deanship at Cenderawasih University, and is the first woman and indigenous Papuan to be appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences t ...
earned her doctorate there, before becoming the first woman and indigenous Papuan to be appointed Dean at Cenderawasih University. Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher and sociologist, pursued his study here in Göttingen. Later, Richard von Weizsäcker, the former
President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
, earned his Dr.Jur. here.
Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
, the former Chancellor of Germany, also graduated from the school of law in Göttingen.
Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...
, later diplomat and Prime Minister of Austria, and
Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (, also , ; ; 22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin, which was named afte ...
, who later established the University of Berlin,
Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
, the German philosopher. The
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among th ...
had taught here and compiled the first German Dictionary. In the 19th century,
Gustav von Hugo Gustav Hugo (23 November 1764 – 15 September 1844) was a German jurist. Biography Hugo was born at Lörrach in Baden. From the gymnasium at Karlsruhe he passed in 1782 to the University of Göttingen, where he studied law for three years. ...
and Rudolf von Jhering, a jurist who created the theory of culpa in contrahendo and wrote ''Battle for Right'', taught here and maintained the reputation of the faculty of law, as well as Otto von Bismarck, the main creator and the first Chancellor of the second
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
. The German inventor of the jet engine, Pabst von Ohain, also studied aerodynamics under Ludwig Prandtl.
Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...
, the philosopher and known as the father of
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
, taught here. Max Weber, the sociologist studied here for one term. Carl Friedrich Gauss taught here in the 19th century. Bernhard Riemann, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and a number of significant mathematicians made their contributions to mathematics here. Professor Gunther Heinrich von Berg, Doctor of Law taught at the University 1794 to 1800 and later entered politics. File:Carl Friedrich Gauss.jpg, Carl Friedrich Gauss
File:Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann.jpeg, Bernhard Riemann
File:Hilbert.jpg, David Hilbert
File:Felix Klein.jpeg, Felix Klein
File:Caratheodory constantin.jpg, Constantin Carathéodory
File:Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet.jpg, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet
File:JROppenheimer-LosAlamos.jpg, J. Robert Oppenheimer
File:Friedrich Wöhler Stich.jpg, Friedrich Wöhler
File:Heinrich-heine 1.jpg, Heinrich Heine
File:Grimm-Hanau.JPG,
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among th ...

File:Schopenhauer.jpg,
Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

File:RudolfvonIhering2.jpg, Rudolf von Jhering
File:Otto von Bismarck 1873.jpg, Otto von Bismarck
File:Richard von Weizsäcker.jpg, Richard von Weizsäcker
File:Gerhardschroeder01c.jpg,
Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

File:Max Weber 1894.jpg, Max Weber
File:JuergenHabermas.jpg, Jürgen Habermas
File:JohnvonNeumann-LosAlamos.gif,
John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest c ...

File:Gottlieb Burckhardt.jpg, Gottlieb Burckhardt
File:Rudolf-Sohm.jpg, Rudolph Sohm
File:William Graham Sumner from left.jpg,
William Graham Sumner William Graham Sumner (October 30, 1840 – April 12, 1910) was an American clergyman, social scientist, and classical liberal. He taught social sciences at Yale University—where he held the nation's first professorship in sociology—and be ...

File:Noether.jpg, Emmy Noether
File:Edward Teller (1958)-LLNL.jpg, Edward Teller
File:August Weismann.jpg, August Weismann
File:Emil Wiechert.jpg,
Emil Wiechert Emil Johann Wiechert (26 December 1861 – 19 March 1928) was a German physicist and geophysicist who made many contributions to both fields, including presenting the first verifiable model of a layered structure of the Earth and being among the ...

File:Sommerfeld1897.gif, Arnold Sommerfeld
File:Prandtl portrait.jpg, Ludwig Prandtl
File:Theodore von Karman crop.jpg, Theodore von Kármán
File:JohnPierpontMorgan.jpg,
J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * ''Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Par ...

File:Maria Goeppert-Mayer.jpg, Maria Goeppert-Mayer physicist File:Hsu Tzong-li 2014.jpg, Hsu Tzong-Li Chief Justice & President of Judicial Yuan
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
File:Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar.jpg,
R. G. Bhandarkar Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar ( mr, रामकृष्ण गोपाळ भांडारकर) (6 July 1837 – 24 August 1925) was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer. Early life Ramakrishna Bhandarkar was bo ...
Orientalist File:Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (from Kennedy).jpg, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs pioneer of the gay rights movement File:Ohain.jpg,
Hans von Ohain Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (14 December 191113 March 1998) was a German physicist, engineer, and the designer of the first operational jet engine. Together with Frank Whittle he is called the "father of the jet engine". His first test unit ra ...
German inventor of the jet engine


University buildings

File:University Library Göttingen.JPG File:Goe-University-PsyFaculty.JPG File:Goe.Uni.SUB.detail.02.JPG File:Goe.Uni.SUB.detail.05.JPG File:Goe UniNordbereich Physik.jpg File:Versuchsgut Uni Goettingen.jpg File:Mensa am Turm in Göttingen (2296776602).jpg File:AlteUniTurnundFechthalle.JPG File:ISH WC GoettingenUni3.jpg File:Mathematik Göttingen.jpg File:Mensa (Göttingen).JPG File:Goe Chemie 2007.jpg File:Klinikum Göttingen.JPG


See also

*
Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum The Center for Retrospective Digitization in Göttingen (german: Göttinger DigitalisierungsZentrum, GDZ) is an online system for archiving academic journals maintained by the University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the ...
* List of early modern universities in Europe * List of universities in Germany * List of forestry universities and colleges


References


Further reading

* Iggers, Georg G. ''The University of Göttingen, 1760–1800, and the Transformation of Historical Scholarship'' (Council on International Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1980). * Iggers, Georg G. "The University of Göttingen, 1760–1800, and the Transformation of Historical Scholarship" ''Storia della Storiografia'' (1982), Issue 2, pp 11–37. * Constance Reid, ''Hilbert'', Springer, 1996, .


External links


The University of Göttingen
– home page
Shame at Göttingen
detailing the 1933 purge
Scholars and Literati at the University of Göttingen (1603–1800)Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae – RETE
{{DEFAULTSORT:University Of Gottingen 1734 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Gottingen