The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (german: Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen)Note that the German ''Wissenschaft'' has a wider meaning than the English "Science", and includes Social sciences and Humanities. is the second oldest of the seven academies of sciences in

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 betwee ...

. It has the task of promoting research under its own auspices and in collaboration with academics in and outside Germany. It has its seat in the

university town A college town or university town is a community (often a separate town or city, but in some cases a town/city neighborhood or a district) that is dominated by its university population. The university may be large, or there may be several s ...

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 ...

History

The '' Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften'' ("Royal Society of Sciences") was founded in 1751 by 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

Prince-Elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century onwards, the princ ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...

and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover), the German state in which Göttingen was located. The first president was the Swiss natural historian and poet

Albrecht von Haller Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the f ...

. It was renamed the "Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen" in 1939. Among the

learned societies A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership may ...

in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Göttingen academy is the second-oldest after the

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hal ...

-based Leopoldina (1652).

Organisation

The Academy is a '' Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts'' and has the task to serve academic research in its own work and in collaboration with researchers and institutions inside and outside Germany. Its members are divided into two classes, the Mathematical-Physical class and the Philological-Historical class. There are a maximum number of forty full members in each class and a maximum of one hundred corresponding members, elected from the rest of Germany and outside the country. The review and literature journal '' Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen'' has been published by the Academy since 1753 and is the oldest academic journal still published in the German-language area. The Academy belongs to the

Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities The Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (German: Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften) is an umbrella organisation for eight German academies of sciences and humanities. The member academies are: *Berlin-Brandenburg A ...

('' Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften'').

Prizes

The Academy awards the following prizes: * Lichtenberg Medal (''Lichtenberg-Medaille''), the highest award of the Academy * Dannie Heineman Prize (''Dannie-Heineman-Preis'') * Grimm Brothers Medal (''Brüder-Grimm-Medaille'') * Gauss Visiting Professorship (''Gauß-Professur der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen'') * Academy Prize of the Mathematical-Physical class (''Nachwuchspreis der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse''), since 2019 replacing the individual Academy Prizes for Biology, Chemistry and Physics * Academy Prize for the Humanities (''Preis für Geisteswissenschaften'') * Hans Janssen Prize (''Hans-Janssen-Preis''), the Academy Prize for Art History *

Hanns Lilje Johannes (Hanns) Ernst Richard Lilje (20 August 1899, in Hannover – 6 January 1977, in Hannover) was German Lutheran bishop and one of the pioneers of the ecumenical movement. Lilje was general secretary of the German Student Christian Movemen ...

Prize (''Hanns-Lilje-Preis''), the Academy Prize for Theology * Wedekind Prize (''Wedekind-Preis''), the Academy Prize for History * Wilhelm Joost Memorial Medal (''Wilhelm-Jost-Gedächtnismedaille''), the Academy Prize for Physicochemistry

Notable members

Heinrich Friedrich von Diez Heinrich Friedrich von Diez (2 September 1751 – 7 April 1817) was a German diplomat and orientalist. He was ennobled in 1789 by Frederick the Great for his diplomatic service as the Prussian chargé d'affaires to the Ottoman Empire. In his la ...

Carl Friedrich Gauß Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refe ...

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of t ...

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 ...

* Stefan Hell *

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematis ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...

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 ...

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German physicist, satirist, and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. He is remembered for ...

Erwin Neher Erwin Neher (; ; born 20 March 1944) is a German biophysicist, specializing in the field of cell physiology. For significant contribution in the field, in 1991 he was awarded, along with Bert Sakmann, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine fo ...

Bert Sakmann Bert Sakmann (; born 12 June 1942) is a German cell physiologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Erwin Neher in 1991 for their work on "the function of single ion channels in cells," and the invention of the patch c ...

Paul Gerhard Schmidt Paul Gerhard Schmidt (25 March 1937 – 25 September 2010) was a German medievalist and professor emeritus of medieval Latin philology. Biography Schmidt was born on 25 March 1937 in Pieske near Frankfurt (Oder). He took his abitur in 1956 at the ...

Current members include three Nobel Prize winners, throughout the history of the Academy, 74 of their members were awarded a Nobel Prize.

Notes

Literature

* Karl Arndt: ''Göttinger Gelehrte. Die Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in Bildnissen und Würdigungen 1751–2000''. 2 Bände. Wallstein, Göttingen 2001, . * Holger Krahnke: ''Die Mitglieder der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 1751–2001''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 246/Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 50). * Achim Link: ''Die Veröffentlichungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 1751–2001. Bibliographie mit Schlagwort-Katalog''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 245/Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 49). * Rudolf Smend, Hans-Heinrich Voigt (Hrsg.): ''Die Wissenschaften in der Akademie. Vorträge beim Jubiläumskolloquium der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen im Juni 2000''. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 247/Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, 3. Folge, Bd. 51). * Rudolf Smend (Hrsg.): ''Wissenschaft entsteht im Gespräch. 250 Jahre Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen''. Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, .

External links

*
The complete series (48 volumes)
of ''Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 1843–92, Göttingen, in der dieterichschen Buchhandlung. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gottingen Academy of Sciences Göttingen Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities Organisations based in Lower Saxony Scientific organizations established in 1751 1751 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire