The Göttingen Academy of Sciences (name since 2023 : )Note that the German ''Wissenschaft'' has a wider meaning than the English "Science", and includes Social sciences and Humanities. is the oldest continuously existing institution among the eight scientific academies in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, which are united under the umbrella of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. 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 town or city whose character is dominated by a college or university and their associated culture, often characterised by the student population making up 20 percent of the population of the community, bu ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. Its meeting room is located in the auditorium of the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

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; ; 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-elector of the Holy Roman Em ...

, who was also

Prince-Elector The prince-electors ( pl. , , ) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops. From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince- ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (

House of Hanover The House of Hanover ( ) is a European royal house with roots tracing back to the 17th century. Its members, known as Hanoverians, ruled Hanover, Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire at various times during the 17th to 20th centurie ...

), 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 and Jacob Winslow, he is sometimes r ...

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

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

in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Göttingen academy is the second-oldest after the Halle-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 local members (i.e., members from

Northern Germany Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hambur ...

) 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.

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

Notable members

* Heinrich Friedrich von Diez * Carl Friedrich Gauß *

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

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 formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

* Wilhelm Grimm * Stefan Hell *

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg (; ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics and a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. He pub ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

Wilhelm von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt (22 June 1767 – 8 April 1835) was a German philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1949, the university was named aft ...

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

* Erwin Neher * Bert Sakmann * Paul Gerhard Schmidt Current members include three

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

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 Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities Education in Göttingen Scientific organizations established in 1751 1751 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Non-profit organisations based in Lower Saxony