University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in

Giessen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the Germany, German States of Germany, state () of Hesse, capital of both the Giessen (district), district of Giessen and the Giessen (region), administrative region of Giessen. The population is appro ...

, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the

German-speaking world This article details the geographical distribution of speakers of the German language, regardless of the legislative status within the countries where it is spoken. In addition to the Germanosphere () in Europe, German-speaking minorities are ...

. It is named after its most famous faculty member,

Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...

, the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertiliser. It covers the areas of arts/humanities, business, dentistry, economics, law, medicine, science, social sciences and veterinary medicine. Its

university hospital A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...

, which has two sites, Giessen and

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

(the latter of which is the teaching hospital of the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

), is the only private university hospital in Germany.

History

The University of Giessen is among the oldest institutions of higher educations in the German-speaking world. It was founded in 1607 as a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

university in the city of

Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt () was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse among the four sons of Landgrave Philip I. ...

because the all-Hessian ''Landesuniversität'' (the nearby

(''Philipps-Universität Marburg'') in

Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, also known as the Hessian Palatinate (), was a state of the Holy Roman Empire. The state was created in 1567 when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided upon t ...

(or Hesse-Cassel)) had become Reformed (that is,

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt Louis V of Hesse-Darmstadt (; 24 September 1577 – 27 July 1626) was the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1596 to 1626. Early life He was born on 24 September 1577 as the son of George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Magdalene of ...

, whence the university got its original name "Ludoviciana", founded his own institution of higher education in Giessen, which as a Lutheran institution had the primary function of ensuring the education of pastors and civil servants. Endowed with a charter issued by

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg), Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–16 ...

, on 19 May 1607, the university was allowed to proceed with instruction in October 1607. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, when Hesse-Darmstadt was able to take the area around Marburg for itself, the University of Giessen ceased instruction and was moved back to its more long-standing location in Marburg (1624/25). The

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire ...

led to the restoration of the old location and in 1650 to the relocation of the university to Giessen. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Ludoviciana was a typical small state university that then had the four common faculties (theology, law, medicine, and philosophy). The instruction was reasonable, with about 20 to 25 professors teaching several hundred students, the latter of which were mostly "Landeskinder". In the 18th century came gradual modernization of the curricula and reforms in the instruction, which were definitively influenced by the local lordly court in Darmstadt. The example for the reforms were both of the "model universities of the Enlightenment", the University of Halle, founded in 1694, and more still Georgia Augusta, founded in Göttingen in 1734/37. Indeed, all attempts at reform were from the start limited by the limited finances of Hesse-Darmstadt. The noteworthy creation of a Faculty of Economics (1777–1785) was ultimately born out of this financial hardship. In the Faculty of Economics, new practical subjects were brought together (

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, medical diagnosis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all a ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

, and cameral sciences), which the university was supposed to make "expedient" and "profitable". (One of the earliest courses of study in forestry in Europe.) After finishing studies in this Faculty, a number of these youths were able to gain recognition in the Faculties of Medicine and Philosophy. They established the unusually diverse course offerings that continue to exist to the modern day at the University of Giessen. The University of Giessen weathered the transition from the 18th to the 19th century unscathed and was still the only university of an enlarged territory, the

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

. Alongside Jena, Giessen was the prototype for the politicized Vormärz university, and the "Giessener Schwarzen" with

Karl Follen Charles (Karl) Theodor Christian Friedrich Follen (September 6, 1796 – January 13, 1840) was a German poet and patriot, who later moved to the United States and became the first professor of German at Harvard University, a Unitarian minister, ...

and

Georg Büchner Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose, considered part of the Young Germany movement. He was also a revolutionary and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchn ...

, marked the revolutionary spirit of this decade. With the appointment of the 21-year-old

in 1824 through the Grand Duchy—against the will of the university on the recommendation of

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 ...

—a new era in the natural sciences began, not only in Giessen. Young, promising scientists created a new impulse in their respective areas of knowledge; among these scientists were the antiquarian

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868) was a German classical philologist and archaeologist. Biography Welcker was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giesse ...

, the lawyer

Rudolf von Jhering Caspar Rudolph Ritter von Jhering (; also Ihering; 22 August 1818 – 17 September 1892) was a German jurist. He is best known for his 1872 book ''Der Kampf ums Recht'' (''The Struggle for Law''), as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a mo ...

, the theologian

Adolf von Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...

, the mathematician

Moritz Pasch Moritz Pasch (8 November 1843, Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland) – 20 September 1930, Bad Homburg, Germany) was a German mathematician of Jewish ancestry specializing in the foundations of geometry. He completed his Ph.D. at the Uni ...

and the physicist

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Wilhe ...

. At the turn of the 20th century, the Ludoviciana began to expand into a modern university. During this period, new clinics in human and veterinary medicine were established, and the university library received its first proper building. With the creation of the university's central building (inaugurated 1880) and the adjacent newly constructed facilities for chemistry and physics a new cultural centre was established on what was then the border of the city. The decisive backer of this project was the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, to whom the university bestowed out of thankfulness the honorary title of "Rector Magnificentissimus". In 1902 the student body surpassed one thousand. For the first time included in the student body were women, who since 1900 were admitted as guest students and starting in 1908 were admitted for regular study. After the different Hessian states were (re-)united in 1929, both universities became public universities of that German state. The University of Giessen now has almost 25,000 students and 5,853 employees, which together with the Giessen students of Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen, makes Giessen the most student-dominated German city. In December 2019 the university shut down all of its IT-servers after a "serious IT security incident". Hess State Prosecution Office investigated the case of a suspected hacker-attack.

Faculties and departments

* Faculty 01 – Law * Faculty 02 – Economics and Business Studies * Faculty 03 – Social Sciences and Cultural Studies * Faculty 04 – History and Cultural Studies * Faculty 05 – Language, Literature, Culture * Faculty 06 – Psychology and Sports Science * Faculty 07 – Mathematics and Computer Science, Physics, Geography * Faculty 08 – Biology and Chemistry * Faculty 09 – Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences and Environmental Management * Faculty 10 – Veterinary Medicine * Faculty 11 – Medicine

Campus

Although the university has no defined campus, buildings and facilities are grouped together according to their subject areas and situated in various locations around Giessen. Philosophikum II, for example is an area on the outskirts of the city bordering the city forest. A number of faculty buildings and lecture theaters are located there, including Audimax, a building containing several lecture halls whose atrium is often the venue for concerts and disco nights, locally known as "Uni-Party". File:Physik und ifz.jpg, Interdisciplinary Research Center (IFZ) with the physics buildings in the background File:Zeughaus - (Gießen, Mitte 2003).jpg, Zeughaus, a historic building in Giessen used by the agriculture departments and the university library File:Justus-liebig-universitaet klinikum chirurgie20071014.jpg, Surgery building of the university hospital File:2008-08_Gie%C3%9Fen_02.jpg, Department of Economics, Law and Business Studies File:2005-08_Gießen_-_JLU_-_Audimax2.jpg, Audimax, the large auditorium of the arts/humanities campus File:Uniklinikum Giessen.jpg, University hospital File:Gießen_Friedrichstr18_952.jpg, University eye clinic File:Giessen_Goethestrasse_58_f_60884.png, The student services building File:Gießen_Biomedizinisches_Forschungszentrum01_2011-08-22.jpg, The Biomedical Research Center (BFZ) File:Gießen_Heinrich-Buff-Ring01_2009-02-11.jpg, The chemistry building File:Justus-liebig-universitaet_universitaetsbibliothek20070805.jpg, The main university library Image:Uniklinikum Giessen.jpg, Giessen site

Rankings

According to the 2024

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

, the university was placed 396th globally and 22nd nationally. In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2023, it fell within the 351–400 bracket internationally and ranked between 34th and 36th at the national level. The 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) placed the institution in the 601–700 range globally, and between 37th and 40th nationally.

Notable faculty and alumni

Next to Liebig, famous professors at the university included the

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Georg Haas (who carried out the world's first human

hemodialysis Hemodialysis, American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, also spelled haemodialysis, or simply ''"'dialysis'"'', is a process of filtering the blood of a person whose kidneys are not working normally. This type of Kidney dialys ...

in Giessen in 1924), the theologian

, the lawyer

, the economist and statistician Etienne Laspeyres, the

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, the mathematicians

and

Alfred Clebsch Rudolf Friedrich Alfred Clebsch (19 January 1833 – 7 November 1872) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to algebraic geometry and invariant theory. He attended the University of Königsberg and was habilitated at Humboldt ...

, the gestalt psychologist

Kurt Koffka Kurt Koffka (; March 12, 1886 – November 22, 1941) was a German psychologist and professor. He was born and educated in Berlin, Germany; he died in Northampton, Massachusetts, from coronary thrombosis. He was influenced by his maternal unc ...

, the

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, the orientalists

Friedrich Schwally Friedrich Zacharias Schwally (10 August 1863 – 5 February 1919) was a German Orientalist with professorships at Strasbourg, Gießen and Königsberg. He held the degrees of PhD, Lic. Theol., Dr. Habil., and the Imperial honour of the Order of th ...

, Paul E. Kahle and

Eberhard Schrader Eberhard Schrader (7 January 1836 – 4 July 1908) was a German orientalist primarily known for his achievements in Assyriology. Biography He was born at Braunschweig, and educated at Göttingen under Ewald. In 1858 he won a university prize f ...

, and the former president of

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

Benjamin Mazar Benjamin Mazar (; born Binyamin Zeev Maisler, June 28, 1906 – September 9, 1995) was a pioneering Israeli historian, recognized as the "dean" of biblical archaeologists. He shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also at ...

. From 1901 to 1918 Hermann Friedrich Gmeiner was the first Professor for veterinary internal medicine at the Veterinary Faculty. Recent alumni in the area of politics include current

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the F ...

and former Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who has served as President of Germany since 2017. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again f ...

and

Brigitte Zypries Brigitte Zypries (born 16 November 1953) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Between 2017 and 2018, she served as Minister for Economics and Energy in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel; she was the f ...

, former Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy and former Federal Minister of Justice. Notable alumni of the university include organic chemist

August Kekulé Friedrich August Kekulé, later Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz ( , ; 7 September 1829 – 13 July 1896), was a German organic chemist. From the 1850s until his death, Kekulé was one of the most prominent chemists in Europe, especially ...

, X-ray physicist Simone Techert, health sociologis
Thomas Abel
romantic dramatist and revolutionary

, literary and political 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 ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Johann Jacob Dillenius Johann Jacob Dillen Dillenius (1684 – 2 April 1747) was a German botanist. He is known for his ''Hortus Elthamensis'' ("Eltham Garden") on the rare plants around Eltham, London, and for his ''Historia muscorum'' ("History of Mosses"), a natu ...

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both Atomic physics, atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nu ...

, the Rutherford

atomic model Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries. Initially, it referred to a hypothetical concept of ...

's creator, studied in Giessen. Alumnus

William Schlich Sir Wilhelm Philipp Daniel Schlich (28 February 1840 in Flonheim – 28 September 1925 in Oxford), also known as William Schlich, was a German-born forester who worked extensively in India for the British administration. As a professor at Coop ...

founded

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

's forestry program. Ruth Kajander was a psychiatrist who pioneered use of chlorpromazine as a treatment for schizophrenia.

Carl A. Schenck Carl Alwin Schenck (March 25, 1868 – May 17, 1955) was a German forester and pioneering forestry educator. When Schenck came to the United States to work for George W. Vanderbilt at the Biltmore Estate, he became the third formally trained fo ...

, who received his PhD in forestry from Giessen, founded the

Biltmore Forest School The Biltmore Forest School was the first school of forestry in North America. Carl A. Schenck founded this school of "practical forestry" in 1896 on George Washington Vanderbilt II, George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North ...

, the first such school in the United States.

Fitsum Assefa Fitsum Assefa Adela (, born 12 May 1979) is an Ethiopian teacher and politician who leads the FDRE Minister of Planning and Development since 16 October 2018. Fitsum also has been a member of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia's Board of directors ...

is an Ethiopian teacher and politician who leads the FDRE Minister of Planning and Development. Also Hans-Joachim Preuss, former Secretary General of

Welthungerhilfe Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e. V. – or Welthungerhilfe (; literally: World Hunger Help) for short – is a German non-denominational and politically independent non-profit and non-governmental aid agency working in the fields of development coop ...

and managing director of the giz (gtz) graduated and worked at the University of Giessen.

Points of interest

* Akademischer Forstgarten Gießen * Botanischer Garten Gießen, the university's historic

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. is ...

* University Hospital of Giessen and Marburg

References

External links

*
Scholars and Literati at the University of Gießen (1607–1800)Repertorium Eruditorum Totius Europae – RETE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giessen University

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...

Educational institutions established in the 1600s Forestry education Forestry in Germany 1607 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Universities and colleges in Hesse Buildings and structures in Giessen (district)