The University of Duisburg-Essen () is a public research university in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, Germany. In the 2019 ''

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

'', the university was awarded 194th place in the world. It was originally founded in 1654 and re-established on 1 January 2003, as a merger of the Gerhard Mercator University of

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

and the university of

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

. It is based in both the cities of

and

, and a part of University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr. With its 12 departments and around 40,000 students, the University of Duisburg-Essen is among the 10 largest German universities. Since 2014, research income has risen by 150 percent. Natural science and engineering are ranked within the top 10 in Germany, and the humanities are within the top 20 to 30. Especially, the physics field is ranked in the top 1 in Germany.

History

Origins: University of Duisburg (1555)

The university's origins date back to the 1555 decision of

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

''Wilhelm V von Jülich-Kleve-Berg'', to create a university for the unified duchies at the

Lower Rhine Lower Rhine (, ; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bonn in Germany and the North Sea at Hook of Holland in the Netherlands, including the '' Nederrijn'' () within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta; alternat ...

. To this end, it was necessary to obtain a permission of the

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

and the pope. Although the permission of the pope was granted in 1564 and of the emperor in 1566, the university was founded about ninety years later in 1654, after the acquisition of the

Duchy of Cleves The Duchy of Cleves (; ) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged from the medieval . It was situated in the northern Rhineland on both sides of the Lower Rhine, around its capital Cleves and the towns of Wesel, Kalkar, Xanten, Emme ...

Frederick William The name Frederick William usually refers to several monarchs and princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty: * Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1620–1688) * Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1675–1713) * Frederick William I of ...

, Elector of Brandenburg. It opened on 14 October 1655 by Johannes Claudberg as their first rector. The university had four faculties: Theology, Medicine, Law and

Arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

. During its period of activity it was one of the central and leading universities of the western provinces of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. Only a few decades later the university was in competition with the much better equipped Dutch universities. Since only about one third of the population in the western provinces of Prussia were member of

The Reformed Church The Reformed Church is a historic Reformed church at 405 N. Main Street in Herkimer, Herkimer County, New York. It was built in 1835 and is a two-story, painted brick structure with a stone rear wing. It features a staged spire in the Federa ...

, most

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 ...

and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

citizens in the second half of the 18th century sent their sons to other universities. The university declined rapidly and was closed on 18 October 1818, due to a Cabinet Order of Friedrich Wilhelm III. At the same time, the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

was founded. Large parts of the Duisburg University Library were relocated to

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and formed the basis of the newly formed ''Bonn Library''. The

sceptre A sceptre (or scepter in American English) is a Staff of office, staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of regalia, royal or imperial insignia, signifying Sovereignty, sovereign authority. Antiquity Ancient Egypt and M ...

of the University of Duisburg was given to the University of Bonn, where it is still located today. In 1891, the ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Hüttenschule'' was relocated from

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

to Duisburg. Subsequently, the school was transformed into the ''Königlich-Preußischen Maschinenbau- und Hüttenschule'', and in 1938 was renamed to ''Public School of Engineering''. After a decision of the federal state government in 1960, the teacher training college of

Kettwig Kettwig is the southernmost borough of the city of Essen in western Germany and, until 1975, was a town in its own right. Kettwig is situated next to the Ruhr river, at a median height of 53 metres above sea level. It is the most recently incorp ...

was settled to Duisburg and was named ''Pedagogical University Ruhr''. In 1968, the university was founded again in Duisburg, related to the old one, bearing the name: ''Comprehensive University of Duisburg.'' Initially only small, the university was developed rapidly in the 1970s up to about 15,000 students. In 1972 the ''Pedagogical University Ruhr'' and the ''Public School of Engineering'', which was renamed in 1971 to University of applied sciences Duisburg. Other schools were also relocated to Duisburg. The University of Duisburg was then called ''Comprehensive University of Duisburg''. In 1994 the university was renamed Gerhard Mercator University. In 2003, Gerhard Mercator University merged with the University of Essen to form the University of Duisburg-Essen, which is today one of the largest universities in Germany with about 40,000 students.

Recent developments

In March 2007 the three universities of

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

and Duisburg-Essen founded the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr, which now includes more than 120,00 students and 1,300 professors and is modelled after the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

system. In May 2018, the three members of the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr launched the Research Academy Ruhr (RAR), an inter- and university overarching program for the development and support of young scientists. The program is funded by the State of North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW) and the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) with €800,000 over the next four years and an additional €1 million being added by the three participating members of the University Alliance.

Campus

The university has two main campus locations in Duisburg and Essen.

Faculties and Institutes

Main faculties

The University of Duisburg-Essen today has twelve

faculties Faculty or faculties may refer to: Academia * Faculty (academic staff), professors, researchers, and teachers of a given university or college (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a large department of a university by field of study (us ...

, listed below: * Faculty of

Art and Design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

* Faculty of

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

and

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

* Faculty of

Business Administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

and Economics ** Mercator School of Management – Faculty of Business Administration * Faculty of

Chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

* Faculty of Engineering ** Department of

Building science Building science is the science and technology-driven collection of knowledge to provide better indoor environmental quality (IEQ), energy-efficient built environments, and occupant comfort and satisfaction. ''Building physics, architectural sc ...

s ** Department of

Electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and Information technology ** Department of

Computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

s and Applied Cognitive Sciences ** Department of

Mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

and

Process engineering Process engineering is a field of study focused on the development and optimization of industrial processes. It consists of the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and laws of nature to allow humans to transform raw mate ...

** Department of Transport Systems and Logistics ** International Studies in Engineering * Faculty of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

* Faculty of Mathematics * Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Essen * Faculty of

Social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

s ** Institute for Political Sciences *** NRW School of Governance ** Institute for Educational sciences ** Institute for Development and Peace (INEF – Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden) ** Institute for Sociology * Faculty of

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

Central scientific institutes

* Centre for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CeNIDE) (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

) * German-French Institute for Automation and Robotics (IAR) * Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging * Essen College of Gender Studies (EKfG) * Institute for Experimental Mathematics (IEM) * Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities * Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST) * Institute for Labor/ Labour and Qualification (IAQ) * Interdisciplinary center for analytics on the nanoscale (ICAN) * Centre for Logistics and Transport (ZLV) * Centre for Medical Biotechnology (ZMB) * Centre for Water and Environmental Research (ZMU) * Centre for empirical research in education (ZeB)

The NRW School of Governance

The NRW School of Governance is a central institution within the Institute for

Political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and was founded in 2006 under the direction of Karl-Rudolf Korte. It aims, through research and teaching, to promote the scientifically sound understanding of political processes (in

). It does so by educating and training students in three main programs: # Masters program: " Political management,

Public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

and

Public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

" # Part-time masters program: "Public Policy" # Doctoral School: Scholarship and Excellence Programs at the Department of Political Science and also through the use of various other education modules.

Associated institutes

* paluno, The Ruhr Institute for Software Technology * German Textile Research Centre North-west (DTNW) * Development Centre for Ship Technology and Transport Systems (DST) * Asia-Pacific Economic Research Institute (FIP) * Institute of Energy and Environmental Technology (IUTA) * Institute for Labor/ Labour and Qualification (IAQ) * Institute of Mobile and Satellite Communication Technology (IMST) * Institute for Prevention and Health Promotion (IPG) * Institute of Science and Ethics (IWE) * IWW Water Centre (IWW) * Rhine-Ruhr Institute for Social Research and Political Consulting (RISP) * Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History (StI) * Centre for Fuel Cell Technology (ZBT) The university has a

Confucius Institute Confucius Institutes (CI; ) are public educational and cultural promotion programs of the state of China. The stated aim of the program is to promote Chinese language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally, and facilita ...

Student body

it is the German university with the largest number of Chinese international students. Overall, it has a 16% composition of international students. The majority of such students are enrolled as engineering or economics majors.

People

Rectors

* 01.2003–09.2003 – Heiner Kleffner, Founding commissioner and head of section * 10.2003–12.2006 – Lothar Zechlin, Founding rector * 01.2007–03.2008 – Lothar Zechlin, 1. rector * 04.2008–03.2022 – Ulrich Radtke, 2. rector * 04.2022 –

Barbara Albert Barbara Albert (born in Vienna) is an Austrian writer, film-producer and film-director. She studied filmmaking at the Wiener Filmakademie. Her first film to become known to a larger audience was '' Nordrand'', which describes the reality of ...

Mercator-Professorship Award

The University of Duisburg-Essen awards the ''Mercator-Professur'' to individuals who are well known for their social and scientific engagement. So far, recipients of the ''Mercator-Professur'' have been: * 1997:

Hans-Dietrich Genscher Hans-Dietrich Genscher (21 March 1927 – 31 March 2016) was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affa ...

, politician ( FDP), former foreign minister and

vice-chancellor of Germany The vice-chancellor of Germany, officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The Chancellor of Germany, chancellor is the head of government and, according to the constitution, gives thi ...

* 1998:

Siegfried Lenz Siegfried Lenz (; 17 March 19267 October 2014) was a German writer of novels, short stories and essays, as well as dramas for radio and the theatre. In 2000 he received the Goethe Prize on the 250th Anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's b ...

, writer * 1999:

Jan Philipp Reemtsma Jan Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma (born 26 November 1952) is a German literary scholar, author, and patron who founded and was the long-term director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Reemtsma lives and works mainly in Hamburg. In 199 ...

, literary scholar. * 2000: Jutta Limbach, jurist and politician ( SPD) * 2001:

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He ha ...

, filmmaker. * 2002:

Ulrich Wickert Ulrich Wickert (born 2 December 1942) is a Japanese-born German journalist. He is one of the best-known broadcasters in Germany. Early life Born in Tokyo, Japan, Wickert grew up in Heidelberg and Paris as a result of his father Erwin Wickert ...

, journalist, chief anchor for

tagesthemen ''Tagesthemen'' () is one of Germany's main daily television news magazines, presented by journalists Helge Fuhst, Aline Abboud, Ingo Zamperoni and . Second only to the 20:00 '' Tagesschau'' ("Review of the Day") ''Tagesthemen'' ("Issues of the ...

* 2003: Daniel Goeudevert French writer, management consultant. * 2004:

Walter Kempowski Walter Kempowski (; 29 April 1929 – 5 October 2007) was a German writer. Kempowski was known for his series of novels called ''German Chronicle'' ("Deutsche Chronik") and the monumental ''Echolot'' ("Sonar"), a collage of autobiographical rep ...

, writer. * 2005:

Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...

, politician ( CDU), former President of the Federal Republic of Germany. * 2006: Necla Kelek, social scientist * 2007:

Hanan Ashrawi Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi (; born 8 October 1946) is a Palestinian politician, activist, and scholar. Ashrawi began her career at Birzeit University. Beginning in the 1990s, Ashrawi was a member of the PLO's Leadership Committee, serving as t ...

, legislator, activist, and scholar * 2008:

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Christiane (Janni) Nüsslein-Volhard (; born 20 October 1942) is a German developmental biologist and a 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate. She is the only woman from Germany to have received a Nobel Prize in the sciences. N� ...

, biologist, winner of the

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, acco ...

* 2009: Peter Scholl-Latour, journalist and publicist * 2010:

Alice Schwarzer Alice Sophie Schwarzer (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal '' EMMA''. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-ab ...

, publisher and feminist * 2011:

Udo Di Fabio Udo Di Fabio (born 26 March 1954, in Duisburg) is a German jurist. He is a former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Germany's highest court, where he served as a member of the Second Senate from December 1999 until December 2 ...

, former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court * 2012: Wolfgang Huber, bishop, former chairman of the Council of the

Protestant Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of the count ...

* 2013:

Margarethe von Trotta Margarethe von Trotta (; born 21 February 1942)Hans Helmut Prinzler, ''Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895–1994'' (Stuttgart and Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 1995), p. 149. is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been ref ...

, film director. * 2015: Götz Werner, founder of

dm-drogerie markt dm-drogerie markt (usually abbreviated as dm) is a chain of retail stores headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, offering cosmetics, healthcare items, household products and health food and drinks. The company was founded in 1973, when it opened ...

* 2016: Karl Lehmann, cardinal prelate, former chairman of the

Conference of the German Bishops The German Bishops' Conference () is the episcopal conference of the bishops of the Roman Catholic dioceses in Germany. Members include diocesan bishops, coadjutors, auxiliary bishops, and diocesan administrators. History The first meeting of th ...

* 2017:

Alfred Grosser Alfred Grosser (1 February 1925 – 7 February 2024) was a German-born French writer, sociologist and political scientist. Although his Jewish family had to move from Frankfurt to France in 1933, he focused on Franco-German cooperation after Wor ...

* 2018:

Joachim Gauck Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. During the P ...

* 2021:

Antje Boetius Antje Boetius (born 5 March 1967) is a German marine biologist. She is a professor of geomicrobiology at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, University of Bremen.

* 2022:

Ottmar Edenhofer Ottmar Georg Edenhofer (born 8 July 1961) is a German economist who is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on climate change policy, environmental and energy policy, and energy economics. His work has been heavily cited. Edenhofer curr ...

* 2023: Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim * 2024:

Carolin Emcke Carolin Emcke (born 18 August 1967) is a German author and journalist who worked for from 1998 to 2006, often writing from areas of conflicts. From 2007 to 2014, she worked as an international reporter for . Her book ''Echoes of Violence – Lett ...

Further professors include Jette Joop,

Kai Krause Kai Krause (born 14 March 1957) is a German software and graphical user interface designer, best known for founding MetaCreations Corp., for his Kai's Power Tools series of products, and for his contributions to graphical user interface design. ...

and

Bruce Ames Bruce Nathan Ames (December 16, 1928 – October 5, 2024) was an American biochemist who was a professor of biochemistry and Molecular Biology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a senior scientist at Children's Hospital ...

Poets in residence

The institution of the poet in residence is not missing at any university in the US. In Germany, the University of Duisburg-Essen was the first and, for a long time, only university that followed the American example and brought contemporary authors to the university as guest lecturers for readings and seminars. In 1975, Martin Walser was the first poet in residence to hold his poetics lectures in Essen. Since the summer semester 2000, the following personalities have worked as poet in residence at the University of Essen (later Duisburg-Essen): * Ss 2000: Emine Sevgi Özdamar * Ws 2000/01: Kirsten Boie * Ss 2001:

Volker Braun Volker Braun (born 7 May 1939 in Dresden) is a German writer. His works include ''Provokation für mich'' (''Provocation for me'') – a collection of poems written between 1959 and 1964 and published in 1965, a play, ''Die Kipper'' (''The Dumpe ...

* Ws 2001/02: Robert Gernhardt * Ss 2002:

Mike Nicol Mike Nicol (born 1951 in Cape Town) is a South African writer and journalist. Biography After completing his studies in Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Joz ...

* Ss 2003: Friedrich Christian Delius * Ws 2003/04: Brigitte Burmeister * Ss 2004: Georg Klein * Ws 2004/05:

Andreas Steinhöfel Andreas Steinhöfel (; born 14 January 1962) is a German author for children and young adult books, and a translator. Biography Andreas Steinhöfel grew up with two brothers in the Middle Hesse small town Biedenkopf, and did his GCE Advanced ...

* Ss 2005:

Yōko Tawada Yōko Tawada (多和田葉子 ''Tawada Yōko'', born March 23, 1960) is a Japanese writer currently living in Berlin, Germany. She writes in both Japanese and German. She is a former writer-in-residence at MIT and Stanford University. Tawada has ...

* Ws 2005/06: Dagmar Leupold * Ss 2006: Friedrich Ani * Ws 2006/07:

Hans-Ulrich Treichel Hans-Ulrich Treichel (born 12 August 1952) is a Germanist, novelist and poet. His earliest published books were collections of poetry, but prose writing has become a larger part of his output since the critical and commercial success of his fir ...

* Ss 2007:

Terézia Mora Terézia Mora (; born 5 February 1971) is a German Hungarian writer, screenwriter and translator. Early life and education Terézia Mora was born in Sopron, Hungary, to a family with German roots and grew up bilingual. She moved to Germany a ...

* Ws 2007/08: Zafer Şenocak * Ss 2008: Jürgen Lodemann * Ws 2009/10:

Klaus Händl Klaus Händl (born September 17, 1969) is an Austrian actor, writer and director. Biography Händl was born in Rum, Tyrol, Austria. He started his theater career as an actor in Vienna's Schauspielhaus. His first theatrical production, which h ...

* Ws 2010/11: Judith Kuckart * Ss 2011: Norbert Hummelt * Ws 2011/12:

Norbert Scheuer Norbert Scheuer (born December 16, 1951, in Prüm, West Eifel, Westeifel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Rheinland-Palatinate) is a German author. He earns a living as an IT system programmer for Deutsche Telekom and now lives in Keldenich, Kall, North Rhi ...

* Ss 2012: Guy Helminger * Ws 2012/13: Reinhard Jirgl * Ss 2013:

Antje Rávic Strubel Antje is a female name. It is a Low German and Dutch diminutive form of Anna. Once a very common name in the northern part of the Netherlands, its popularity has steadily declined since 1900.Bernhard Jaumann * Ws 2014/15:

Kathrin Röggla Kathrin Röggla (born 1971) is an Austrian writer, essayist and playwright. She was born in Salzburg and lives in Berlin since 1992 but moved to Cologne in 2020. She has written numerous prose works, including essays, as well as dramas and radio ...

* Ss 2015: Marion Poschmann * Ws 2016/16: Klaus Modick * Ss 2016: Lukas Bärfuss * Ws 2016/17: Dorothee Elmiger, Reto Hänny * Ss 2017: Christof Hamann * Ws 2017/18: Jörg Albrecht,

Kathrin Passig Kathrin Passig (born 4 June 1970) is a German author. Biography Passig was born in 1970 in Deggendorf, a small town in Lower Bavaria. She is editor and programmer of the blog "Riesenmaschine" which received the Grimme Online Award 2006, aw ...

, Jonas Lüscher, Rainer Komers * Ss 2018: Peter Wawerzinek * Ws 2018/19:

Peter Stamm Peter Stamm (born 18 January 1963 in Münsterlingen) is a Swiss writer. His prize-winning books have been translated into more than thirty languages. For his entire body of work and his accomplishments in fiction, he was nominated for the Inte ...

* Ss 2019: Esther Kinsky * Ws 2019/20: Alida Bremer * Ws 2020/21: Sabine Gruber * Ss 2021: Micheal Roes * Ws 2021/22:

Nadja Küchenmeister Nadja Küchenmeister (born 18 April 1981 in East-Berlin) is a German poet and writer. Life and work Küchenmeister grew up in Berlin where she still lives. She studied German studies and sociology at the Berlin Institute of Technology as wel ...

, Lars Ruppel * Ss 2022: Jan Wagner * Ws 2022/23: Jacqueline Thör, Tobias Steinfeld, Morten Hübbe, Sandra da Vina * Ss 2023: Natalka Sniadanko * Ws 2023/24: Anja Kampmann * Ss 2024: Caren Jeß * Ws 2024/25: Christoph Peters Earlier poets in residence (since the winter semester 1975/76) include

Jurek Becker Jurek Becker (; – 14 March 1997) was a Polish-born German writer, screenwriter and East German dissident. His most famous novel is ''Jacob the Liar'', which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during World War II for about two y ...

, Wilhelm Genazino,

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

, Günter Herburger,

Rolf Hochhuth Rolf Hochhuth (; 1 April 1931 – 13 May 2020) was a German author and playwright, best known for his 1963 drama ''The Deputy'', which insinuates Pope Pius XII's indifference to Hitler's extermination of the Jews, and he remained a controversial ...

, Heinar Kipphardt,

Cees Nooteboom Cornelis Johannes Jacobus Maria "Cees" Nooteboom (; born 31 July 1933) is a Dutch novelist, poet and journalist. After the attention received by his novel '' Rituals'' (''Rituelen'', 1980), which won the Pegasus Prize, it was the first of his n ...

, Peter Rühmkorf,

Martin Walser Martin Johannes Walser (; 24 March 1927 – 26 July 2023) was a German writer, known especially as a novelist. He began his career as journalist for ''Süddeutscher Rundfunk'', where he wrote and directed audio plays. He was a member of Group 47 ...

and .

Academics

International cooperation

Erasmus program

The university is part of the

ERASMUS Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

exchange program.

International university cooperations

The university also cooperates with several other international institutions of higher education.

= University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE)'s main partner universities

= University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE)'s faculty partner institutions

= Besides the main partnering universities, various faculty of the University Essen-Duisburg also cooperate with international universities and specific faculties or programmes (click "show" to expand).

University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr

As part of the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr network the university is involved in running three liaison offices in Moscow, New York City and

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. The offices aim to foster international academic exchange between the local and Ruhr area and are responsible for their respective continents.

International network

The university is also part of the AURORA Network of European universities.

Further cooperation programmes

The university is part of the IS:link (Information Systems Student Exchange Network), the VDAC (Verband der Deutsch-Amerikanischen Clubs / Federation of German-American Clubs e.V.) and offers the internationally oriented, doctoral programme "ARUS – Advanced Research in Urban Systems", which is based on previous academic achievements in selected fields within the Joint Centre "Urban Systems".

Rankings

In the

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 ...

for 2024, the institution placed between 771 and 780 globally, corresponding to the 42nd rank nationally. The

for 2023 positioned the university in the 251-300 bracket worldwide, and between 27th and 32nd place within the national context. The ARWU World ranking for 2023 listed the university within the 301-400 tier globally, and between the 20th and 24th rank nationally. Measured by the number of top managers in the German economy, University of Duisburg-Essen ranked 15th in 2019. In May 2018 the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (CHE – Center for Higher Education Development) rankings placed the university in the top ranks in different categories and fields, like the Physics department for seminar and lecture content and Biology, Computer Science, Math, Medicine and Sports for excellent programs and support in the early stages of starting at Essen-Duisburg. In the European Commission-funded U-Multirank system the university as a whole was ranked as "excellent" in the research categories "External research income", "Top cited publications", "Post-doc positions", in the knowledge transfer categories "Income from private sources", "Spin-offs" and "Publications cited in patents". In the category international orientation Essen-Duisburg was rated "excellent" for their "International academic staff".

Notable people

Alumni

Notable alumni of the university include: Klee essen-Suzie-Kerstgens

* Peter Bialobrzeski, photographer and a professor of photography * Rainer Blasczyk, physician for transfusion medicine * Cornelius Boersch, serial entrepreneur and business angel * Osagie Ehanire, Nigerian medical doctor and politician *

Andreas Gursky Andreas Gursky (born 15 January 1955) is a German photographer and professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany. He is known for his Large format (photography), large format architecture and Landscape photography, landscape colour photog ...

, artist and photographer * Ina Hartwig, writer, literature critic and academic lecturer * Bärbel Höhn, politician * Klaus-Dieter Hungenberg, chemist * Petra Kammerevert, politician * Suzie Kerstgens, singer *

Moritz Körner Moritz Körner is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He is member of the board of the Free Democratic Party in Germany. Political career Career in stat ...

(born 1990), politician of the Free Democratic Party,

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

* Hannelore Kraft, politician and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westfalia (NRW) * Heike Mauer, gender theorist *

Dieter Nuhr Dieter Herbert Nuhr (born 29 October 1960) is a German kabarett artist, comedian, author and television presenter. Nuhr's stage program ''nuhr in Berlin'' (the title is a pun; for explanation, see below) is the first German stand-up comedy whic ...

, cabaret artist * Frank T. Rothaermel, American academic * Peter Voswinckel, physician, medical historian and author *

Gorden Wagener Gorden Wagener (born 3 September 1968) is a German car designer, and is the chief design officer for Mercedes-Benz Group AG. He was born in Essen. Career Wagener studied Industrial Design at the University of Duisburg-Essen (1990–1993), after ...

, car designer, and is the chief design officer for Daimler AG

Points of interest

* Botanischer Garten der Universität Duisburg-Essen, the university's

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 ...

References

External links

*
Official website of the University of Duisburg-Essen

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duisburg-Essen, University Of

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen () is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded 194th place in the world. It was originally ...

Universities and colleges in North Rhine-Westphalia Educational institutions established in the 1640s 1818 disestablishments Educational institutions established in 2003 1654 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Universities and colleges formed by merger in Germany 2003 establishments in Germany