University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, it began instruction in 1737 and is recognized as the oldest university in Lower Saxony. Recognized for its historic and traditional significance, the university has affiliations with 47 Nobel Prize winners by its own count.
The University of Göttingen reached its academic peak from the late 19th to early 20th century, establishing itself as a major international center for mathematics and physics. During this period, scholars such as David Hilbert, Felix Klein, Max Born, and Ludwig Prandtl conducted influential research in mathematics, quantum mechanics, and aerodynamics. The university attracted international students, including prominent Americans such as Edward Everett, George Bancroft, John Lothrop Motley, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. This prominence was severely disrupted by the Nazi rise to power in 1933, when the "great purge" resulted in the dismissal or emigration of numerous faculty members, including many of Jewish origin or those opposed to the regime. The university was subsequently reopened under British control in 1945 and began a process of academic reconstruction.
Today, the University of Göttingen is a member of the U15 Group of major German research universities. It is also a part of prominent international and European academic networks such as The Guild, the ENLIGHT alliance, and the Hekksagon network. The university maintains close collaborations with leading Göttingen-based research institutions such as Max Planck Society, the Leibniz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, and the Helmholtz Association. With its extensive collection, the Göttingen State and University Library stands among Germany's largest libraries.
History
Inauguration
In 1734, King George II of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, commanded his Prime Minister in Hanover, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, to establish a university in Göttingen to spread the ideals of the Enlightenment. Napoleon famously remarked, "Göttingen belongs neither to a State, nor to Germany, and is the University of Europe".The initial university infrastructure was modest, comprising only a riding hall and a fencing house, with lectures held in the Paulinerkirche, Dominican monastery, or professors' homes. A university auditorium wasn't constructed until the 19th century.
18th–19th centuries
Throughout the 18th century, the University of Göttingen was renowned among German universities for its commitment to the free spirit and scientific exploration. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, a prominent scholar, held one of the first professorships dedicated to experimental physics in Germany from 1769 to 1799. By 1812, Göttingen had established itself as a modern, internationally recognized university, boasting a library with over 200,000 volumes. This period marked Göttingen's ascendancy in academic circles, emphasizing its role in fostering an environment conducive to scientific inquiry and innovation.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, 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, later diplomat and Prime Minister of Austria, and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who later established the University of Berlin. In the 19th century, Gustav Hugo, Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, and Georg Friedrich Sartorius, who taught law here, became the pioneers of the German Historical School of Jurisprudence. At the time, Göttingen was a very popular place for the study of law in Germany: Even the great German poet Heinrich Heine obtained a doctorate in law here in 1825. Otto von Bismarck, the main creator and the first Chancellor of the second German Empire, 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. 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. At the end of the 19th century, the famous civil law scholar Rudolf von Jhering, who created the theory of "culpa in contrahendo", remained a law professor in Göttingen until he died. Lassa Francis Lawrence Oppenheim, known as the father of the modern discipline of international law and author of the famous two-volume "International Law: A Treatise", earned his doctorate in law from the University of Göttingen in 1881.
Likewise, the Faculty of Theology in conjunction with other orientalists and ancient historians across the university became an international center for the study of religion and antiquity.
In 1809, Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation, became a student at the university, where he studied metaphysics and psychology under Gottlob Ernst Schulze, who advised him to concentrate on Plato and Kant.
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. Later, Max Weber, one of the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society, also studied history in Göttingen.
The Brothers Grimm, the best-known storytellers of folktales like "Cinderella", "The Frog Prince", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Snow White", taught here and compiled the first German dictionary.
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 historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, the orientalist Georg Heinrich August Ewald, the historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus, the physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber, and the philologist brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm ) – for protesting against the revocation by Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, of the liberal constitution of 1833 hurt the reputation of the city and the university.
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. The tradition began with Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was known as "the Prince of Mathematicians" and taught here in the 18th century. Thereafter, Dirichlet and Riemann took over the chair successively and made significant contributions in the fields of algebra, geometry, and number theory. 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.In 1903, its teaching staff numbered 121 and its students 1529. Edmund Husserl, a famous philosopher known as the father of phenomenology, moved to Göttingen to teach. Ludwig Prandtl joined the University of Göttingen in 1904, and developed it into a leader in fluid mechanics and in aerodynamics 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. Between 1921 and 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. 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. Oppenheimer, the American scientist and "father of the atomic bomb", was one of Max Born's most famous students and received his doctorate here.
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, 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, a politician and historian, received his PhD from the University of Göttingen in 1820.