The
Humboldt University of Berlin (
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) is
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
's oldest
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, founded in 1810 as the
University of Berlin (
Universität zu Berlin) by the liberal
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
n educational reformer and linguist
Wilhelm von HumboldtFriedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt , government functionary, diplomat, philosopher, founder of Humboldt Universität in Berlin, friend of Goethe and in particular of Schiller, is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of...
, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. From 1828 it was known as the
Frederick William University (
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität), later also as the
Universität unter den Linden. In 1949, it changed its name to
Humboldt-Universität in honour of both its founder Wilhelm and his brother, naturalist
Alexander von Humboldtwas a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt...
.
History
The first semester at the newly founded Berlin university occurred in 1810 with 256 students and 52 lecturers in faculties of law, medicine, theology and philosophy under rector Theodor Schmalz. The university has been home to many of Germany's greatest thinkers of the past two centuries, among them the subjective idealist philosopher
Johann Gottlieb FichteJohann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
, the theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, the absolute idealist philosopher
G.W.F. HegelGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism, and along with Immanuel Kant, one of the most influential philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment....
, the Romantic legal theorist Savigny, the pessimist philosopher
Arthur SchopenhauerArthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his atheistic pessimism and philosophical clarity...
, the objective idealist philosopher Friedrich Schelling, cultural critic
Walter BenjaminWalter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish Marxist philosopher-sociologist, literary critic, translator and essayist. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
, and famous physicists
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
and
Max PlanckMax Planck was a German physicist. He is considered to be the founder of the quantum theory, and thus one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.-Biography:Planck came from a traditional, intellectual family...
. Founders of Marxist theory
Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
and
Friedrich EngelsFriedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848...
attended the university, as did poet
Heinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
, German unifier
Otto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
,
Communist Party of GermanyThe Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period...
founder
Karl Liebknechtwas a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany.-Early life:...
,
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
Pan AfricanistPan-Africanism is a sociopolitical world view, philosophy, and movement which seeks to unify native Africans and members of the African diaspora into a "global African community"...
W. E. B. Du Bois and European unifier
Robert SchumanRobert Schuman was a noted French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...
, as well as the influential surgeon
Johann Friedrich DieffenbachJohann Friedrich Dieffenbach was a German surgeon.Dieffenbach studied theology at the universities at Rostock and Greifswald, and medicine at the Albertina university in Königsberg. From 1813 to 1815, he volunteered for the Befreiungskriege as a Jäger...
in the early half of the 1800s. The university is home to 29
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
winners.
The structure of German research-intensive universities, such as Humboldt, served as a model for institutions like
Johns HopkinsThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins also maintains full-time campuses elsewhere in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, China, and Singapore...
.
Enlargement
In addition to the strong anchoring of traditional subjects, such as science, law, philosophy, history, theology and medicine, Berlin University developed to encompass numerous new scientific disciplines.
Alexander von Humboldtwas a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt...
, brother of the founder William, promoted the new learning. With the construction of modern research facilities in the second half of the 19th Century teaching of the natural sciences began. Famous researchers, such as the chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann, the physicist
Hermann von HelmholtzHermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science...
, the mathematicians Ernst Eduard Kummer,
Leopold KroneckerLeopold Kronecker was a German mathematician and logician who argued that arithmetic and analysis must be founded on "whole numbers", saying, "God made the integers; all else is the work of man" . This put Kronecker in bitter opposition to some of the mathematical extensions of Georg Cantor,...
,
Karl WeierstrassKarl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass was a German mathematician who is often cited as the "father of modern analysis".- Biography :...
, the physicians
Johannes Peter MüllerJohannes Peter Müller , was a German physiologist, comparative anatomist, and ichthyologist not only known for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge.-Life:Müller was born in Koblenz....
, Albrecht von Graefe,
Rudolf VirchowRudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician...
and
Robert KochHeinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholera and for his development of Koch's postulates....
, contributed to Berlin University's scientific fame.
During this period of enlargement, Berlin University gradually expanded to incorporate other previously separate colleges in Berlin. An example would be the
CharitéThe Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
, the Pépinière and the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum. In 1717, King Friedrich I had built a
quarantineQuarantine is voluntary or compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease...
house for Plague at the city gates, which in 1727 was rechristened by the "soldier king"
Friedrich WilhelmThe German name Friedrich Wilhelm usually refers to several monarchs of the Hohenzollern dynasty:*Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg *Frederick William I , King in Prussia*Frederick William II {1744-1797), King of Prussia...
: "Es soll das Haus die Charité" (It is the house of Charity). By 1829 the site became Berlin University's medical campus and remained so until 1927 when the more modern University Hospital was constructed.
Berlin University stated a natural history collection in 1810, which, by 1889 required a separate building and became the Museum für Naturkunde. The preexisting Tierarznei School, founded in 1790 and absorbed by the university, in 1934 formed the basis of the Veterinary Medicine Facility (Grundstock der Veterinärmedizinischen Fakultät). Also the Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin (Agricultural College of Berlin), founded in 1881 was affiliated with the Agricultural Faculties of the University.
Third Reich
After 1933, like all German universities, it was transformed into a
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
educational institution. It was from the University's library that some 20,000
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s by "degenerates" and opponents of the regime were
taken to be burnedThe Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
on May 10 of that year in the Opernplatz (now the
BebelplatzThe Bebelplatz is a public square in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The square is on the south side of the Unter den Linden, a major east-west thoroughfare in the centre of the city. It is bounded to the east by the State Opera building , to the west by buildings of Humboldt University, and to...
) for a demonstration protected by the
SAThe , abbreviated SA , functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party...
that also featured a speech by
Joseph GoebbelsPaul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reichsminister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945...
. A monument to this can now be found in the center of the square, consisting of a glass panel opening onto an underground white room with empty shelf space for 20,000 volumes and a plaque, bearing an epigraph from an 1820 work by
Heinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
: "Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" ("That was only a prelude; where they burn books, they ultimately burn people").
The
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil ServiceThe Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was a law passed by the National Socialist regime on April 7 1933, two months after Adolf...
(German "Gesetzes zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums") resulted in 250
JewishJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
professors and employees were fired during 1933/1934 and numerous doctorates were withdrawn. Students and scholars and political opponents of Nazis were ejected from the university and often deported. During this time nearly one third of all of the staff were fired by the Nazis.
Reopening
The
Soviet Military Administration in GermanyThe Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
(SMAD) ordered (Befehl-Nr. 4) the opening of the university in January 1946. The SMAD wanted a redesigned Berlin University based on the Soviet model, however they insisted on the phrasing "newly opened" and not "re-opened" for political reasons. The president of the German Central Administration for National Education (DZVV), Paul Wandel, in his address at the January 29, 1946 opening ceremony, said: "I spoke of the opening, and not of the re-opening of the university. [...] The University of Berlin must effectively start again in almost every way. You have before you this image of the old university. What remains of that is nought but ruins." The teaching was limited to seven departments working in reopened, war-damaged buildings, with many of the teachers dead or missing. However, by the winter semester of 1946, the Economic and Educational Sciences Faculty had re-opened.
The Workers and Peasants Faculty (German:Arbeiter-und-Bauern-Fakultät) (ABF), an education program aimed at young men who, due to political or racial reasons, had been disadvantaged under the Nazis, was established the university during this time. This program existed at Berlin University until 1962.
The University Splits
The East-West conflict in the post-war Germany led to a growing communist influence in the university. This was controversial, and incited strong protests within the student body and faculty. Soviet
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
secret policeSecret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy to maintain national security against internal threats to the state....
arrested in March 1947 as a response. The Soviet Military Tribunal in
Berlin-LichtenbergLichtenberg is a locality of Berlin in the homonymous district of Lichtenberg. Until 2001 it was an autonomous district with the localities of Fennpfuhl, Rummelsburg, Friedrichsfelde and Karlshorst.- History :...
ruled the students were involved in the formation of a "resistance movement at the University of Berlin", as well as espionage, and were sentenced to 25 years of forced labor. From 1945 to 1948, 18 other students and teachers were arrested or abducted, many gone for weeks, and some taken to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and executed.
In the spring of 1948, after several University students with admission irregularities were withdrawn, the opposition demanded a Free University. Students, with support especially the Americans, the newspaper
Der TagesspiegelDer Tagesspiegel is a classical liberal German daily newspaper...
, and the Governing Mayor
Ernst ReuterErnst Rudolf Johannes Reuter was the German mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War.- Early years :...
in founded the
Free University of BerlinThe Free University of Berlin is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on humanities and social sciences and on health and natural sciences...
in
DahlemThis article refers to the neighborhood in Berlin. For other places with the same name, please see Dahlem .Dahlem is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in southwestern Berlin. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a part of the former borough of Zehlendorf...
(part of the American sector). This was closer to the students thought the founding ideals of freedom of teaching and research were. With the Latin motto: "Veritas - Iustitia - Libertas" (truth, justice, freedom) the ideological distance from the old Communist-dominated Berlin University was expressed simultaneously with a stylistic stamp (with the Berlin bear the torch of freedom) to remember their tradition. The decades-long division of the city into East and West Berlin finally cemented the division into two independent universities permanently.
East Germany
The communist party forced it to change the name of the university in 1949. Until the collapse of the East German regime in 1989, Humboldt University remained under tight ideological control of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity Party of Germany), or SED, which, by rigorously selecting students according to their conformity to the party line, made sure that no democratic opposition could grow on its university campuses. Its Communist-selected students and scholars did not participate to any significant degree in the East German democratic civil rights movements of 1989, and elected the controversial SED member and former
StasiThe Ministry for State Security, The Ministry for State Security, The Ministry for State Security, (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, commonly known as the Stasi [ˈʃtazi] (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official secret police of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered in...
spy
Heinrich FinkHeinrich Fink is a German theologian, university professor and politician of the Partei Die Linke.-Biography:Fink comes from an impoverished Bessarabian peasant family. The family was resettled to Poland on the basis of Himmler's emigration policy. Heinrich Fink joined the Freie Deutsche Jugend...
as the Director of the University as late as 1990.
Today
After the unification of East and West Germany, the university was radically restructured and all professors had to reapply for their professorships . The faculty was largely replaced with West German professors, among them the historian
Heinrich August WinklerHeinrich August Winkler is a German historian.After attending a Gymnasium in Ulm, he studied history, political science, philosophy and public law at Münster, Heidelberg and Tübingen. In 1970 he became professor at the Free University of Berlin. From 1972 to 1991 he was professor at the University...
. Today, the Humboldt University is a state university with a large number of students (37,145 in 2003, among them more than 4,662 foreign students) after the model of West German universities, and like its counterpart
Free University of BerlinThe Free University of Berlin is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on humanities and social sciences and on health and natural sciences...
.
Its main building is located in the centre of Berlin at the boulevard
Unter den LindenUnter den Linden is a boulevard in the center of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways...
. The building was erected on order by King Frederick II for his younger brother
Prince Henry of PrussiaFrederick Henry Louis , commonly known as Henry , was a Prince of Prussia. He also served as a general and statesman, and, in 1786, was suggested as a candidate for a monarch for the United States....
. Most institutes are located in the centre, around the main building, except the nature science institutes, which are located at
AdlershofAdlershof is a district in the borough Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. The area known today as the "City of Science, Technology and Media", was once known as the Johannisthal Air Field. Germany's first motorized aircraft took off from here at the beginning of the 20th century. Albatros,...
in the south of Berlin. Further, the university continues its tradition of a book sale at the university gates facing Bebelplatz. The books sold are reprints of those burnt during the Third Reich and is symbolic of the institution atoning for its participation. The University continues to serve the German community.
Library
When the Royal Library proved insufficient, a new library was founded in 1831, first located in several temporary sites. In 1871-1874 a library building was constructed, following the design of architect Paul Emanuel Spieker. In 1910 the collection was relocated in the building of the
Berlin State LibraryThe Berlin State Library is a library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.-Buildings:The State Library runs several premises, three of which are open for users, namely House 1 in #8 Unter den Linden street, House 2 in #33 Potsdamer Straße and the...
.
During the
Weimar PeriodThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
the library contained 831,934 volumes (1930) and was thus one of the leading university libraries in Germany at that time.
During the
Nazi book burningsThe Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
in 1933, no volumes from the university library were destroyed. Also, the loss through
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was comparatively small. In 2003, natural science related books were outhoused to the newly found librarly at the Campus
AdlershofAdlershof is a district in the borough Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. The area known today as the "City of Science, Technology and Media", was once known as the Johannisthal Air Field. Germany's first motorized aircraft took off from here at the beginning of the 20th century. Albatros,...
, which is dedicated solely to the natural sciences.
Since the premises of the State Library had to be cleared in 2005, a new library building is about to be erected close to the main building in the center of Berlin. The "Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm-Zentrum" will be finished in 2009. In the meantime, the collection once more is held at a temporary site.
In total, the university library contains about 6.5 million volumes and 9000 held magazines and journals and is one of the biggest university libraries in Germany. As a comparison, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
contains approximately 4.5 million volumes.
Notable alumni, professors and lecturers
- Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a center-left politician and the current President of Chile—the first woman to hold this position in the country's history. She won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right billionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera,...
(1951- ), Pediatrician and epidemiologist, President of the Republic of Chile.
- Azmi Bishara
Azmi Bishara , is an Arab Christian politician. A member of the Israeli Knesset representing the Balad party from 1996 until resigning in April 2007, Bishara is still the leader of that party...
(1956- ), Arab-Israeli politician.
- Bruno Bauer
Bruno Bauer was a German theologian, philosopher and historian.Bauer investigated the sources of the New Testament and concluded that early Christianity owed more to Greek philosophy than to Judaism....
(1809-1882), theologian, Bible critic and philosopher
- Jurek Becker
Jurek Becker was a Polish-born German writer, film-author and GDR dissident. His most famous novel is Jacob the Liar, which has been made into two films...
(1937-1997), writer (Jakob the LiarJakob the Liar is a 1999 drama film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban....
)
- Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
(1815-1898), first German chancellor
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer ( (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, a founding member of the Confessing Church...
(1906-1945), theologian and resistance fighter
- Max Born
Max Born was a German born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
(1882-1970), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1954
- Michael C. Burda
Michael Christopher Burda is an American macroeconomist and professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin.Since 1993 he has served as director of the Institute for Economic Theory II and since 2007 visiting professor at the European School of Management and Technology . He has also taught at...
, macroeconomist
- Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Cassirer was one of the major figures in the development of philosophical idealism in the first half of the twentieth century, a German Jewish philosopher. Coming out of the Marburg tradition of neo-Kantianism, he developed a philosophy of culture as a theory of symbols founded in a...
(1874-1945), philosopher
- Adelbert von Chamisso
Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet and botanist.He was born Louis Charles Adélaïde de Chamissot at the château of Boncourt at Ante, in Champagne, France, the ancestral seat of his family...
(1781-1838), natural scientist and writer
- Wilhelm Dilthey
Wilhelm Dilthey was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, student of hermeneutics, and philosopher...
(1833-1911), philosopher
- W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963), African-American activist and scholar
- Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich was a German scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy, and Nobel laureate. He is noted for curing syphilis and for his research in autoimmunity, calling it "horror autotoxicus"...
(1854-1915), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1908
- Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
(1879-1955), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1921
- Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of communist theory, alongside Karl Marx. Together they produced The Communist Manifesto in 1848...
(1820-1895), journalist and philosopher
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach was a German philosopher and anthropologist. He was the fourth son of the eminent jurist Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von Feuerbach...
(1804-1872), philosopher
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...
(1762-1814), philosopher
- Hermann Emil Fischer
Hermann Emil Fischer was a German chemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1902.-Early years:...
(1852-1919), founder of modern biochemistry, Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1902
- Werner Forßmann (1904-1979), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1956
- James Franck
James Franck was a German physicist and Nobel laureate .-Biography :Franck completed his Ph.D. in 1906 and received his venia legendi for physics in 1911, both at the University of Berlin, where he lectured and taught until 1918, having reached the position of extraordinarius professor...
(1882-1964), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1925
- Ernst Gehrcke
Ernst J. L. Gehrcke was a German experimental physicist. He was director of the optical department at the Reich Physical and Technical Institute. Concurrently, he was a professor at the University of Berlin...
(1878-1960), experimental physicist
- Jacob Grimm
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm , German philologist, jurist and mythologist, was born at Hanau, in Hesse-Kassel...
(1785-1863), linguist and literary critic
- Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.He was born in Hanau, Germany and in 1803 he started studying law at the University of Marburg, one year after his brother Jacob started there.In 1825 Wilhelm married a pharmacist's daughter; Henriette Dorothea Wild, also...
(1786-1859), linguist and literary critic
- Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber was a German chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his development for synthesizing ammonia, important for fertilizers and explosives. Haber, along with Max Born, proposed the Born–Haber cycle as a method for evaluating the lattice energy of an ionic solid...
(1868-1934), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1918
- Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn was a German chemist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry" and the "founder of the atomic age".-Early life:...
(1879-1968), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1944
- Sir William Reginald Halliday
Sir William Reginald Halliday was a historian and archaeologist who served as Principal of King's College London from 1928 to 1952....
(1886-1966), PrincipalThe Principal is the chief executive and the chief academic officer of a university or college in certain parts of the Commonwealth.-Scotland:In Scotland the Principal is appointed by the University Court or governing body of the University and will be chairman or president of the body of academics...
of King's College LondonKing's College London is a British higher education institution and co-founding constituent college of the University of London. Founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, its royal charter is predated, in England, only by those of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge...
(1928-1952)
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism, and along with Immanuel Kant, one of the most influential philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment....
(1770-1831), philosopher
- Heinrich Heine
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers most notably by Robert Schumann...
(1797-1856), writer and poet
- Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
(1901-1976), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1932
- Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science...
(1821-1894), physician and physicist
- Gustav Hertz (1887-1975), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1925
- Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), physicist
- Abraham Joshua Heschel
Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Warsaw-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians and Jewish philosophers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
(1907-1972) rabbi, philosopher, and theologian
- Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff was a Dutch physical and organic chemist and the winner of the inaugural Nobel Prize in chemistry. His research on chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, osmotic pressure and stereochemistry are among his most notable achievements...
(1852-1911), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1901
- Max Huber
Max Huber was an influential Swiss twentieth century graphic designer.Max Huber was born in Baar in 1919. He graduates from Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich under Hans Williman...
(1874-1960), international lawyer and diplomat
- Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland
Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Hufeland was a German physician. He is famous as the most eminent practical physician of his time in Germany and as the author of numerous works displaying extensive reading and a cultivated critical faculty.He was born at Langensalza, Thuringia and educated at...
(1762-1836), founder of macrobiotics
- Wilhelm von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Humboldt , government functionary, diplomat, philosopher, founder of Humboldt Universität in Berlin, friend of Goethe and in particular of Schiller, is especially remembered as a linguist who made important contributions to the philosophy of...
(1767-1835), politician, linguist, and founder of the university
- Alexander von Humboldt
was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt...
(1769-1859), natural scientist
- Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholera and for his development of Koch's postulates....
(1843-1910), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1905
- Albrecht Kossel
Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel was a German medical doctor.-Biography:Kossel was born in Rostock as the son of Prussian consul Albrecht Kossel and his wife Clara. In 1872, Kossel went to the University of Strasbourg to study medicine, where he visited lectures of Anton de Bary,...
(1853-1927), physician, Nobel Prize for medicine in 1910
- Arnold von Lasaulx
Arnold Constantin Peter Franz von Lasaulx was a German mineralogist and petrographer.He was born at Kastellaun near Coblenz, and educated at the University of Berlin, where he took his Ph. D. in 1868. In 1871 he became professor of mineralogy at Breslau, and in 1880 professor of mineralogy and...
(1839-1886) mineralogist and petrographerPetrography is a branch of petrology which focuses on detailed descriptions of rocks. Someone who studies petrography is called a petrographer. The mineral content and the textural relationships within the rock are described in detail. Petrographic descriptions start with the field notes at the...
- Max von Laue
Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. He was strongly opposed to National Socialism...
(1879-1960), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1914
- Wassily Leontief
Wassily Wassilyovitch Leontief , was an economist notable for his research on how changes in one economic sector may have an effect on other sectors. Leontief won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1973.-Early life:Wassily Leontief was born on August 5, 1905 in Munich, Germany as the...
(1905-1999), economist, Nobel Prize for economics in 1973
- Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany.-Early life:...
(1871-1919), socialist politician and revolutionary
- Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left," his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension...
(1898-1979), philosopher
- Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
(1818-1883), philosopher
- Ernst Mayr
Ernst Walter Mayr , was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist...
(1904-2005), biologist
- Lise Meitner
Lise Meitner was an Austrian-born, later Swedish physicist who studied radioactivity and nuclear physics.- Biography :...
(1878-1968), physicist, Enrico Fermi Award in 1966
- Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), composer
- Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
(1817-1903), historian, Nobel Prize for literature in 1902
- Max Planck
Max Planck was a German physicist. He is considered to be the founder of the quantum theory, and thus one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.-Biography:Planck came from a traditional, intellectual family...
(1858-1947), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1918
- Leopold von Ranke
Leopold von Ranke was a German historian of the 19th century, and frequently considered one of the founders of modern source-based history...
(1795-1886), historian
- Robert Remak
Robert Remak was a Polish/German embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist, born in Posen, Prussia. Dr. Remak obtained his medical degree from Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1838 specializing in neurology. He is best known for reducing Karl Ernst von Baer's four germ layers to three:...
(1815-1865), cell biologist
- Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854), philosopher
- Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher was a German theologian and philosopher known for his impressive attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional Protestant orthodoxy. He also became influential in the evolution of Higher Criticism...
(1768-1834), philosopher
- Bernhard Schlink
Bernhard Schlink is a German jurist and writer. He was born in Bethel, Germany, to a German father and a Swiss mother, the youngest of four children. Both his parents were theology students, although his father lost his job as a Professor of Theology due to the Nazis, and had to settle on being a...
(1944- ), writer, Der Vorleser (The ReaderThe Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997...
)
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe amongst his hasidim, was a prominent hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement...
(1902-1994), rabbi, philosopher, and theologian
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his atheistic pessimism and philosophical clarity...
(1788-1860), philosopher
- Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian theoretical physicist who achieved fame for his contributions to quantum mechanics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1933...
(1887-1961), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1933
- Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists. His neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations for sociological antipositivism, presenting pioneering analyses of social individuality and fragmentation, and of culture, which he described in terms of historical 'forms and contents'...
(1858-1918), philosopher and sociologist
- Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), rabbi, philosopher, and theologian
- Werner Sombart
Werner Sombart was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the “Youngest Historical School” and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century....
(1863-1941), philosopher, sociologist and economist
- Hans Spemann
Hans Spemann was a German embryologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1935 for his discovery of the effect now known as embryonic induction, an influence, exercised by various parts of the embryo, that directs the development of groups of cells into particular tissues...
(1869-1941), biologist, Nobel Prize for biology in 1935
- Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt , better known as Max Stirner , was a German philosopher, who ranks as one of the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism, post-modernism and anarchism, especially of individualist...
(1806-1856), philosopher
- Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...
(1890-1935), writer and journalist
- Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician...
(1821-1902), physician and politician
- Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German scientist, geologist, and meteorologist.He is most notable for his theory of continental drift , proposed in 1915, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth...
(1880–1930), scientist, geologist, and meteorologist, early "Continental Drift" theorist
- Karl Weierstraß (1815-1897), mathematician
- Wilhelm Heinrich Westphal (1882-1978), physicist
- Wilhelm Wien
Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien was a German physicist who, in 1893, used theories about heat and electromagnetism to deduce Wien's displacement law, which calculates the emission of a blackbody at any temperature from the emission at any one reference temperature.He also formulated an...
(1864-1928), physicist, Nobel Prize for physics in 1911
- Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff
Enno Friedrich Wichard Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was a German Classical Philologist. Wilamowitz, as he is known in scholarly circles, was a renowned authority on Ancient Greece and its literature.- Youth :...
(1848-1931), philologist
- Richard Willstätter
Richard Martin Willstätter was a German organic chemist whose study of the structure of plant pigments, chlorophyll included, won him the 1915 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Willstätter invented paper chromatography independently of Mikhail Tsvet.-Biography:Willstätter was born in to a Jewish family...
(1872-1942), chemist, Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1915
Organization
These are the 11 faculties into which the university is divided:
- Faculty of Law
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
- Faculty of Agriculture
Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
and HorticultureHorticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Some would say that horticulture is the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant...
- Faculty of Mathematics
Mathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and Natural Sciences I (BiologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
, ChemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
, PhysicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
)
- Faculty of Mathematics
Mathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and Natural Sciences II (GeographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, Computer ScienceComputer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems. It is frequently described as the systematic study of algorithmic processes that create, describe and transform...
, MathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
, PsychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
)
- Charité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
- Berlin University MedicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
- Faculty of Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
I (PhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
, HistoryHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
, European EthnologyEthnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific Discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, Department of LibraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
and Information ScienceInformation science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
)
- Faculty of Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
II (LiteratureLiterature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" , and therefore the academic study of literature is known as Letters...
, LinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, Scandinavian StudiesScandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies that covers topics related to Scandinavia and the Nordic countries, including their languages, literature, history, culture and society, in countries other than these. As described in the article on Scandinavia, that name...
, RomanceThe Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
literatures, English and American StudiesAmerican studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the United States. It incorporates the study of economics, history, literature, art, the media, film, urban studies, women's studies, anthropology, sociology, and culture of the United States, among...
, Slavic Studies, Classical PhilologyClassical philology is the study of the language systems of Latin, specifically ancient Latin, of Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. It is called classical philology due to the use of the term Classics to refer to the general studies of ancient Greece and Rome. Classical philology is also highly...
)
- Faculty of Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
III (Social SciencesThe social sciences are the fields of scientific knowledge and academic scholarship that study social groups and, more generally, human society. The social sciences initially were constituted of five fields: Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law; Education; Health; Economy and Trade; Art...
, Cultural StudiesCultural studies is an academic field which combines political economy, communication, sociology, social theory, literary theory, media theory, film/video studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy, museum studies and art history/criticism to study cultural phenomena in various societies...
/Arts, Asian/African Studies (includes Archeology), Gender StudiesGender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyzes the phenomenon of gender. Gender Studies is sometimes related to studies of class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and location....
)
- Faculty of Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
IV (Sport science, RehabilitationPhysical medicine and rehabilitation , or physiatry , is a branch of medicine which aims to enhance and restore functional ability and quality of life to those with physical impairments or disabilities. A physician who has completed training in this field is referred to as a physiatrist...
Studies, EducationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
, Quality ManagementQuality management can be considered to have three main components: quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement. Quality management is focused not only on product quality, but also the means to achieve it...
in EducationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
)
- Faculty of Theology
The term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
- Faculty of Economics
Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and Business Administration
Furthermore there are two independent institutes (Zentralinstitute) that are part of the university:
- Centre for British Studies
Part of Humboldt University of Berlin, the Centre for British Studies /Großbritannienzentrum is an interdisciplinary institute committed to teaching and research focused on the United Kingdom. In addition to interdisciplinary research projects and its postgraduate "Master in British Studies" ...
(in German: Großbritannienzentrum)
- Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural History)
See also
- List of Universities in Berlin
- Charité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
- Free University of Berlin
The Free University of Berlin is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on humanities and social sciences and on health and natural sciences...
- Technical University of Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin is located in Berlin, Germany....
- Hertie School of Governance
The Hertie School of Governance is the leading Public Policy school in Germany, and one of the leading policy institutes in Europe, located in the heart of Berlin, in the historic Quartier 110 in Friedrichstraße...
- Berlin University of the Arts
The Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a German university founded in 1975 with the merger of the Berlin State School of Fine Arts and the Berlin State School of Music and the Performing Arts. Its root institutions date back to the founding of the Akademie der Künste in 1696...
- Humboldt Museum
The Museum für Naturkunde , widely known as the Naturkundemuseum, occasionally as the Humboldt Museum of Berlin. It has a massive collection of more than 25 million zoological, paleontological, and minerological specimens, including more than ten thousand type specimens...
External links