Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg
Encyclopedia
The Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (Heidelberg University, Ruperto Carola) is a public
research
university
located in Heidelberg
, Baden-Württemberg
, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire
. Heidelberg has been a coeducational institution since 1899. Today the university consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral
levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities
and the Coimbra Group
.
Rupert I, Elector Palatine
established the university when Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate. Consequently, it served as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War
, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century. Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and developed into a "stronghold of humanism
", and a center of democratic thinking. At this time, Heidelberg served as a role model for the implementation of graduate school
s at American universities. However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP university during the Nazi era
(between 1933 and 1945). It later underwent an extensive denazification
after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.
Modern scientific psychiatry
, psychopharmacology
, psychiatric genetics
, environmental physics
, and modern sociology
were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. The university has an emphasis on research and has been associated with 30 Nobel Prize
laureates. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities, and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorate
s successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International student
s from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body. Heidelberg comprises two major campuses: one in Heidelberg
's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld
quarter on the outskirts of the city. The university's noted alumni include eleven domestic and foreign Heads of State
or Heads of Government
.
At the end of the 14th century, the city of Heidelberg
, capital of the Palatinate since 1225 had approximately inhabitants, but the Great Schism
in 1378, which split European Christendom
into two hostile groups made it possible for this relatively small city to get its own university. The Great Schism was initiated by the election of two pope
s after the death of Pope Gregory XI
in the same year. One successor resided in Avignon
(elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far-reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave.
Rupert I
recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia
, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull
for the Foundation of a university. After having received on October 23, 1385 the permission from pope Urban VI to create a school of general studies , the final decision to found the university was taken on June 26, 1386 at the behest of Rupert I
, Count Palatine of the Rhine. As specified in the papal charter, the university was modelled after University of Paris
and included four faculties: philosophy
, theology
, jurisprudence
, and medicine
.
On October 18, 1386, a special Pontifical High Mass
in the Heiliggeistkirche
was the ceremony that established the university. On October 19, 1386, the first lecture was held, making Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany. In November 1386, Marsilius of Inghen
was elected first rector
of the university. The rector seal motto was semper apertus—i.e., "the book of learning is always open."
The university grew up quickly and in March 1390, 185 students were enrolled at the university.
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Between 1414 and 1418, theology and jurisprudence professors of the university took part in the Council of Constance
and acted as counselors for Louis III
, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm. This resulted in establishing a good reputation for the university and its professors.
Due to the influence of Marsilius, the university initially taught the nominalism
or via moderna. In 1412, both realism and the teachings of John Wycliffe
were forbidden at the university, but later around 1454, the university decided that the realism
or via antique would also be taught, thus introducing two parallel ways .
The transition from scholastic
to humanistic culture was effected by the chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, Conrad Celtes
, Jakob Wimpfeling
, and Johann Reuchlin
. Æneas Silvius Piccolomini
was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms
, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II
. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV
permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III
sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.
Martin Luther
's disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518 made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading Reformationists
in Southwest Germany. With the Palatinate's turn to the Reformed faith, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine
, converted the university into a calvinsitic
institution. In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism
was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism
stepped beside Calvinism
as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter
, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian
taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a cultural
and academic
center. However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War
in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal
wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina
(the library
of the university) was stolen from the University Cathedral and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King Louis XIV, who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.
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As a consequence of the late Counter-Reformation
, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists
in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward, and the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy
from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory
in the neighboring city of Mannheim
, where Jesuit Christian Meyer
labored as director. In connection with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from 300-400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution
, and particularly because of the Treaty of Lunéville
, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.
, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the name of Ruprecht I
. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself at its head as rector, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism
found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano
, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck
, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages
in speech, poetry, and art.
The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism
and the movement in favor of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser
and Georg Gottfried Gervinus
were the guides of the nation in political history
. The modern scientific schools of medicine
and natural science
, particularly astronomy
, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school. The university as a whole became the role model for the transformation of American liberal arts college
s into research universities, in particular for the then-newly established Johns Hopkins University
. Heidelberg's professors were important supporters of the Vormärz
revolution and many of them were members of the first freely elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848
. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit, which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber
, Ernst Troeltsch
and a circle of colleagues around them.
In the Weimar Republic
, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic
thinking, coined by professor
s like Karl Jaspers
, Gustav Radbruch
, Martin Dibelius
and Alfred Weber
. Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi
physicist Philipp Lenard
was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau
, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.
s at Universitätsplatz ("University Square") and Heidelberg was eventually infamous as a NSDAP university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit", and many professors paid homage to the new motto. The university was involved in Nazi eugenics
: forced sterilizations were carried out at the women's clinic and the psychatric clinic then directed by Carl Schneider
was involved in Action T4
Euthanasia
program.
After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification
.
Since Heidelberg was spared from destruction during World War II, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity".
During the 1960s and 1970s, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA
. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld area, a large campus for medicine
and natural sciences was constructed.
Today, about 28,000 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. There are 4,196 full time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2007, the university was appointed University of Excellence within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation
in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small network of exceptionally well-funded universities, which are expected to generate a strong international appeal.
Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg
, Mannheim
, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism
, and its old town and castle
are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport
.
The University of Heidelberg's facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.
The so-called New University is regarded as the center of the Old Town Campus. It is situated at the Universitätsplatz (University Square) in the pedestrian zone, in direct vicinity to the University Library and to the main administration buildings. The New University was officially opened in 1931. Its erection was largely financed by donations of wealthy American families, such as the Goldman, Sachs, Morgan, Chrysler and Ford families, as well as other families, in line with a fundraising campaign of Jacob Gould Schurman, an alumnus of the University of Heidelberg and former United States Ambassador to Germany
. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries and work spaces for their respective students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.
The New Campus is located in the Neuenheimer Feld district. It is now the largest part of the university, and the largest campus for natural sciences and life science in Germany. Almost all science faculties and institutes, the medical school, University Hospital Heidelberg
, and the science branch of the University Library are situated on the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Several independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center
and two of the Max-Planck-Institutes
have settled there. The New Campus is also the seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The old part of town can be reached by tram
and bus in about 10 minutes. The Neuenheimer Feld campus has extensive parking lots for faculty and student vehicles for long term and short term parking, as well as visitors and patients of the various university hospitals. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is not located on either campus, but on the Philosophers' Walk, separated from the Old Town by the River Neckar, and some 2 km (1.2 mi) away from the New Campus. It also maintains observatory facilities on the Königstuhl Mountain
.
) in the inner-city suburb of Heidelberg-Bergheim
. Since March 2009 it has housed the institutes economics, political science, and sociology (together the Heidelberg University Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
) that formerly resided at the Old Town campus. The Bergheim campus offers one lecture theatre, several seminar rooms, the most modern of the university libraries, and a cafe (rather than the full cafeteria present in the other campuses).
The University Library is the main library of the university, and constitutes together with the decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes, the integral university library system comprising approximately 6.7 million printed books. It is Germany's most frequently used library, and it is currently placed 1st in a ranking of Germany's best libraries. The University Library's stocks exceeded one million in 1934. Today, it holds about 3.2 million books, about 500,000 other media such as microfilms and video tapes, as well as 10,732 scientific periodicals. Moreover, it holds 6,600 manuscripts, most notably the Codex Manesse
, 1,800 incunabula, 110,500 autographs, and a collection of old maps, paintings, and photographs. The further 83 decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes hold another 3.5 million printed books. In 2005, 34,500 active users of the University Library accessed 1.4 million books a year. The conventional book supply is complemented by numerous electronic services. Around 3,000 commercial scientific journals can be accessed via e-journal. The University Library of today traces its roots back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen
in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche, then the University Cathedral. Since 1978, the science branch of the University Library serves the institutes of natural sciences and medicine on the New Campus.
The University of Heidelberg founded a Center for Latin America in Santiago, Chile
in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by the University of Heidelberg or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
and the University of Chile. The University of Heidelberg has arranged cooperation agreements with both of these universities. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education
. It also coordinates the activities of the University of Heidelberg in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation. The university is now also represented by a liaison office in New York. Its main tasks include promoting existing collaborations, building up new networks, creating joint study programs, and maintaining and expanding academic contacts with American universities.
' of the university, headed by rector Bernhard Eitel
. The rectorate consists of the chancellor
, Marina Frost, who is the head of the central administration and responsible for the university's budgeting, and three pro-rectors, who are responsible for international relations, teaching and communication, and research and structure respectively.
The Senate
is the 'legislative branch' of the university. The rector and the members of the rectorate are senators ex officio, as are also the deans
of the faculties, as well as the medical and managing directors of the University Hospital
, and the university's equal opportunities officer
. Another 20 senators are elected for four-year terms, within the following quotas: eight university professors; four academic staff; four delegates of the student body; and four employees of the university administration.
The University Council
is the advisory board to the aforementioned entities and encompasses, among others, the former Israel
i Ambassador
to Germany Avi Primor
, as well as CEOs of German industries.
, most faculties now offer Bachelor's
, Master's
, and Ph.D.
degrees in order to comply with the new European degree standard. Notable exceptions are the undergraduate programs in law
, medicine
, dentistry
and pharmacy
, from which students still graduate with the State Examination, a central examination at Master's level held by the State of Baden-Württemberg.
. As of 2008, the faculty encompasses 4,196 full-time staff, excluding visiting professors as well as graduate
research
and teaching assistant
s. 673 faculty members have been drawn from abroad. Heidelberg University also attracts more than 500 international scholars as visiting professors each academic year. The university enrolls a total of 26,741 students, including 5,118 international students. In addition there are 1,467 international exchange students at Heidelberg. 23,636 students pursue taught degrees, 4,114 of whom are international students, and 919 are international exchange students. 3,105 students pursue a doctoral degree, including 1,004 international doctoral students and 15 international exchange students. In 2007, the university awarded 994 Ph.D. degrees.
ranked Heidelberg 1st in Germany and 14th in Europe. QS World University Rankings
ranked Heidelberg 53rd overall in the world, moving up four places from its position in the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings. In the current rankings of broad subject areas, Heidelberg ranks globally 30th in natural sciences, 39th in arts & humanities, 38th in life sciences and biomedicine, 93nd in social sciences, and 256th in Engineering & IT. In previous years, Heidelberg ranked between 17th and 43rd in life science and biomedicine, between 22nd and 45th in science, between 41st and 61st in arts and humanities, and between 54th and 78th in social sciences.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities
ranks Heidelberg 3rd nationally, 18th in Europe, and 63rd in the world.
The University Ranking by Academic Performance 2010 (URAP Ranking) by Middle East Technical University
ranks Heidelberg 2nd nationally, 12th in Europe and 54th globally.
Academyrank.com Index ranks Heidelberg 2nd nationally, 6th in Europe and 33th globally.
The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (HEEACT Ranking), issued by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan
, placed Heidelberg 2nd in Germany, 12th in Europe, and 61st globally.
The Scientometrics
Journal Gatekeepers Indicator Ranking (ISSRU Ranking), created by Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, ranks the University of Heidelberg at the top of German universities, 12th in Europe, and 73rd globally.
The Times Higher Education Ranking
2010 ranks Heidelberg 3rd in Germany, 18th in Europe and 83rd in the world.
According to the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators compiled by the European Commission
, Heidelberg ranks 4th nationally and 9th in Europe.
The German Center for Higher Education Development
Excellence Ranking, which measures academic performance of European graduate programs in biology, chemistry, economics, mathematics, physics, political sciences, and psychology, placed Heidelberg in the European excellence group for biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and psychology.
Ranked by the number of Nobel Laureates affiliated with the university at the time of Nobel Prize
announcement, Heidelberg is placed 1st in Germany, 4th in Europe and 13th in the world by 2008.
The Times
(London) referred to the University of Heidelberg as "the oldest and most eminent in the country of Luther and Einstein" and as "the jewel of German learning".
The academic year is divided into two semesters. The winter semester runs from October 1-March 31 and the summer semester from April 1-September 30. Classes are held from mid-October to mid-February and mid-April to mid-July. Students can generally begin their studies either in the winter or the summer semester. However, there are several subjects students can begin only in the winter semester. The standard time required to finish a Bachelor's degree
is principally six semesters, and a further four semesters for consecutive Master's degrees. The normal duration of Ph.D.
programs for full-time students is 6 semesters. The overall period of study for an undergraduate degree is divided into two parts: a period of basic study, lasting at least four semesters, at the end of which students must sit a formal examination, and a period of advanced study, lasting at least two semesters, after which students take their final examinations.
, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.3%. Most selective are the undergraduate programs in clinical medicine, molecular cell biology, political science, and law, with acceptance rates of 3.6%, 3.8%, 7.6% and 9.1% respectively. The selection is exercised by allocating the best qualified applicants to a given number of places available in the respective discipline, thus depending primarily on the chosen subjects and the grade point average of the Abitur
or its equivalent. For some majors and minors in humanities, particularly for those which are conceptually non-vocational like classics, philosophy, and ancient history, unrestricted admission is granted if certain criteria (e.g. relevant language proficiency) are fulfilled, as applications regularly do not exceed the number of places available. For prospective international undergraduate students, a language test for German — such as the DSH
— is required. Admission to consecutive Master's programs always requires at least an undergraduate degree equivalent to the German grade "good" (i.e., normally B+ in American, or 2:1 in British terms). Except for the Master's programs taught in English, a language test for German must be passed as well. Ph.D. admission prerequisite is normally a strong Master's-level degree, but specific admission procedures vary and cannot be generalized. International applicants usually make up considerably more than 20% of the applicant pool and are considered individually by the merits achieved in their respective country of origin.
Since 2007, Heidelberg charges tuition fees of approximately € 1,200 p.a., including student union
fees, for undergraduate, consecutive Master's, and doctoral programs, for both EU and non-EU citizens, and for any subject area. The usual housing costs for on-campus dormitories range from € 2,200 to € 3,000 p.a.
In the fiscal year 2005, the University of Heidelberg had an overall operating budget
of approximately € 856 M, consisting of approximately € 413 M government funds, approximately € 311 M basic budget, and approximately € 132 M from external grants. The university spent approximately € 529 M in payroll costs and approximately € 326 M in other expenditures. Additionally, the university will receive another € 150 M in research grants, distributed over 5 years from 2007 onwards, due to the German Universities Excellence Initiative
. In the fiscal year 2007, the university for the first time raised approximately € 19 M through tuition fees, exclusively to further improve the conditions of study. Only approximately € 9.5 M of these were spent at the end of the year and the rectorate had to urge the faculties to make use of their additional means.
Among historical scientific achievements of Heidelberg researchers features prominently the invention of spectroscopy
, and of the Bunsen burner
; the discovery of chemical elements Caesium
and Rubidium
; the identification of the absolute point of ebullition
; and the identification and isolation of nicotine
as the main pharmacologically active component of tobacco
. Modern scientific psychiatry
; psychopharmacology
; psychiatric genetics
; environmental physics
; and modern sociology
were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Almost 800 dwarf planets, the North America Nebula
, and the return of Halley's Comet have been discovered and documented at institutes of the Heidelberg Center for Astronomy. Moreover, Heidelberg researchers invented the process of Plastination
to preserve body tissue, conducted the first successful transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells, and recently developed a new strategy for a vaccination
in order to prevent certain forms of cancer.
Today, the university puts an emphasis on natural sciences and medicine, but it retains its traditions with highly ranked faculties of humanities and social sciences. The Marsilius Kolleg, named after Marsilius of Inghen
, was established in 2007 as a Center for Advanced Study to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and research especially between the sciences and the humanities. Other institutes such as the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
, the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies
, and the South Asia Institute
also build a bridge between faculties and thus emphasize the concept of a comprehensive university.
Noted regular publications of the Center for Astronomy include the Gliese catalogue of nearby stars
, the fundamental catalogues FK5
and FK6 and the annual published Apparent places
, a high precision catalog with pre-calculated positions for over 3,000 stars for each day. The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research
publishes the annual Conflict Barometer, which describes the recent trends in global conflict developments, escalations, de-escalations, and settlements. Regular publications by the Max Planck Institute for International Law include the "Heidelberg Journal for International Law", the "Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law"; the "Journal of the History of International Law"; the "Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law"; and the semi-annual bibliography "Public International Law".
The German Research Foundation
(DFG) currently funds twelve long-term Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) with a duration of up to 12 years at Heidelberg, four Priority Programs (SPP) with a duration of six years, two Research Units (FOR) with a duration of up to six years, as well as numerous individual projects at the university's faculties and institutes. As a result of the German Universities Excellence Initiative
, two Clusters of Excellence are funded with € 6.5 M each - "Cellular Networks: From Molecular Mechanisms to Quantitative Understanding of Complex Functions", and "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows"
Heidelberg is a founding member of the League of European Research Universities
, the Coimbra Group
, and the European University Association
, and it participates in 7 European exchange schemes for researchers and students, such as ERASMUS
. Furthermore it is actively involved in the development of the German-speaking Andrássy University of Budapest
, and co-runs the school of German law at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków
. Beyond Europe, the university and its faculties maintain specific agreements with 58 partner universities in Africa, the Americas
, Asia, Australia and the Russian Federation. In total, the Higher Education Compass of the German Rector's Conference lists staff and student exchange agreements as well as research cooperations with 236 universities worldwide.
to volleyball
, courses in 11 different martial arts
, 26 courses in physical fitness
and body building, 9 courses in health sports from aquapower to yoga
, and groups in 12 different dance styles. Moreover equestrian sports, sailing
, rowing
, skiing
in the French alps, track and field
, swimming
, fencing
, cycling
, acrobatics
, gymnastics
, and much more. Most of the sports are free of charge. Heidelberg's competition teams are particularly successful in soccer, volleyball, equestrian sports, judo, karate, track and field, and basketball. The track and field team regularly achieves best placings at the German university championships. The University Sports Club men's basketball team, USC Heidelberg
, is the championship record holder, won 13 national championships, and is the only university team playing at a professional level in the second division of Germany's national league
.
Moreover, the university supports a number of student groups in various fields of interest. Among them are the student parliament AStA
, the student councils of the 12 faculties, four drama clubs, the university orchestra Collegium Musicum
, four choirs, six student media groups, six groups of international students, nine groups of political parties and NGO's, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines, four clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, a chess club, a literature club, a debate society, two student management consulting groups, and four religious student groups.
Heidelberg's student newspaper "ruprecht" is — with editions of more than 10,000 copies — one of Germany's largest student-run newspapers. It was recently distinguished by the MLP Pro Campus Press Award as Germany's best student newspaper. The jury, consisting of journalists of major newspapers, commended its "well balanced, though critical attitude", and its "simply great" layout which "suffices highest professional demands". The ruprecht is financed entirely by advertising revenues, thus retaining its independence from the university's management. Some very renowned journalists emerged from ruprechts editorial board.
However, the critical online student newspaper "UNiMUT", which is run by the joint student council of the faculties, criticized the ruprecht often for being conformed, and exceedingly layout-oriented.
Heidelberg is also home of Germany's oldest student law review
"StudZR". The journal is published quarterly, at the beginning and end of each semester break, and is circulated throughout all of Germany.
Heidelberg hosts 34 student corporations
, which were largely founded in the 19th century. Corporations are to some extent comparable to the fraternities in the US. As traditional symbols (couleur
) corporation members wear colored caps and ribbons at ceremonial occasions (Kommers) and some still practice the traditional academic fencing
, a kind of duel, in order to "shape their members for the challenges of life". In the 19th and early 20th century, corporations played an important role in Germany's student life. Today, however, corporations include only a relatively small number of students. Their self-declared mission is to keep academic traditions alive and to create friendships for life. The corporations' often representative 19th century mansions are present throughout the Old Town.
Heidelberg
is not least famous for its student night life. Besides the various parties regularly organized by the student councils of the faculties, the semester opening and closing parties of the university, the dormitory parties, and the soirées of Heidelberg's 34 student fraternities, the city, and the metropolitan area
even more, offers night life for any taste and budget. Adjacent to University Square is Heidelberg's major night life district, where one pub is placed next to each other. From Thursday on, it is all night very crowded and full of atmosphere. Moreover, Heidelberg has five major discos. The largest of them is located at the New Campus. The city of Mannheim
, which is about three times as large as Heidelberg, is a 15-minute train ride away, and offers an even more diverse night life, having a broad variety of clubs and bars well-frequented by both Heidelberg's and Mannheim's student community.
Alumni and faculty of the university include many founders and pioneers of academic discipline
s, and a large number of internationally acclaimed philosophers, poets, jurisprudents
, theologians
, natural
and social scientists. 30 Nobel Laureates
, at least 18 Leibniz Laureates
, and two "Oscar" winners have been associated with the University of Heidelberg. Eight Nobel Laureates received the award during their tenure at Heidelberg.
Besides several Federal Ministers of Germany
and Prime Minister
s of German States
, five Chancellors of Germany have attended the university, the latest being Helmut Kohl
, the "Chancellor of the Reunification". Heads of State
or Government
of Belgium, Bulgaria
, Greece, Nicaragua
, Serbia
, Thailand
, a British Crown Prince
, a Secretary General of NATO
and a director of the International Peace Bureau
have also been educated at Heidelberg; among them Nobel Peace Laureates
Charles Albert Gobat
and Auguste Beernaert. Former university affiliates in the field of religion include Pope Pius II
, Cardinals
, Bishop
s, and with Philipp Melanchthon
and Zacharias Ursinus
two key leaders of Protestant Reformation
. Outstanding university affiliates in the legal profession include at least 16 Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
, a President of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany
, a President of the Federal Labor Court of Germany
, a President of the International Court of Justice
, two Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights
, a President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
, a Vice President of the International Criminal Court
, two Attorney Generals of Germany
, an Advocate General
at the European Court of Justice
, and a British Law Lord. In business, Heidelberg alumni and faculty notably founded, co-founded or presided over ABB Group; Astor corporate enterprises
; BASF
; BDA
; Daimler AG; Deutsche Bank
; EADS
; Krupp AG; Siemens AG
; and Thyssen AG
.
Alumni in the field of arts include classical composer Robert Schumann
, philosophers Ludwig Feuerbach and Edmund Montgomery
, poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
and writers Christian Friedrich Hebbel
, Gottfried Keller
, Heinrich Hoffmann
, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, José Rizal
, W. Somerset Maugham
, Jean Paul
, and Literature Nobel Laureate
Carl Spitteler
. Amongst Heidelberg alumni in other disciplines are the "Father of Psychology" Wilhelm Wundt
, the "Father of Physical Chemistry" J. Willard Gibbs, the "Father of American Anthropology" Franz Boas
, Dmitri Mendeleev
, who created the periodic table
of elements, inventor of the two-wheeler principle
Karl Drais
, Alfred Wegener
, who discovered the continental drift
, as well as political theorist Hannah Arendt
, political scientist Carl Joachim Friedrich
, and sociologists Karl Mannheim
, Robert E. Park
and Talcott Parsons
.
Philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
, Karl Jaspers
, Hans-Georg Gadamer
, and Jürgen Habermas
served as university professors, as did also the pioneering scientists Hermann von Helmholtz
, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Emil Kraepelin
, the founder of scientific psychiatry, and outstanding social scientists such as Max Weber
, the founding father of modern sociology.
Present faculty include Medicine Nobel Laureates Bert Sakmann
(1991) and Harald zur Hausen
(2008), 7 Leibniz Laureates
, former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Paul Kirchhof
, and Rüdiger Wolfrum
, the former President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
.
wrote as detailed as humorously about his impressions of Heidelberg's student life in A Tramp Abroad
. He painted a picture of the university as a school for aristocrats, whose students pursued a dandy-like lifestyle, and described the great influence the student corporations exerted on the whole Heidelberg student life.
In William Somerset Maugham's 1915 masterpiece novel Of Human Bondage
, he described the one-year stay of the protagonist Philip Carey at the University of Heidelberg, in a largely autobiographical way. Heidelberg also featured in the respective film versions of the novel, released in 1934 (starring Leslie Howard
as Philip, and Bette Davis
as Mildred), 1946 (with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker
in the lead roles), and 1964 (with Laurence Harvey
and Kim Novak
in the lead roles).
The 1927 silent film The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
, based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster
's play Alt Heidelberg (1903), starring Ramón Novarro
and Norma Shearer
, continued Mark Twain's image of Heidelberg, showing the story of a German prince who comes to Heidelberg to study there, but falls in love with his innkeeper's daughter. Having been very popular in the first half of the 20th century, it presents the typical student life of the 19th and early 20th century, and it is today considered a masterpiece of the late silent film era. MGM
's 1954 color remake The Student Prince
, featuring the voice of Mario Lanza
, is based on Sigmund Romberg
's operetta version
of the story.
In Bernhard Schlink
's semi-autobiographical 1995 novel The Reader
, Heidelberg University is one of the main scenes of part II. Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, Michael Berg, a law student at the university, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial, which he observes as part of a seminar. The university is also featured in the Academy Award-winning 2008 film version The Reader, starring Kate Winslet
, David Kross
and Ralph Fiennes
.
In 2000, the university was the main scene of the award-winning
German thriller Anatomy
. The medical student Paula Henning (played by Franka Potente
) wins a place in a summer course at the prestigious Heidelberg Medical School
. When the body of a young man she met on the train turns up on her dissection table, she begins to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, uncovering a gruesome conspiracy perpetrated by an antihippocratic secret society operating within the university.
City of Heidelberg
Miscellaneous
Public university
A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...
research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
located in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
. Heidelberg has been a coeducational institution since 1899. Today the university consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
levels in some 100 disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities
League of European Research Universities
The League of European Research Universities is a consortium of Europe's most prominent and renowned research universities.-History and Overview:...
and the Coimbra Group
Coimbra Group
The Coimbra Group is a network of 40 European universities, some among the oldest and most prestigious in Europe. It was founded in 1985 and formally constituted by charter in 1987....
.
Rupert I, Elector Palatine
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
established the university when Heidelberg was the capital of the Palatinate. Consequently, it served as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Matriculation rates declined with the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, and the university did not overcome its fiscal and intellectual crises until the early 19th century. Subsequently, the institution once again became a hub for independent thinkers, and developed into a "stronghold of humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
", and a center of democratic thinking. At this time, Heidelberg served as a role model for the implementation of graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
s at American universities. However, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was marked a NSDAP university during the Nazi era
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
(between 1933 and 1945). It later underwent an extensive denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
after World War II—Heidelberg serving as one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany in the 1970s.
Modern scientific psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior...
, psychiatric genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
, environmental physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and modern sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. The university has an emphasis on research and has been associated with 30 Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
laureates. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top overall universities, and is an international education venue for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
s successfully completed every year, and with more than one third of the doctoral students coming from abroad. International student
International student
According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...
s from some 130 countries account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body. Heidelberg comprises two major campuses: one in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
's Old Town and another in the Neuenheimer Feld
Neuenheimer Feld
Neuenheimer Feld is an area in the city of Heidelberg, Germany. The area lies on the North side of the Neckar river and consists mostly of buildings associated with the University of Heidelberg, including student accommodation and research facilities, as well as the University Hospital Heidelberg...
quarter on the outskirts of the city. The university's noted alumni include eleven domestic and foreign Heads of State
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
or Heads of Government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
.
Founding
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, capital of the Palatinate since 1225 had approximately inhabitants, but the Great Schism
Western Schism
The Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance . The simultaneous claims to the papal chair...
in 1378, which split European Christendom
Christendom
Christendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity...
into two hostile groups made it possible for this relatively small city to get its own university. The Great Schism was initiated by the election of two pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
s after the death of Pope Gregory XI
Pope Gregory XI
Gregory XI was pope from 1370 until his death.-Biography:He was born Pierre Roger de Beaufort, in Maumont, in the modern commune of Rosiers-d'Égletons, Limousin around 1336. He succeeded Pope Urban V in 1370, and was pope until 1378...
in the same year. One successor resided in Avignon
Avignon
Avignon is a French commune in southeastern France in the départment of the Vaucluse bordered by the left bank of the Rhône river. Of the 94,787 inhabitants of the city on 1 January 2010, 12 000 live in the ancient town centre surrounded by its medieval ramparts.Often referred to as the...
(elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far-reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave.
Rupert I
Rupert I, Elector Palatine of the Rhine
Rupert I, "the Red" , Elector Palatine was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1353 to 1390....
recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
for the Foundation of a university. After having received on October 23, 1385 the permission from pope Urban VI to create a school of general studies , the final decision to found the university was taken on June 26, 1386 at the behest of Rupert I
Rupert I, Elector Palatine of the Rhine
Rupert I, "the Red" , Elector Palatine was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1353 to 1390....
, Count Palatine of the Rhine. As specified in the papal charter, the university was modelled after University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
and included four faculties: philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
, and medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
.
On October 18, 1386, a special Pontifical High Mass
Pontifical High Mass
In the context of the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, a Pontifical High Mass, also called Solemn Pontifical Mass, is a Solemn or High Mass celebrated by a bishop using certain prescribed ceremonies. The term is also used among Anglo-Catholic Anglicans.-Origins:In the early Church,...
in the Heiliggeistkirche
Church of the Holy Spirit (Heidelberg)
The Church of the Holy Spirit is the most famous church in Heidelberg, Germany. It stands in the middle of the market place in the old center of Heidelberg not far from the Heidelberg Castle. The steeple of the church, rising above the roofs, dominates the township.-Early history:The Church of...
was the ceremony that established the university. On October 19, 1386, the first lecture was held, making Heidelberg the oldest university in Germany. In November 1386, Marsilius of Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen was a medieval Dutch Scholastic philosopher who studied with Albert of Saxony and Nicole Oresme under Jean Buridan. He was Magister at the University of Paris as well as at the University of Heidelberg from 1386 to 1396.-Life:He was born near Nijmegen...
was elected first rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the university. The rector seal motto was semper apertus—i.e., "the book of learning is always open."
The university grew up quickly and in March 1390, 185 students were enrolled at the university.
Early development
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance is the 15th ecumenical council recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418. The council ended the Three-Popes Controversy, by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining Papal claimants and electing Pope Martin V.The Council also condemned and...
and acted as counselors for Louis III
Louis III, Elector Palatine
Louis III, Count Palatine of the Rhine , was an Elector Palatine of the Rhine from the house of Wittelsbach in 1410–1436....
, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm. This resulted in establishing a good reputation for the university and its professors.
Due to the influence of Marsilius, the university initially taught the nominalism
Nominalism
Nominalism is a metaphysical view in philosophy according to which general or abstract terms and predicates exist, while universals or abstract objects, which are sometimes thought to correspond to these terms, do not exist. Thus, there are at least two main versions of nominalism...
or via moderna. In 1412, both realism and the teachings of John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer and university teacher who was known as an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious movement, which preached...
were forbidden at the university, but later around 1454, the university decided that the realism
Realism
Realism, Realist or Realistic are terms that describe any manifestation of philosophical realism, the belief that reality exists independently of observers, whether in philosophy itself or in the applied arts and sciences. In this broad sense it is frequently contrasted with Idealism.Realism in the...
or via antique would also be taught, thus introducing two parallel ways .
The transition from scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
to humanistic culture was effected by the chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes , also Konrad Celtis and Latin Conradus Celtis , was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and Neo-Latin poet.-Life:...
, Jakob Wimpfeling
Jakob Wimpfeling
Jakob Wimpfeling was a Renaissance humanist and theologian.- Biography :Wimpfeling was born in Sélestat, Alsace. He went to the school at Sélestat, which was run by Ludwig Dringenberg, the founder of the Humanist Library of Sélestat...
, and Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin was a German humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew. For much of his life, he was the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany.-Early life:...
. Æneas Silvius Piccolomini
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...
permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III
Pope Julius III , born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was Pope from 7 February 1550 to 1555....
sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
's disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518 made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading Reformationists
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in Southwest Germany. With the Palatinate's turn to the Reformed faith, Otto Henry, Elector Palatine
Otto Henry, Elector Palatine
Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine, a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty was Count Palatine of Palatinate-Neuburg from 1505 to 1559 and prince elector of the Palatinate from 1556 to 1559...
, converted the university into a calvinsitic
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
institution. In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism
Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine...
was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
stepped beside Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter
Jan Gruter
Jan Gruter was a Dutch critic and scholar.-Life:Jan Gruter was Dutch on his father's side and English on his mother's, and was born at Antwerp...
, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...
taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
center. However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina
Bibliotheca Palatina
The Bibliotheca Palatina of Heidelberg was the most important library of the German Renaissance, numbering approximately 5,000 printed books and 3,524 manuscripts....
(the library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
of the university) was stolen from the University Cathedral and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King Louis XIV, who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists
Lazarists
Congregation of the Mission is a vowed order of priests and brothers associated with the Vincentian Family, a loose federation of organizations who claim St. Vincent de Paul as their founder or Patron...
in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward, and the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
in the neighboring city of Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, where Jesuit Christian Meyer
Christian Meyer
Christian Meyer is a retired track cyclist from Germany, who won the gold medal for his native country in the men's team time trial at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. His winning teammates were Michael Rich, Bernd Dittert and Uwe Peschel.-References:...
labored as director. In connection with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from 300-400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, and particularly because of the Treaty of Lunéville
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...
, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.
19th and early 20th century
It was not until 1803 that this decline stopped. In this year, the university was reestablished as a state-owned institution by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of BadenKarl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden
Charles Frederick, 1st Grand Duke of Baden was Margrave, elector and later Grand Duke of Baden from 1738 until his death.-Biography:...
, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the name of Ruprecht I
Rupert I, Elector Palatine of the Rhine
Rupert I, "the Red" , Elector Palatine was Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1353 to 1390....
. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself at its head as rector, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano
Clemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck was a German poet, translator, editor, novelist, writer of Novellen, and critic, who was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
in speech, poetry, and art.
The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and the movement in favor of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser
Friedrich Christoph Schlosser
Friedrich Christoph Schlosser was a German historian.-Biography:He was born at Jever in the District of Friesland. He studied theology, mainly at Göttingen, and then tutored privately...
and Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus was a German literary and political historian.-Biography:Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen...
were the guides of the nation in political history
Political history
Political history is the narrative and analysis of political events, ideas, movements, and leaders. It is distinct from, but related to, other fields of history such as Diplomatic history, social history, economic history, and military history, as well as constitutional history and public...
. The modern scientific schools of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and natural science
Natural science
The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
, particularly astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school. The university as a whole became the role model for the transformation of American liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
s into research universities, in particular for the then-newly established Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. Heidelberg's professors were important supporters of the Vormärz
Vormärz
' is the time period leading up to the failed March 1848 revolution in the German Confederation. Also known as the Age of Metternich, it was a period of Austrian and Prussian police states and vast censorship in response to calls for liberalism...
revolution and many of them were members of the first freely elected German parliament, the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit, which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
, Ernst Troeltsch
Ernst Troeltsch
Ernst Troeltsch was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914...
and a circle of colleagues around them.
In the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
thinking, coined by professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
s like Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...
, Gustav Radbruch
Gustav Radbruch
Gustav Radbruch was a German legal scholar and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of the German Empire during the early Weimar period. Radbruch is also regarded as one of the most influential legal philosophers of the 20th century.-Life:Born at Lübeck, Radbruch studied law in Munich,...
, Martin Dibelius
Martin Dibelius
Martin Dibelius was a German theologian and a professor for the New Testament at the University of Heidelberg.Martin Dibelius was born in Dresden, Germany in 1883...
and Alfred Weber
Alfred Weber
Alfred Weber was a German economist, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography.-Life:...
. Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
physicist Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau was a German Jewish industrialist, politician, writer, and statesman who served as Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic...
, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.
Nazi era and Federal Republic
With the advent of the Third Reich in 1933, the university supported the Nazis like all other German universities at the time. It dismissed a large number of staff and students for political and racist reasons. Many dissident fellows had to emigrate and most Jewish and Communist professors that did not leave Germany were deported. At least two professors directly fell victim to Nazi terror. On 17 May 1933, members of the university faculty and students took part in book burningBook burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
s at Universitätsplatz ("University Square") and Heidelberg was eventually infamous as a NSDAP university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit", and many professors paid homage to the new motto. The university was involved in Nazi eugenics
Nazi eugenics
Nazi eugenics were Nazi Germany's racially-based social policies that placed the improvement of the Aryan race through eugenics at the center of their concerns...
: forced sterilizations were carried out at the women's clinic and the psychatric clinic then directed by Carl Schneider
Carl Schneider
Carl Schneider , professor at Heidelberg University, chairman of its department of Psychiatry, director of its clinic, was a senior researcher for the Action T4 Euthanasia program....
was involved in Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
Euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
program.
After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
.
Since Heidelberg was spared from destruction during World War II, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity".
During the 1960s and 1970s, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA
AStA
The General Students' Committee or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the student body at universities in most German states. It is therefore considered the student government and student representative organization...
. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld area, a large campus for medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and natural sciences was constructed.
Today, about 28,000 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. There are 4,196 full time faculty, including 476 university professors. In 2007, the university was appointed University of Excellence within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is an important German research funding organization and the largest such organization in Europe.-Function:...
in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small network of exceptionally well-funded universities, which are expected to generate a strong international appeal.
Campuses
"I saw Heidelberg on a perfectly clear morning, with a pleasant air both cool and invigorating. The city, just so, with the totality of its ambiance is, one might say, something ideal." |
| — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long... |
Heidelberg is a city with approximately 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, a European metropolitan area with approximately 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns in the perimeter. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, and its old town and castle
Heidelberg Castle
The Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps....
are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport
Frankfurt International Airport
Frankfurt am Main Airport , or simply Frankfurt Airport, known in German as Flughafen Frankfurt am Main or Rhein-Main-Flughafen, is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, Germany, southwest of the city centre....
.
The University of Heidelberg's facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.
Old Town Campus
United States Ambassador to Germany
The United States has had diplomatic relations with the nation of Germany and its predecessor nation, the Kingdom of Prussia, since 1835. These relations were broken twice while Germany and the United States were at war...
. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries and work spaces for their respective students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.
New Campus
University Hospital Heidelberg
The university hospital of Heidelberg is one of the largest and most renowned medical centers in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is closely linked to Heidelberg University Medical School which was founded in 1388 and is thus the oldest within the Federal Republic of Germany.The university...
, and the science branch of the University Library are situated on the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Several independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center
German Cancer Research Center
The German Cancer Research Center , is a national cancer research center based in Heidelberg, Germany...
and two of the Max-Planck-Institutes
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes publicly funded by the federal and the 16 state governments of Germany....
have settled there. The New Campus is also the seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The old part of town can be reached by tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
and bus in about 10 minutes. The Neuenheimer Feld campus has extensive parking lots for faculty and student vehicles for long term and short term parking, as well as visitors and patients of the various university hospitals. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is not located on either campus, but on the Philosophers' Walk, separated from the Old Town by the River Neckar, and some 2 km (1.2 mi) away from the New Campus. It also maintains observatory facilities on the Königstuhl Mountain
Königstuhl (Odenwald)
The Königstuhl , translated "Kings seat", is a 567 metre high hill in the Odenwald Mountains and in the city of Heidelberg, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Königstuhl summit allows visitors a spectacular view of the city of Heidelberg and the River Neckar as well as the Rhine Valley...
.
Bergheim Campus
The Bergheim Campus is located in the former Ludolf Krehl clinic (named after Ludolf von KrehlLudolf von Krehl
Albrecht Ludolf von Krehl was a German internist and physiologist who was a native of Leipzig. He was the son of Orientalist Christoph Krehl...
) in the inner-city suburb of Heidelberg-Bergheim
Heidelberg-Bergheim
Bergheim is a city district of Heidelberg. It is bounded on the North by the Neckar River, the East by the Bismarkplatz, on the South by the Kurfürsten Anlage and the South by the city line. It is a mostly urban residential area, however the Bergheim Campus of the University of Heidelberg has...
. Since March 2009 it has housed the institutes economics, political science, and sociology (together the Heidelberg University Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
Heidelberg University Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences
The Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It comprises the Institute of Political Science, the Institute of Sociology, and the Alfred Weber Institute of Economics.-Notes:...
) that formerly resided at the Old Town campus. The Bergheim campus offers one lecture theatre, several seminar rooms, the most modern of the university libraries, and a cafe (rather than the full cafeteria present in the other campuses).
Libraries
Codex Manesse
The Codex Manesse, Manesse Codex, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift is a Liederhandschrift , the single most comprehensive source of Middle High German Minnesang poetry, written and illustrated between ca. 1304 when the main part was completed, and ca...
, 1,800 incunabula, 110,500 autographs, and a collection of old maps, paintings, and photographs. The further 83 decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes hold another 3.5 million printed books. In 2005, 34,500 active users of the University Library accessed 1.4 million books a year. The conventional book supply is complemented by numerous electronic services. Around 3,000 commercial scientific journals can be accessed via e-journal. The University Library of today traces its roots back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen was a medieval Dutch Scholastic philosopher who studied with Albert of Saxony and Nicole Oresme under Jean Buridan. He was Magister at the University of Paris as well as at the University of Heidelberg from 1386 to 1396.-Life:He was born near Nijmegen...
in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche, then the University Cathedral. Since 1978, the science branch of the University Library serves the institutes of natural sciences and medicine on the New Campus.
Facilities abroad
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by the University of Heidelberg or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and...
and the University of Chile. The University of Heidelberg has arranged cooperation agreements with both of these universities. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor's degree generally is required, and is normally considered to be part of higher education...
. It also coordinates the activities of the University of Heidelberg in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation. The university is now also represented by a liaison office in New York. Its main tasks include promoting existing collaborations, building up new networks, creating joint study programs, and maintaining and expanding academic contacts with American universities.
Governance
The Rectorate is the 'executive bodyExecutive (government)
Executive branch of Government is the part of government that has sole authority and responsibility for the daily administration of the state bureaucracy. The division of power into separate branches of government is central to the idea of the separation of powers.In many countries, the term...
' of the university, headed by rector Bernhard Eitel
Bernhard Eitel
Bernhard Eitel is a German earth scientist. Since October 2007, he has been the Rector of the University of Heidelberg....
. The rectorate consists of the chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
, Marina Frost, who is the head of the central administration and responsible for the university's budgeting, and three pro-rectors, who are responsible for international relations, teaching and communication, and research and structure respectively.
The Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
is the 'legislative branch' of the university. The rector and the members of the rectorate are senators ex officio, as are also the deans
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of the faculties, as well as the medical and managing directors of the University Hospital
University Hospital Heidelberg
The university hospital of Heidelberg is one of the largest and most renowned medical centers in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is closely linked to Heidelberg University Medical School which was founded in 1388 and is thus the oldest within the Federal Republic of Germany.The university...
, and the university's equal opportunities officer
Equal opportunity
Equal opportunity, or equality of opportunity, is a controversial political concept; and an important informal decision-making standard without a precise definition involving fair choices within the public sphere...
. Another 20 senators are elected for four-year terms, within the following quotas: eight university professors; four academic staff; four delegates of the student body; and four employees of the university administration.
The University Council
University Council
A University Council may be the executive body of a university's governance system, an advisory body to the University President, or something in between in authority....
is the advisory board to the aforementioned entities and encompasses, among others, the former Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to Germany Avi Primor
Avi Primor
Avraham "Avi“ Primor is an Israeli publicist and former diplomat. From 1987 to 1993, he served as Ambassador to the European Union, and from 1993 to 1999 as Ambassador to Germany. After leaving the diplomatic service, he was vice-president of the University of Tel Aviv until 2004...
, as well as CEOs of German industries.
Faculties
After a structural reformation in 2003, the university consists of 12 faculties which in turn comprise several disciplines, departments, and institutes. As a consequence of the Bologna processBologna process
The purpose of the Bologna Process is the creation of the European Higher Education Area by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe, in particular under the Lisbon Recognition Convention...
, most faculties now offer Bachelor's
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
, Master's
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, and Ph.D.
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
degrees in order to comply with the new European degree standard. Notable exceptions are the undergraduate programs in law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, dentistry
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
and pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, from which students still graduate with the State Examination, a central examination at Master's level held by the State of Baden-Württemberg.
|
Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine The Faculty of Medicine is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It was one of the four original faculties of the university in 1386... Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine in Mannheim The Faculty of Medicine in Mannheim is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It was founded in 1964 and is located in Mannheim. It comprises 11 institutes.... Heidelberg University Faculty of Modern Languages The Faculty of Modern Languages is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It comprises the Seminar for German Studies, Seminar for English Studies, Seminar for German as a Foreign Language Philology, Seminar for Translating and Interpreting, Seminar for Computational Linguistics,... Heidelberg University Faculty of Philosophy and History The Faculty of Philosophy and History is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. The present Faculty of Philosophy is the result of the amalgamation in 2002 of sectors of the former Faculties of History and Philosophy and of Oriental and Classical Studies. It is made up of three... Heidelberg University Faculty of Physics and Astronomy The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It comprises the Kirchhoff Institute of Physics, the Institute of Physics, Theoretical Physics, Environmental Physics and Theoretical Astrophysics.... Heidelberg University Faculty of Theology The Faculty of Theology is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It was one of the four founding faculties in 1386.-Notes and references:... |
Associated institutions
|
Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl The Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory is an historic astronomical observatory located near the summit of the Königstuhl hill in the city of Heidelberg in Germany... , University Hospital Heidelberg The university hospital of Heidelberg is one of the largest and most renowned medical centers in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is closely linked to Heidelberg University Medical School which was founded in 1388 and is thus the oldest within the Federal Republic of Germany.The university... , |
Partnerships
The university has numerous partnerships nationally and internationally. In particular, it maintains longstanding collaborations in research and education with the following independent research institutes located in and around Heidelberg:
|
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Koenigstuhl, adjacent to the historic Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory.The institute was founded in... Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law is a legal research institute located in Heidelberg, Germany. It is operated by the Max Planck Society... Max Planck Institute for Medical Research The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, is a facility of the Max Planck Society for basic medical research. Since its foundation, six Nobel Prize laureates worked at the Institute: Otto Fritz Meyerhof , Richard Kuhn , Walther Bothe , André Michel Lwoff , Rudolf... Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik is aresearch institute in Heidelberg, Germany.The institute is one of the 80 institutes of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft , an independent, non-profit research organization. The Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics has been founded in 1958 under the... |
School statistics
The university employs more than 15,000 academic staff, most of them are physicians engaged in the University HospitalUniversity Hospital Heidelberg
The university hospital of Heidelberg is one of the largest and most renowned medical centers in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is closely linked to Heidelberg University Medical School which was founded in 1388 and is thus the oldest within the Federal Republic of Germany.The university...
. As of 2008, the faculty encompasses 4,196 full-time staff, excluding visiting professors as well as graduate
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor's degree generally is required, and is normally considered to be part of higher education...
research
Research assistant
A research assistant is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute, for the purpose of assisting in academic research...
and teaching assistant
Teaching assistant
A teaching assistant is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include graduate teaching assistants , who are graduate students; undergraduate teaching assistants , who are undergraduate students; secondary school TAs, who are either high school...
s. 673 faculty members have been drawn from abroad. Heidelberg University also attracts more than 500 international scholars as visiting professors each academic year. The university enrolls a total of 26,741 students, including 5,118 international students. In addition there are 1,467 international exchange students at Heidelberg. 23,636 students pursue taught degrees, 4,114 of whom are international students, and 919 are international exchange students. 3,105 students pursue a doctoral degree, including 1,004 international doctoral students and 15 international exchange students. In 2007, the university awarded 994 Ph.D. degrees.
Rankings
In 2010, U.S. News / QS World University RankingsQS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
ranked Heidelberg 1st in Germany and 14th in Europe. QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
ranked Heidelberg 53rd overall in the world, moving up four places from its position in the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings. In the current rankings of broad subject areas, Heidelberg ranks globally 30th in natural sciences, 39th in arts & humanities, 38th in life sciences and biomedicine, 93nd in social sciences, and 256th in Engineering & IT. In previous years, Heidelberg ranked between 17th and 43rd in life science and biomedicine, between 22nd and 45th in science, between 41st and 61st in arts and humanities, and between 54th and 78th in social sciences.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
ranks Heidelberg 3rd nationally, 18th in Europe, and 63rd in the world.
The University Ranking by Academic Performance 2010 (URAP Ranking) by Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University
Middle East Technical University is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey...
ranks Heidelberg 2nd nationally, 12th in Europe and 54th globally.
Academyrank.com Index ranks Heidelberg 2nd nationally, 6th in Europe and 33th globally.
The Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities (HEEACT Ranking), issued by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan
Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan
Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan was founded in May 2005. HEEACT applied for ISO certification in July 2008 and received certification on February 4, 2009...
, placed Heidelberg 2nd in Germany, 12th in Europe, and 61st globally.
The Scientometrics
Scientometrics (journal)
Scientometrics is a peer reviewed journal in the field of scientometrics. It is currently published by Akadémiai Kiadó and Springer Science+Business Media and has appeared continuously since 1978....
Journal Gatekeepers Indicator Ranking (ISSRU Ranking), created by Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest, ranks the University of Heidelberg at the top of German universities, 12th in Europe, and 73rd globally.
The Times Higher Education Ranking
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
2010 ranks Heidelberg 3rd in Germany, 18th in Europe and 83rd in the world.
According to the Third European Report on Science & Technology Indicators compiled by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, Heidelberg ranks 4th nationally and 9th in Europe.
The German Center for Higher Education Development
Bertelsmann Foundation
The Bertelsmann Foundation is the largest private operating non-profit foundation in Germany, created in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn. The Bertelsmann Foundation holds 77.4 percent of Bertelsmann AG....
Excellence Ranking, which measures academic performance of European graduate programs in biology, chemistry, economics, mathematics, physics, political sciences, and psychology, placed Heidelberg in the European excellence group for biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and psychology.
Ranked by the number of Nobel Laureates affiliated with the university at the time of Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
announcement, Heidelberg is placed 1st in Germany, 4th in Europe and 13th in the world by 2008.
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(London) referred to the University of Heidelberg as "the oldest and most eminent in the country of Luther and Einstein" and as "the jewel of German learning".
Organization and length of courses
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
is principally six semesters, and a further four semesters for consecutive Master's degrees. The normal duration of Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
programs for full-time students is 6 semesters. The overall period of study for an undergraduate degree is divided into two parts: a period of basic study, lasting at least four semesters, at the end of which students must sit a formal examination, and a period of advanced study, lasting at least two semesters, after which students take their final examinations.
Admission
In the winter-semester 2006/2007, the university offered 3,926 places in undergraduate programs restricted by numerus claususNumerus clausus
Numerus clausus is one of many methods used to limit the number of students who may study at a university. In many cases, the goal of the numerus clausus is simply to limit the number of students to the maximum feasible in some particularly sought-after areas of studies.However, in some cases,...
, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.3%. Most selective are the undergraduate programs in clinical medicine, molecular cell biology, political science, and law, with acceptance rates of 3.6%, 3.8%, 7.6% and 9.1% respectively. The selection is exercised by allocating the best qualified applicants to a given number of places available in the respective discipline, thus depending primarily on the chosen subjects and the grade point average of the Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
or its equivalent. For some majors and minors in humanities, particularly for those which are conceptually non-vocational like classics, philosophy, and ancient history, unrestricted admission is granted if certain criteria (e.g. relevant language proficiency) are fulfilled, as applications regularly do not exceed the number of places available. For prospective international undergraduate students, a language test for German — such as the DSH
Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang
The DSH is a language proficiency test required to study at German higher education institutions....
— is required. Admission to consecutive Master's programs always requires at least an undergraduate degree equivalent to the German grade "good" (i.e., normally B+ in American, or 2:1 in British terms). Except for the Master's programs taught in English, a language test for German must be passed as well. Ph.D. admission prerequisite is normally a strong Master's-level degree, but specific admission procedures vary and cannot be generalized. International applicants usually make up considerably more than 20% of the applicant pool and are considered individually by the merits achieved in their respective country of origin.
Finances
Studying at German universities is heavily subsidized by the state in order to keep higher education affordable regardless of socio-economic background.Since 2007, Heidelberg charges tuition fees of approximately € 1,200 p.a., including student union
Student activity center
A student activity center is a type of building found on university campuses. In the United States, such a building is more often called a student union, student commons, or student center...
fees, for undergraduate, consecutive Master's, and doctoral programs, for both EU and non-EU citizens, and for any subject area. The usual housing costs for on-campus dormitories range from € 2,200 to € 3,000 p.a.
In the fiscal year 2005, the University of Heidelberg had an overall operating budget
Operating budget
An operating budget is the annual budget of an activity stated in terms of Budget Classification Code, functional/subfunctional categories and cost accounts. It contains estimates of the total value of resources required for the performance of the operation including reimbursable work or services...
of approximately € 856 M, consisting of approximately € 413 M government funds, approximately € 311 M basic budget, and approximately € 132 M from external grants. The university spent approximately € 529 M in payroll costs and approximately € 326 M in other expenditures. Additionally, the university will receive another € 150 M in research grants, distributed over 5 years from 2007 onwards, due to the German Universities Excellence Initiative
German Universities Excellence Initiative
The Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scientists at universities, to deepen cooperation between disciplines and institutions, to...
. In the fiscal year 2007, the university for the first time raised approximately € 19 M through tuition fees, exclusively to further improve the conditions of study. Only approximately € 9.5 M of these were spent at the end of the year and the rectorate had to urge the faculties to make use of their additional means.
Research
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...
, and of the Bunsen burner
Bunsen burner
A Bunsen burner, named after Robert Bunsen, is a common piece of laboratory equipment that produces a single open gas flame, which is used for heating, sterilization, and combustion.- Operation:...
; the discovery of chemical elements Caesium
Caesium
Caesium or cesium is the chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal with a melting point of 28 °C , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that are liquid at room temperature...
and Rubidium
Rubidium
Rubidium is a chemical element with the symbol Rb and atomic number 37. Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali metal group. Its atomic mass is 85.4678. Elemental rubidium is highly reactive, with properties similar to those of other elements in group 1, such as very rapid...
; the identification of the absolute point of ebullition
Boiling
Boiling is the rapid vaporization of a liquid, which occurs when a liquid is heated to its boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the pressure exerted on the liquid by the surrounding environmental pressure. While below the boiling point a liquid...
; and the identification and isolation of nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
as the main pharmacologically active component of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
. Modern scientific psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
; psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the actions of drugs and their effects on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior...
; psychiatric genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
; environmental physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
; and modern sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Almost 800 dwarf planets, the North America Nebula
North America Nebula
The North America Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb . The remarkable shape of the emission nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico...
, and the return of Halley's Comet have been discovered and documented at institutes of the Heidelberg Center for Astronomy. Moreover, Heidelberg researchers invented the process of Plastination
Plastination
Plastination is a technique or process used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample....
to preserve body tissue, conducted the first successful transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells, and recently developed a new strategy for a vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
in order to prevent certain forms of cancer.
Today, the university puts an emphasis on natural sciences and medicine, but it retains its traditions with highly ranked faculties of humanities and social sciences. The Marsilius Kolleg, named after Marsilius of Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen
Marsilius of Inghen was a medieval Dutch Scholastic philosopher who studied with Albert of Saxony and Nicole Oresme under Jean Buridan. He was Magister at the University of Paris as well as at the University of Heidelberg from 1386 to 1396.-Life:He was born near Nijmegen...
, was established in 2007 as a Center for Advanced Study to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and research especially between the sciences and the humanities. Other institutes such as the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing
thumb|right|200px|South west view of the IWR building, located at Heidelberg's New CampusThe Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing is a scientific research institute of the University of Heidelberg, Germany...
, the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies
Heidelberg Center for American Studies
The University of Heidelberg's Heidelberg Center for American Studies is an interdisciplinary institute for higher education, a center for advanced research, and a forum for public debate on topics related to the United States of America...
, and the South Asia Institute
Heidelberg University Faculty of Philosophy and History
The Faculty of Philosophy and History is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. The present Faculty of Philosophy is the result of the amalgamation in 2002 of sectors of the former Faculties of History and Philosophy and of Oriental and Classical Studies. It is made up of three...
also build a bridge between faculties and thus emphasize the concept of a comprehensive university.
Noted regular publications of the Center for Astronomy include the Gliese catalogue of nearby stars
Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars
The Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars is a frequently referenced, modern star catalogue of stars located within 25 parsecs of the Earth.-First edition and supplements:...
, the fundamental catalogues FK5
Fifth Fundamental Catalogue
The Catalogue of Fundamental Stars is a series of six astrometric catalogues of high precision positional data for a small selection of stars to define a celestial reference frame, which is a standard coordinate system for correlation of star positions....
and FK6 and the annual published Apparent places
Apparent places
The wrong place of an object is the position in space as seen by the observer. Because of physical and/or geometrical effects it has a deviation from the "true position"....
, a high precision catalog with pre-calculated positions for over 3,000 stars for each day. The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research
Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research
The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research at the Department of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg is a private organization dedicated to research, documentation and analysis of national and international political conflicts. HIIK e.V...
publishes the annual Conflict Barometer, which describes the recent trends in global conflict developments, escalations, de-escalations, and settlements. Regular publications by the Max Planck Institute for International Law include the "Heidelberg Journal for International Law", the "Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law"; the "Journal of the History of International Law"; the "Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law"; and the semi-annual bibliography "Public International Law".
The German Research Foundation
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is an important German research funding organization and the largest such organization in Europe.-Function:...
(DFG) currently funds twelve long-term Collaborative Research Centers (SFB) with a duration of up to 12 years at Heidelberg, four Priority Programs (SPP) with a duration of six years, two Research Units (FOR) with a duration of up to six years, as well as numerous individual projects at the university's faculties and institutes. As a result of the German Universities Excellence Initiative
German Universities Excellence Initiative
The Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation aims to promote cutting-edge research and to create outstanding conditions for young scientists at universities, to deepen cooperation between disciplines and institutions, to...
, two Clusters of Excellence are funded with € 6.5 M each - "Cellular Networks: From Molecular Mechanisms to Quantitative Understanding of Complex Functions", and "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows"
International cooperations
League of European Research Universities
The League of European Research Universities is a consortium of Europe's most prominent and renowned research universities.-History and Overview:...
, the Coimbra Group
Coimbra Group
The Coimbra Group is a network of 40 European universities, some among the oldest and most prestigious in Europe. It was founded in 1985 and formally constituted by charter in 1987....
, and the European University Association
European University Association
The European University Association represents and supports more than 850 institutions of higher education in 46 countries, providing them with a forum for cooperation and exchange of information on higher education and research policies...
, and it participates in 7 European exchange schemes for researchers and students, such as ERASMUS
Erasmus programme
The Erasmus Programme , a.k.a. Erasmus Project is a European Union student exchange programme established in 1987...
. Furthermore it is actively involved in the development of the German-speaking Andrássy University of Budapest
Andrássy Gyula German Language University of Budapest
The Andrássy University Budapest ; full name: Andrássy Gyula German Speaking University Budapest - is a private university in Budapest, the capital of Hungary...
, and co-runs the school of German law at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....
. Beyond Europe, the university and its faculties maintain specific agreements with 58 partner universities in Africa, the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, Asia, Australia and the Russian Federation. In total, the Higher Education Compass of the German Rector's Conference lists staff and student exchange agreements as well as research cooperations with 236 universities worldwide.
Student life
The university offers a broad variety of athletics, such as teams in 16 different court sports from American footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
to volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, courses in 11 different martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, 26 courses in physical fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
and body building, 9 courses in health sports from aquapower to yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, and groups in 12 different dance styles. Moreover equestrian sports, sailing
Sailing
Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...
, rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
, skiing
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
in the French alps, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, fencing
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
, cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
, acrobatics
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...
, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, and much more. Most of the sports are free of charge. Heidelberg's competition teams are particularly successful in soccer, volleyball, equestrian sports, judo, karate, track and field, and basketball. The track and field team regularly achieves best placings at the German university championships. The University Sports Club men's basketball team, USC Heidelberg
USC Heidelberg
USC Heidelberg is a basketball club from Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The club men's senior team is currently playing in the German second division ProA....
, is the championship record holder, won 13 national championships, and is the only university team playing at a professional level in the second division of Germany's national league
Basketball Bundesliga
The Basketball Bundesliga — commonly abbreviated BBL — is the highest level league of club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season is split into a league stage and a playoff stage...
.
AStA
The General Students' Committee or AStA, is the acting executive board and the external representing agency of the student body at universities in most German states. It is therefore considered the student government and student representative organization...
, the student councils of the 12 faculties, four drama clubs, the university orchestra Collegium Musicum
Collegium Musicum
The Collegium Musicum was one of several types of musical societies that arose in German and German-Swiss cities and towns during the Reformation and thrived into the mid-18th century...
, four choirs, six student media groups, six groups of international students, nine groups of political parties and NGO's, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines, four clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, a chess club, a literature club, a debate society, two student management consulting groups, and four religious student groups.
Heidelberg's student newspaper "ruprecht" is — with editions of more than 10,000 copies — one of Germany's largest student-run newspapers. It was recently distinguished by the MLP Pro Campus Press Award as Germany's best student newspaper. The jury, consisting of journalists of major newspapers, commended its "well balanced, though critical attitude", and its "simply great" layout which "suffices highest professional demands". The ruprecht is financed entirely by advertising revenues, thus retaining its independence from the university's management. Some very renowned journalists emerged from ruprechts editorial board.
However, the critical online student newspaper "UNiMUT", which is run by the joint student council of the faculties, criticized the ruprecht often for being conformed, and exceedingly layout-oriented.
Heidelberg is also home of Germany's oldest student law review
Law review
A law review is a scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, normally published by an organization of students at a law school or through a bar association...
"StudZR". The journal is published quarterly, at the beginning and end of each semester break, and is circulated throughout all of Germany.
Heidelberg hosts 34 student corporations
Studentenverbindung
A Studentenverbindung is a student corporation in a German-speaking country somewhat comparable to fraternities in the US or Canada, but mostly older and going back to other kinds of...
, which were largely founded in the 19th century. Corporations are to some extent comparable to the fraternities in the US. As traditional symbols (couleur
Couleur
Couleur is the expression used in European Studentenverbindungen for the headgears and ribbons worn by members of these student societies....
) corporation members wear colored caps and ribbons at ceremonial occasions (Kommers) and some still practice the traditional academic fencing
Academic fencing
Academic fencing or Mensur is the traditional kind of fencing practiced by some student corporations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and to a minor extent in Kosovo, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Flanders.- Technique :Modern academic fencing, the "mensur," is neither a duel nor a sport...
, a kind of duel, in order to "shape their members for the challenges of life". In the 19th and early 20th century, corporations played an important role in Germany's student life. Today, however, corporations include only a relatively small number of students. Their self-declared mission is to keep academic traditions alive and to create friendships for life. The corporations' often representative 19th century mansions are present throughout the Old Town.
Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
is not least famous for its student night life. Besides the various parties regularly organized by the student councils of the faculties, the semester opening and closing parties of the university, the dormitory parties, and the soirées of Heidelberg's 34 student fraternities, the city, and the metropolitan area
Rhine Neckar Area
The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region , often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the North and the Stuttgart Region to the South-East.Rhine-Neckar has a population of some 2.4 million...
even more, offers night life for any taste and budget. Adjacent to University Square is Heidelberg's major night life district, where one pub is placed next to each other. From Thursday on, it is all night very crowded and full of atmosphere. Moreover, Heidelberg has five major discos. The largest of them is located at the New Campus. The city of Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, which is about three times as large as Heidelberg, is a 15-minute train ride away, and offers an even more diverse night life, having a broad variety of clubs and bars well-frequented by both Heidelberg's and Mannheim's student community.
Noted people
Academic discipline
An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined , and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to...
s, and a large number of internationally acclaimed philosophers, poets, jurisprudents
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
, theologians
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, natural
Natural science
The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
and social scientists. 30 Nobel Laureates
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
, at least 18 Leibniz Laureates
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is a research prize awarded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft every year since 1985 to scientists working in Germany. This highest German research prize consists of a research grant of 2.5 million euro, to be used within seven years...
, and two "Oscar" winners have been associated with the University of Heidelberg. Eight Nobel Laureates received the award during their tenure at Heidelberg.
Besides several Federal Ministers of Germany
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
and Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
s of German States
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
, five Chancellors of Germany have attended the university, the latest being Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
, the "Chancellor of the Reunification". Heads of State
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
or Government
Head of government
Head of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
of Belgium, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Greece, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, a British Crown Prince
Crown Prince
A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
, a Secretary General of NATO
Secretary General of NATO
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the chairman of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme decision-making organisation of the defence alliance. The Secretary-General also serves as the leader of the organisation's staff and as its chief spokesman...
and a director of the International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureau is the world's oldest international peace federation. It was founded in 1891, and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910....
have also been educated at Heidelberg; among them Nobel Peace Laureates
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Charles Albert Gobat
Charles Albert Gobat
Charles Albert Gobat was a Swiss lawyer, educational administrator, and politician who jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize with Élie Ducommun in 1902 for their leadership of the Permanent International Peace Bureau....
and Auguste Beernaert. Former university affiliates in the field of religion include Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
, Cardinals
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
, Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s, and with Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...
and Zacharias Ursinus
Zacharias Ursinus
Zacharias Ursinus was a sixteenth century German Reformed theologian, born Zacharias Baer in Breslau . He became the leading theologian of the Reformed Protestant movement of the Palatinate, serving both at the University of Heidelberg and the College of Wisdom...
two key leaders of Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. Outstanding university affiliates in the legal profession include at least 16 Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
, a President of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany
Federal Court of Justice of Germany
The Federal Court of Justice of Germany in Karlsruhe is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction in Germany. It is the supreme court in all matters of criminal and private law...
, a President of the Federal Labor Court of Germany
Federal Labor Court of Germany
The Federal Labor Court is the court of the last resort for cases of labour law in Germany, both for individual labour law and collective labour law...
, a President of the International Court of Justice
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands...
, two Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
, a President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an intergovernmental organization created by the mandate of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It was established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on December 10, 1982...
, a Vice President of the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
, two Attorney Generals of Germany
Attorney General of Germany
The Attorney General of Germany is the federal prosecutor of Germany, representing the federal government at the Bundesgerichtshof, the federal court of justice. The office of the Attorney General is located in Karlsruhe. Besides its role in appellate cases, the Attorney General has primary...
, an Advocate General
Advocate General
An Advocate General is a senior law officer of a country or other jurisdiction, usually charged with advising the courts or Government on legal matters.-India:In India, an Advocate General is a legal adviser to a state government...
at the European Court of Justice
European Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
, and a British Law Lord. In business, Heidelberg alumni and faculty notably founded, co-founded or presided over ABB Group; Astor corporate enterprises
Astor family
The Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...
; BASF
BASF
BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...
; BDA
Confederation of German Employers' Associations
The Confederation of German Employers' Associations or BDA is the umbrella organization for German employers' associations...
; Daimler AG; Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
; EADS
EADS
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...
; Krupp AG; Siemens AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
; and Thyssen AG
Thyssen AG
Thyssen was a major German steel producer founded by August Thyssen. After over 100 years of existence the company merged with Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp to form ThyssenKrupp in 1999.-History:...
.
Alumni in the field of arts include classical composer Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, philosophers Ludwig Feuerbach and Edmund Montgomery
Edmund Montgomery
Edmund Duncan Montgomery was a Scottish philosopher, scientist and physician.-Early life:Edmund Duncan Montgomery was born March, 1835, in Edinburgh, Scotland...
, poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff was a German poet and novelist of the later German romantic school.Eichendorff is regarded as one of the most important German Romantics and his works have sustained high popularity in Germany from production to the present day.-Life:Eichendorff was born at Schloß...
and writers Christian Friedrich Hebbel
Christian Friedrich Hebbel
Christian Friedrich Hebbel , was a German poet and dramatist.-Biography:Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Ditmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums...
, Gottfried Keller
Gottfried Keller
Gottfried Keller , a Swiss writer of German-language literature, was best known for his novel Green Henry .- Life and work :...
, Heinrich Hoffmann
Heinrich Hoffmann (author)
Heinrich Hoffmann was a German psychiatrist, who also wrote some short works including Der Struwwelpeter, an illustrated book portraying children misbehaving.- Early life and education:...
, Sir Muhammad Iqbal, José Rizal
José Rizal
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
, W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, Jean Paul
Jean Paul
Jean Paul , born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.-Life and work:...
, and Literature Nobel Laureate
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
Carl Spitteler
Carl Spitteler
Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler was a Swiss poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1919. His work includes both pessimistic and heroic poems....
. Amongst Heidelberg alumni in other disciplines are the "Father of Psychology" Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was a German physician, psychologist, physiologist, philosopher, and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of modern psychology. He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology"...
, the "Father of Physical Chemistry" J. Willard Gibbs, the "Father of American Anthropology" Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
, Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements...
, who created the periodic table
Periodic table
The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
of elements, inventor of the two-wheeler principle
Dandy horse
The dandy-horse, also known as hobby-horse, is a human-powered vehicle that, being the first means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, is regarded as the forerunner of the bicycle. The dandy horse was invented by Baron Karl Drais in Mannheim, Germany, and patented in January 1818...
Karl Drais
Karl Drais
Karl Drais was a German inventor and invented the Laufmaschine , also later called the velocipede, draisine or "draisienne" , also nicknamed the dandy horse. This incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle and was the beginning of mechanized personal...
, Alfred Wegener
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German scientist, geophysicist, and meteorologist.He is most notable for his theory of continental drift , proposed in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth...
, who discovered the continental drift
Continental drift
Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912...
, as well as political theorist Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, political scientist Carl Joachim Friedrich
Carl Joachim Friedrich
Carl Joachim Friedrich was a German-American professor and political theorist....
, and sociologists Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim , or Károly Mannheim in the original writing of his name, was a Jewish Hungarian-born sociologist, influential in the first half of the 20th century and one of the founding fathers of classical sociology and a founder of the sociology of knowledge.-Life:Mannheim studied in Budapest,...
, Robert E. Park
Robert E. Park
Robert Ezra Park was an American urban sociologist, one of the main founders of the original Chicago School of sociology.-Life:...
and Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927 to 1973....
.
Philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
, Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...
, Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 magnum opus, Truth and Method .-Life:...
, and Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
served as university professors, as did also the pioneering scientists Hermann von Helmholtz
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...
, Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Emil Kraepelin
Emil Kraepelin
Emil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. H.J. Eysenck's Encyclopedia of Psychology identifies him as the founder of modern scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological and genetic...
, the founder of scientific psychiatry, and outstanding social scientists such as Max Weber
Max Weber
Karl Emil Maximilian "Max" Weber was a German sociologist and political economist who profoundly influenced social theory, social research, and the discipline of sociology itself...
, the founding father of modern sociology.
Present faculty include Medicine Nobel Laureates Bert Sakmann
Bert Sakmann
-External links:*...
(1991) and Harald zur Hausen
Harald zur Hausen
Harald zur Hausen is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cancer of the cervix, where he discovered the role of papilloma viruses, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.-Biography:Zur Hausen was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, went to...
(2008), 7 Leibniz Laureates
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is a research prize awarded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft every year since 1985 to scientists working in Germany. This highest German research prize consists of a research grant of 2.5 million euro, to be used within seven years...
, former Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
Paul Kirchhof
Paul Kirchhof
Paul Kirchhof is a German jurist and tax law expert. He is also a professor of law, member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and a former judge in the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany , the highest court in Germany.Kirchhof obtained a doctorate at the early age of 25 having...
, and Rüdiger Wolfrum
Rüdiger Wolfrum
Rüdiger Wolfrum is professor of international law at the University of Heidelberg School of Law and Director of the Heidelberg Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law...
, the former President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an intergovernmental organization created by the mandate of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It was established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed at Montego Bay, Jamaica, on December 10, 1982...
.
In fiction and popular culture
In 1880, Mark TwainMark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
wrote as detailed as humorously about his impressions of Heidelberg's student life in A Tramp Abroad
A Tramp Abroad
A Tramp Abroad is a work of non-fiction travel literature by American author Mark Twain, published in 1880. The book details a journey by the author, with his friend Harris , through central and southern Europe...
. He painted a picture of the university as a school for aristocrats, whose students pursued a dandy-like lifestyle, and described the great influence the student corporations exerted on the whole Heidelberg student life.
In William Somerset Maugham's 1915 masterpiece novel Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had...
, he described the one-year stay of the protagonist Philip Carey at the University of Heidelberg, in a largely autobiographical way. Heidelberg also featured in the respective film versions of the novel, released in 1934 (starring Leslie Howard
Leslie Howard (actor)
Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director, and producer. Among his best-known roles was Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind and roles in Berkeley Square , Of Human Bondage , The Scarlet Pimpernel , The Petrified Forest , Pygmalion , Intermezzo , Pimpernel Smith...
as Philip, and Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
as Mildred), 1946 (with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Jean Parker is an American screen actress. Her versatility led to her being dubbed Woman of a Thousand Faces, the title of her biography by Doug McClelland.- Early life :...
in the lead roles), and 1964 (with Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey
Laurence Harvey was a Lithuanian-born actor who achieved fame in British and American films.- Early life :Harvey maintained throughout his life that his birth name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne. However, his legal name was Zvi Mosheh Skikne. He was the youngest of three boys born to Ber "Boris" and...
and Kim Novak
Kim Novak
Kim Novak is an American film and television actress. She began her career with her roles in Pushover and Phffft! but achieved greater prominence in the 1955 film Picnic...
in the lead roles).
The 1927 silent film The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, also known as The Student Prince and Old Heidelberg, is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1927 silent film based on a novel by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster. Ernst Lubitsch directed the picture...
, based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster
Wilhelm Meyer-Förster
Wilhelm Meyer-Förster a.k.a. Samar Gregorow was a German novelist and playwright.-Biography:...
's play Alt Heidelberg (1903), starring Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro
Ramón Novarro was a Mexican leading man actor in Hollywood in the early 20th century. He was the next male "Sex Symbol" after the death of Rudolph Valentino...
and Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer was a Canadian-American actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s...
, continued Mark Twain's image of Heidelberg, showing the story of a German prince who comes to Heidelberg to study there, but falls in love with his innkeeper's daughter. Having been very popular in the first half of the 20th century, it presents the typical student life of the 19th and early 20th century, and it is today considered a masterpiece of the late silent film era. MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
's 1954 color remake The Student Prince
The Student Prince (film)
The Student Prince is a 1954 CinemaScope color film musical featuring, as the credits read, "the singing voice of Mario Lanza". Lanza had become embroiled in a bitter dispute with MGM during production and the studio dismissed him. Under the terms of the settlement with Lanza, MGM retained the...
, featuring the voice of Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
, is based on Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg was a Hungarian-born American composer, best known for his operettas.-Biography:Romberg was born as Siegmund Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Gross-Kanizsa during the Austro-Hungarian kaiserlich und königlich monarchy period...
's operetta version
The Student Prince
The Student Prince is an operetta in four acts with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly. It is based on Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play Alt Heidelberg. The piece has elements of melodrama but lacks the swashbuckling style common to Romberg's other works...
of the story.
In Bernhard Schlink
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...
's semi-autobiographical 1995 novel The Reader
The Reader
The Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997...
, Heidelberg University is one of the main scenes of part II. Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, Michael Berg, a law student at the university, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial, which he observes as part of a seminar. The university is also featured in the Academy Award-winning 2008 film version The Reader, starring Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
, David Kross
David Kross
David Kross is a German actor. He is best known internationally for his role as Michael Berg in The Reader.- Early life :...
and Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
.
In 2000, the university was the main scene of the award-winning
Deutscher Filmpreis
The Deutscher Filmpreis is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie...
German thriller Anatomy
Anatomy (film)
Anatomy is a 2000 German horror film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky that stars Franka Potente. A sequel, Anatomy 2 was released in 2003...
. The medical student Paula Henning (played by Franka Potente
Franka Potente
Franka Potente is a German film actress and singer. She first appeared in the comedy After Five in the Forest Primeval and gained critical recognition in the action thriller Lola rennt . Potente received Germany's highest film and television awards for her performances in Run Lola Run and...
) wins a place in a summer course at the prestigious Heidelberg Medical School
Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine
The Faculty of Medicine is one of twelve faculties at the University of Heidelberg. It was one of the four original faculties of the university in 1386...
. When the body of a young man she met on the train turns up on her dissection table, she begins to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, uncovering a gruesome conspiracy perpetrated by an antihippocratic secret society operating within the university.
See also
- Baden-WürttembergBaden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
- Education in GermanyEducation in GermanyThe responsibility for the German education system lies primarily with the states while the federal government plays only a minor role. Optional Kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years of age, after which school attendance is compulsory, in most cases for...
- HeidelbergHeidelberg-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
- List of medieval universities
- List of oldest universities in continuous operation
- List of universities in Germany
- Mannheim University of Applied SciencesMannheim University of Applied SciencesThe Mannheim University of Applied Sciences is a public university located in Mannheim, Germany. Commonly referred to as Hochschule Mannheim and previously known as FH Mannheim, it offers 33 degree programs at Bachelor's and Master's level in the fields of engineering, informatics, biotechnology,...
for jointly run programs - Mediaeval university
- Rhine Neckar Metropolitan Area
- Freiwilliges Feldjäger-Korps von SchmidtFreiwilliges Feldjäger-Korps von SchmidtFreiwilliges Feldjäger-Korps von Schmidt was a group of Prussian volunteer infantrymen that formed in late 1813 when the Grand Duchy of Baden joined the cause of the Allies after the Battle of Leipzig. Most of the men were students of the university of Heidelberg. It was founded on the...
External links
University of Heidelberg- University of Heidelberg
- Heidelberg Alumni International
- Photo Gallery #1
- Photo Gallery #2
- Photo Gallery #3
City of Heidelberg
Miscellaneous