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University of Freiburg
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University of Freiburg (German Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, colloquially Uni Freiburg ), sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
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University of Freiburg (German Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, colloquially Uni Freiburg ), sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburgs as the second university in Austrian-Habsburg territory after the University of Vienna. Today, Freiburg is the fifth-oldest university in Germany, with a long tradition of teaching the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. It is considered one of the most prestigious universities and a leading research and teaching institution in Europe. The university is made up of 11 faculties and attracts students from across Germany as well as from over one hundred and twenty countries.
The University of Freiburg was designated a German "University of Excellence" in 2007.
History
Originally Albrechts University, the university started with four faculties (theology, philosophy, medicine and law). Its establishment belongs to the second wave of German university foundings in the late Middle Ages, like the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the University of Basel. Established by papal privilege (papal bull) the University in Freiburg actually was - like all or most universities in the Middle Ages - a corporation of the church body and therefore belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy. The bishop of Basel consequently was its provost or chancellor (Kanzler), the bishop of Konstanz was its patron while the real founder of the university was the sovereign, Archduke Albert VI of Austria, being the brother of Frederick III, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. At its founding, the university was named after Albert VI of Austria. He provided the university with land and a huge amount of endowments as well as its own jurisdiction. Also he declared Albrechts University as the "county university" (German Landesuniversität) for his territory - in the past including an area from Alsace to Tyrol - until it was handed over to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1490.
Shortly after that the university had a time of prosperity when numerous later famous humanists were educated there like Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johann Reuchlin or Jakob Wimpfeling. When Ulric Zasius was teaching law (until 1536), Freiburg became a centre of humanist jurisprudence. From 1529 to 1535 Erasmus of Rotterdam lived and taught in Freiburg. Since around 1559 the university was housed at the Altes Collegium ("Old College"), today called the "new town-hall". The importance of the university decreased during the time of the Counter-Reformation. To counter those tendencies, the administration of two faculties was handed over to the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits in 1620. (The two faculties were, of course, Theology (or Divinity) and Philosophy.) Since 1682 the Jesuits built up their college as well as the Jesuit church (nowadays the "University Church" or Universitätskirche).
At times, especially during the disorders of the Thirty Years' War, the university had to move out of Freiburg temporarily, e.g. from 1686 to 1698, when French troops devastated Freiburg and the southern parts of the upper Rhine region.
After Freiburg as the capital of Further Austria was re-conquered, a new time began for the university by the reforms of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The requirements for admission were changed for all faculties in 1767 (before that time only Roman Catholics were allowed to study) and Natural Sciences were added as well as Public Administration. Also in 1767, the university became a governmental institution despite the Church's protests. The Church finally lost its predominant influence on the university when the Jesuits were suppressed following a decree signed by Pope Clement XIII in 1773. It also might have been the Zeitgeist and the official line of the new Emperor Joseph II (successor and son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria) that his Patent of Tolerance which ensured Protestants the same rights as Catholics (published 1781) finally began an era of Enlightenment within the domains of the Habsburg, nowadays known as an era called "Josephinismus". Consequently Johann Georg Jacobi (brother of the more famous philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi) in 1784 was the first Protestant professor teaching at the university in Freiburg. It is said that Joseph II instructed in his will to offer the professorship in Freiburg to Johann Heinrich Jacobi, probably already guessing the shocked reaction which the citizens of Freiburg would show given the fact that the area around Freiburg was deeply devoted to Catholicism.
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