The Vision of Wilhelm von Humboldt

The university was founded in Berlin in 1810, and the foundation concept which Wilhelm von Humboldt had put forward made it the "mother of all modern universities".

This concept envisaged a "Universitas litterarum" which would achieve a unity of teaching and research and provide students with an all-round humanist education. This concept spread throughout the world and gave rise to the foundation of many universities of the same type over the following 150 years.

The concept of the academic and statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt was influenced, among others, by the reform ideas of the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the first vice chancellor of the University, and by the theologian and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher.

At the outset, Berlin university had the four classical faculties of Law, Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. The first academic term began with 256 students and 52 academic staff. Professors such as Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel (Philosophy), Karl Friedrich von Savigny (Law), August Boeckh (Classical Philology), Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (Medicine) and Albrecht Daniel Thaer (Agriculture) shaped the profile of the individual faculties in accordance with Humboldt's concept.

Partly due to the influence of the natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the University pioneered the introduction of many new disciplines. The chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann, the physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, the mathematicians Ernst Kummer, Leopold Kronecker, Karl Theodor Weierstrass (the "triple star of mathematics") and the medical scientists Johannes Muller and Rudolf Virchow became known in their specialist areas far beyond Berlin University. Later, a total of 29 Nobel Prize winners did some of their scientific work at Berlin University, including Albert Einstein, Emil Fischer, Max Planck and Fritz Haber. And many famous people such as Heinrich Heine, Adelbert von Chamisso, Ludwig Feuerbach, Otto von Bismarck, Karl Liebknecht, Franz Mehring, Alice Salomon, Karl Marx and Kurt Tucholsky were also enrolled at the "Alma mater" of Berlin. Heinrich Mann, the writer, became the first honorary doctor of the University after the end of the Second World War.

A Royal Home - the Palais Unter den Linden

The Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, donated the first building to the University - the former Palace of Prince Heinrich of Prussia. Built from 1748 to 1766 on the splendid boulevard Unter den Linden, and it saw major extension work from 1913 to 1920. When the Royal Library was no longer sufficient for academic needs, a University Library was established in 1831. In the course of the expansion of the University, named "Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat" from 1828, institutions that already existed in the city were integrated. One example is the Charite, which is still famous today. Friedrich I had a quarantine house built outside the city walls to keep away the threat of the plague. This "plague house" was used to accommodate the poor who had fallen ill and the frail. As early as 1726, in its function as a military and citizens' hospital, this building was made a training centre for military medicine and a school for doctors and surgeons. In 1727 the "soldier king" Friedrich Wilhelm decreed: "The building is to be named Charite". The Faculty of Medicine took over the building in 1829. With the setting-up of natural science institutions in the second half of the 19th century, highly modern research and teaching facilities came into being. The School of Animal Medicine, which had been founded in 1790, was constituted as the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and the Agricultural College founded in 1881 became the Faculty of Agriculture. In 1889 a new building was opened in 43 Invalidenstrasse for the Natural History Collections that had belonged to the University since 1810. This building is now the Museum of Natural History. At the turn of the century the close links between the clinical and pre-clinical facilities of the Faculty of Medicine had been made a generous compound of different scientific disciplines.

29 Nobel Price Winners

The early decades of the 20th century were characterised by great academic achievements and international attractiveness. In 1901, Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff from the Netherlands was the first scholar of the University to be given a Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his research into the laws of chemical dynamics. The antiquity expert Theodor Mommsen published trendsetting work on Roman History, and in 1902 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. 27 other Nobel Prizes won by scholars and scientists of Berlin University reflect outstanding achievements. The chemist Walter Nernst and the physicists Max von Laue, Gustav Hertz and James Franck must be mentioned here. Emil von Behring received the first Nobel Prize for Medicine for the development of an effective cure of diphtheria, and some years later Robert Koch, who discovered the tuberculosis and cholera bacteria, also obtained the Nobel Prize.

When in 1954 the Nobel Prize was awarded to Max Born, at that time a professor at Berlin University and co-founder of quantum mechanics, for "Establishing a New Way of Thinking about Natural Phenomena" (Born), the University had been through a dark chapter of German history: The expulsion of Jewish academics and students as well as political opponents of National Socialism, and the murdering of some of them, did great damage to the University in the period from 1933 to 1945. It was a particularly shameful moment for the University when on 10th May 1933 students and lecturers took part in the burning of books. After that and in the subsequent war years, many academics left Berlin University, which had once been renowned as the home of humanitarian thought.

Since 1908 women have been admitted to universities in Prussia and soon afterwards they were employed as assistant or associate professors in both teaching and research. A well-known example was the physicist Lise Meitner. From 1945 it has been possible for women to be appointed to full professorships.

Re-opening after World War II

Although weakened by the great loss of scientific potential, the University was re-opened in January 1946. It consisted of seven faculties accommodated partly war-damaged buildings. The political turmoil of the post-war period and the protest of students and staff against the increasing Communist influence on the university led to a split among staff and students. As a result, the Freie Universitat of Berlin was founded in December 1948 in the American sector of the city.

In 1949 the University was given the names of the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt. However, the university reforms of 1950/51 and 1967/68 caused the university to develop in a way that ran counter to its former academic traditions and changed the contents taught, the study procedures and research conditions in obedience to the ruling ideology. Nevertheless, it was still possible in some areas to restore international contacts and create world-wide cooperation. The long-standing and intensive research and exchange links with the universities in Eastern Europe and particularly in the former Soviet Union are worth special mentioning; many of these links are without parallel in Germany. In addition, formal academic cooperation with nearly all universities in the capital cities of Western Europe has existed since the 1970s. And for several years there have been close relations to universities in Japan and the United States, as well as in Asian, African and Latin American countries.
Following German unification in 1990, Humboldt-Universitat seized the opportunity to enhance international components in both teaching and research, and to increase the mobility of its students. This was done by explicitly continuing previously existing international cooperation and exchange agreements.
Future development is focused upon three areas:

• the strengthening of contacts within the EC, especially under the auspices of the Socrates/Erasmus Program;

• the boosting of researcher and student exchange opportunities with North American universities and colleges;

• and the stabilisation of relations with partner institutions in Central and Eastern Europe.

The University currently maintains formal contacts to nearly 100 academic institutions on all continents, and holds more than 400 formal contracts within the Socrates Program. Students from over 100 different foreign countries are presently enrolled at Humboldt-Universitat. International students comprise 10.9% of the entire student population.