University of Göttingen

University of Göttingen   (University)
Motto	In publica commoda (Latin)
Formation	1734
Headquarters	Göttingen, Germany
Type	•  Public Law foundation (Stiftung öffentlichen Rechts •  since 2003)
One of Germany's historic and traditional institutions.

The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1734 by George II, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover, and starting classes in 1737, the Georgia Augusta was conceived to promote the ideals of the Enlightenment. It is the oldest university in the state of Lower Saxony and the largest in student enrollment, which stands at around 31,600.

Home to many noted figures, it represents one of Germany's historic and traditional institutions. As of October 2020, 44 Nobel Prize winners have been affiliated with the University of Göttingen as alumni, faculty members or researchers.

With approximately 9 million media units, the Göttingen State and University Library ranks among the largest libraries in Germany.

History

King George II, founder and president of the university

Inauguration

In 1734, King George II of Great Britain, who was also Elector of Hanover, gave his Prime Minister in Hanover, Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, the order to establish a university in Göttingen to propagate the ideas and values associated with the European Enlightenment.

Initially, the only new buildings constructed for the opening of the university were a riding hall and a fencing house, while courses were taught in the Paulinerkirche and associated Dominican monastery, or in the homes of professors. No university auditorium was built until well into the 19th century.

King George II in the Pauliner Church in 1748

18th–19th centuries

Throughout the remainder of the 18th century the University of Göttingen was in the top rank of German universities, with its free spirit and atmosphere of scientific exploration and research. Famously, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was the first to hold a professorship (1769–99) explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. By 1812, Göttingen had become an internationally acknowledged modern university with a library of more than 200,000 volumes.

In the first years of the University of Göttingen, it became known especially for its Faculty of Law. In the 18th century Johann Stephan Pütter, a scholar of public law at that time, taught jus publicum for half a century. The subject had attracted students such as Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, later diplomat and Prime Minister of Austria, and Wilhelm von Humboldt, who later established the University of Berlin. In 1809 Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher best known for his work The World as Will and Representation, became a student at the university, where he studied metaphysics and psychology under Gottlob Ernst Schulze, who advised him to concentrate on Plato and Kant. By the university's centenary in 1837, it was known as the "university of law," as the students enrolled by the faculty of law often made up more than half of the university's students. Göttingen became a Mecca for the study of public law in Germany.

During this time, the University of Göttingen achieved renown for its critical work on history as well. An Enlightenment institution, it produced the Göttingen School of History.

However, political disturbances, in which both professors and students were implicated, lowered the attendance to 860 in 1834. The expulsion in 1837 of the seven professors – the so-called Die Göttinger Sieben (the Germanist Wilhelm Eduard Albrecht (1800–1876), the historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann (1785–1860), the orientalist Georg Heinrich August Ewald (1803–1875), the historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus (1805–1875), the physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804–1891), and the philologist brothers Jakob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859)) – for protesting against the revocation by Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, of the liberal constitution of 1833 further reduced the prosperity of the university.

Otto von Bismarck, the main creator and the first Chancellor of the second German Empire, had also studied law in Göttingen in 1833: he lived in a tiny house on the "Wall," now known as "Bismarck Cottage". According to oral tradition, he lived there because his rowdiness had caused him to be banned from living within the city walls.

Turn of the 20th century

Alte Aula (Great Hall), also Karzer, at Wilhelmsplatz (built in 1835–1837)

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the University of Göttingen achieved its academic peak. Göttingen maintained a strong focus on natural science, especially mathematics. By 1900, David Hilbert and Felix Klein had attracted mathematicians from around the world to Göttingen, which made it a leading center of mathematics by the turn of the 20th century. Likewise, the Faculty of Theology in conjunction with other orientalists and ancient historians across the university became an international center for the study of religion and antiquity.

The interior of the university Aula

From 1921 to 1933, the physics theory group was led by Max Born, who, during this time, became one of the three discoverers of the non-relativistic theory of quantum mechanics. He may also have been the first to propose its probabilistic relationship with classical physics. It was one of the main centers of the development of modern physics.

During this time, the German language became an international academic language. A number of dissertations in the UK and the US had German titles. One might be considered having had a complete academic training only when one had studied in Germany. Thus, many American students were proud of having studied in Germany, and the University of Göttingen had profound impacts on the US. A number of American politicians, lawyers, historians and writers received their education from both Harvard and Göttingen. For example, Edward Everett, once Secretary of State and President of Harvard University, stayed in Göttingen for two years of study. George Ticknor spent two years studying classics in Göttingen. Even John Lothrop Motley, a diplomat and historian, had personal friendship with Otto von Bismarck during his two-year-long study in Göttingen. George Bancroft, a politician and historian, received his PhD from the University of Göttingen in 1820.

"Great purge" of 1933

In the 1930s, the university became a focal point for the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish physics", as represented by the work of Albert Einstein. In what was later called the "great purge" of 1933, academics including Max Born, Victor Goldschmidt, James Franck, Eugene Wigner, Leó Szilárd, Edward Teller, Edmund Landau, Emmy Noether, and Richard Courant were expelled or fled. Most of them fled Nazi Germany for places like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Following the great purge, in 1934 David Hilbert, by then a symbol of German mathematics, was dining with Bernhard Rust, the Nazi minister of education. Rust asked, “How is mathematics at Göttingen, now that it is free from the Jewish influence?” Hilbert replied, “There is no mathematics in Göttingen anymore.”

Renovation after War

After World War II, the University of Göttingen was the first university in the western Zones to be re-opened under British control in 1945.

 

Alumni on Wikispooks

Person	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
Otto von Bismarck	1 April 1815	30 July 1898		Deep politician	German deep politician, Chancellor of the German Empire 1871-1890
Carl Burckhardt	10 September 1891	3 March 1974	Switzerland	Diplomat Historian	President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (1945–48), where he assisted Germans wanted for war crimes escape to South America. September 1955 and 1956 Bilderberg meetings.
Reiner Fuellmich	1958		German	Activist Lawyer COVID-19/Dissident Science/Dissident	Dissident lawyer who was involved with the Corona Investigative Committee, now accused of theft.
Richard Haldane	30 July 1856	19 August 1928		Politician	Uk Secretary of State for War between 1905 and 1912 during which time reforms of the British Army were implemented, with the secret task of a European war.
Jan Hecker	15 February 1967	6 September 2021	German	Diplomat COVID-19/Premature death	Dies suddenly just 2 weeks after taking up Beijing ambassador post.
Heribert Hellenbroich	14 May 1937	10 July 2014	German	Spook	Former Verfassungsschutz and BND chief. Had to retire after spy scandal.
Klaus Kleinfeld	6 November 1957		German	Businessperson	US/German businessman. Bilderberg steering committee, CFR, ERTI
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger	26 July 1951		German	Politician	German politician selected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1993.
Ursula von der Leyen	8 October 1958		German	Politician	Bilderberger President of the European Commission promoting Vaccine passports
Andreas Meyer-Landrut	31 May 1929		German	Diplomat Deep state functionary	German suspected deep state functionary
J. P. Morgan	17 April 1837	31 March 1913		Banker Deep politician Businessperson	Ultra wealthy US deep politician whose The Money Trust ruthlessly dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation there for decades.
J. Robert Oppenheimer	22 April 1904	18 February 1967	US	Physicist	Developer of the US atomic bomb.
Nicolai Rygg	29 February 1872	27 September 1957	Norway	Economist Central banker Deep state actor	Norwegian economist and Governor of the Central Bank of Norway (Norges Bank). His "independent" economic austerity policies contributed to the severe economic troubles in the 1920s and 1930s. He was behind the 1928 toppling of the first Labour Party cabinet in Norway, which only sat for sixteen days. He continued to work in an "unpolitical" role during the German occupation 1940-45.
Gerhard Schröder	7 April 1944		German	Politician	Chancellor of Germany for 7 years
Jürgen Trittin	25 July 1954		German	Politician	Single Bilderberg German politician
Richard von Weizsacker	15 April 1920	31 January 2015	German	Politician	German deep state functionary?
Norbert Wieczorek	12 December 1940	12 April 2022	German	Politician	German politician who attended the 1985 Bilderberg meeting.

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