The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
university in the world. It is now a public university of the state of
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
, without religious affiliation. The University of Marburg has about 23,500 students and 7,500 employees and is located in
Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...
, a town of 76,000 inhabitants, with university buildings dotted in or around the town centre. About 14 per cent of the students are international, the highest percentage in Hesse. It offers an International summer university programme and offers student exchanges through the Erasmus programme.
History
In 1609, the University of Marburg established the world's first professorship in chemistry. In 2012 it opened the first German interactive chemistry museum, called '. Its experimental course programme is aimed at encouraging young people to pursue careers in science.
The university was among the first in Germany to offer courses in gender studies.
Nazi period
20 professors were expelled in 1933, among them economist who emigrated and linguist who committed suicide.
After 1945
Since the 1970s especially the Department of Social Sciences is regarded as a leftist stronghold, with being a major influence within the field of political science in post-war Germany.
Academics
Research
The university is significant for its life sciences research, but is also home to one of the few centers that conduct research on the middle east, the CNMS (center for near and middle eastern studies). The departments of psychology and geography reached Excellence Group status in the Europe-wide CHE Excellence Ranking 2009.
Its research is illustrated by its participation in several SFBs ('). These collaborative research centres are financed by the German Science Foundation '. They encourage researchers to cross the boundaries of disciplines, institutes, departments and faculties within the participating university. The current SFB at Philipps-University Marburg are:
* SFB/TR17 – Ras-dependent Pathways in Human Cancer (started 2004; with )
* SFB/TR22 – Allergic response of the lung (started 2005, with Research Center Borstel and
LMU Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
)
* SFB/TR81 – Chromatin Changes in Differentiation and Malignancies (started 2010, with )
* SFB-TRR 84 – Innate Immunity of the Lung (started 2010, with , , , , , )
* SFB-TRR 135 – Cardinal mechanisms of perception (started 2014, with )
* SFB 593 – Mechanisms of cellular compartmentalisation and the relevance for disease (started 2003)
* SFB 987 – Microbial Diversity in Environmental Signal Response (started 2012, with Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg)
* SFB 1083 – Structure and Dynamics of Internal Interfaces (started 2013, with
Donostia International Physics Center
The Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) Foundation was established in 1999 in the framework of a collaboration agreement reached by the Education and Industry Departments of the Basque Government, the University of the Basque Country, ...
San Sebastián, Spain)
* SFB 1021 – RNA viruses: RNA metabolism, host response and pathogenesis (started 2013, with )
Collections of the university
* , the university's old
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
* , the university's current botanical garden
* (Collection of photographs taken from medieval charters)
* (German national picture archive of arts)
* (Collection of religious objects)
* (Linguistic Atlas of Germany)
* (Museum of Mineralogy)
* (Museum of Arts)
* (Museum of Anatomy and Medical History)
Rankings
For 2020–21 the university was ranked as 28th nationally and 369th worldwide.
Gallery
Marburg FB Wirtschaftswissenschaften.jpg, Department for Economic Studies
Marburg Psychologisches Institut von SW.jpg, Department of Psychology
Uni Marburg Lahnberge 04.jpg, The ' is dedicated to the natural sciences. The image shows the ''Multiple Purpose Building'', home of the Departments of Mathematics and Computer Science, as well as laboratories for research into material sciences and physical chemistry
Uni Marburg FB Biologie 01.jpg, The building of the nearby Biology Department is of the same architectural style
Klinikum Marburg 02.jpg, The University Hospital along with the Department for Medical Studies is also located at the Lahnberge Campus
Alte Universität (Marburg) 2.jpg, The ''Old University'', housing the university church, the department for religious studies and a representative lecture hall
Uni Marburg Studierendensekretariat (1).jpg, The administrative headquarters of the university
Uni Marburg 20.jpg, The Central Lecture Hall Building, which has been built to cater for the increased number of students
Marburg UB Neubau Eingang Alter Botanischer Garten von OSO.jpg, University library
Marburg Uni Geisteswissenschaftliche Instiute von SSW.jpg, University of Marburg - Department of Social Sciences and former University library
Mensa 01.jpg, One of the two large university cafeterias and canteens is located on the bank of the Lahn river
Notable alumni and faculty
Natural scientists
*
Ludwig Aschoff
Karl Albert Ludwig Aschoff (10 January 1866 – 24 June 1942) was a German physician and pathologist. He is considered to be one of the most influential pathologists of the early 20th century and is regarded as the most important German patholog ...
*
Emil von Behring
Emil von Behring (; Emil Adolf von Behring), born Emil Adolf Behring (15 March 1854 – 31 March 1917), was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one awarded in that field, for his discovery ...
*
Karl Ferdinand Braun
Karl Ferdinand Braun (; 6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology: he shared the ...
*
Klaus Bringmann
Klaus Bringmann (28 May 1936, in Bad Wildungen - 14 July 2021Uwe Walter, ''Sinn fürs Wesentliche - Zum Tod von Klaus Bringmann'', In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung vom 19. Juli 2021) was a German historian, an author of books on Roman history, ...
*
Robert Bunsen
Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (;
30 March 1811
– 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...
*
Adolf Butenandt
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (; 24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a German biochemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government po ...
*
Georg Ludwig Carius
Georg Ludwig Carius (August 24, 1829 – April 24, 1875) was a German chemist born in Barbis, in the Kingdom of Hanover. He studied under Friedrich Wöhler and was assistant to Robert Bunsen for 6 years. He was Director of the Marburger Chemical ...
*
Franz Ludwig Fick
Franz Ludwick Fick (18 May 1813 – 31 December 1858) was a professor of anatomy at the University of Marburg.
Education
In 1835, he received his MD under Bünger from the University of Marburg.
Career
Fick studied the developmental mechanics o ...
*
Hans Fischer
Hans Fischer (; 27 July 1881 – 31 March 1945) was a German organic chemist and the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for Chemistry "for his researches into the constitution of haemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of ha ...
*
Edward Frankland
Sir Edward Frankland, (18 January 18259 August 1899) was an English chemist. He was one of the originators of organometallic chemistry and introduced the concept of combining power or valence. An expert in water quality and analysis, he was ...
*
Frederick Augustus Genth
Frederick Augustus Ludwig Karl Wilhelm Genth (May 17, 1820 – February 2, 1893) was a German-American chemist, specializing in analytical chemistry and mineralogy.
Biography
Frederick Augustus Genth was born in Wächtersbach, Hesse-Cassel on ...
Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner ...
Thomas Archer Hirst
Thomas Archer Hirst FRS (22 April 1830 – 16 February 1892) was a 19th-century English mathematician, specialising in geometry. He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1883.
Life
Thomas Hirst was born in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, E ...
Hermann Kolbe
Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (27 September 1818 – 25 November 1884) was a major contributor to the birth of modern organic chemistry. He was a professor at Marburg and Leipzig. Kolbe was the first to apply the term synthesis in a chemical cont ...
*
Albrecht Kossel
Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (; 16 September 1853 – 5 July 1927) was a German biochemist and pioneer in the study of genetics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1910 for his work in determining the ch ...
Otto Loewi
Otto Loewi (; 3 June 1873 – 25 December 1961) was a German-born pharmacologist and psychobiologist who discovered the role of acetylcholine as an endogenous neurotransmitter. For his discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...
*
Carl Ludwig
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (; 29 December 1816 – 23 April 1895) was a German physician and physiologist. His work as both a researcher and teacher had a major influence on the understanding, methods and apparatus used in almost all branches ...
*
Hans Meerwein
Hans Meerwein (May 20, 1879 in Hamburg, Germany – October 24, 1965 in Marburg, Germany) was a German chemist.
Several reactions and reagents bear his name, most notably the Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley reduction, the Wagner–Meerwein rearran ...
*
Ludwig Mond
Ludwig Mond FRS (7 March 1839 – 11 December 1909) was a German-born, British chemist and industrialist. He discovered an important, previously unknown, class of compounds called metal carbonyls.
Education and career
Ludwig Mond was born ...
*
Denis Papin
Denis Papin FRS (; 22 August 1647 – 26 August 1713) was a French physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering invention of the steam digester, the forerunner of the pressure cooker and of the steam engine.
Early ...
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener (; ; 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and ...
*
Georg Wittig
Georg Wittig (; 16 June 1897 – 26 August 1987) was a German chemist who reported a method for synthesis of alkenes from aldehydes and ketones using compounds called phosphonium ylides in the Wittig reaction. He shared the Nobel Prize in Che ...
*
Alexandre Yersin
Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (22 September 1863 – 1 March 1943) was a Swiss- French physician and bacteriologist. He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the bacillus responsible for the bubonic plague or pest, which was later named in hi ...
*
Karl Ziegler
Karl Waldemar Ziegler (26 November 1898 – 12 August 1973) was a German chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1963, with Giulio Natta, for work on polymers. The Nobel Committee recognized his "excellent work on organometallic compound ...
Adolf Fick
Adolf Eugen Fick (3 September 1829 – 21 August 1901) was a German-born physician and physiologist.
Early life and education
Fick began his work in the formal study of mathematics and physics before realising an aptitude for medicine. He th ...
Theologians
Marburg was always known as a
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
-focused university. It retained that strength, especially in Philosophy and Theology for a long time after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
*
Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Karl Bultmann (; 20 August 1884 – 30 July 1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of the New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early-20th-century biblical studies. A prominent criti ...
Aegidius Hunnius
Aegidius Hunnius the Elder (21 December 1550 in Winnenden – 4 April 1603 in Wittenberg) was a Lutheran theologian of the Lutheran scholastic tradition and father of Nicolaus Hunnius.
Life
Hunnius went rapidly through the preparatory scho ...
Helmut Koester
Helmut Heinrich Koester (December 18, 1926 – January 1, 2016) was an American scholar who specialized in the New Testament and early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. His research was primarily in the areas of New Testament interpretati ...
*
Jacob Lorhard
Jacob Lorhard ( la, Jacobus Lorhardus; 1561 – 19 May 1609) was a German philosopher and pedagogue based in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Biography
Lorhard was born in Münsingen, in the Duchy of Württemberg. He studied at the University of ...
Kurt Rudolph
Kurt Rudolph (3 April 1929 University of Leipzig – 13 May 2020) was a German researcher of < ...
*
Annemarie Schimmel
Annemarie Schimmel (7 April 1922 – 26 January 2003) was an influential German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam, especially Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.
Early life and education ...
Gottlieb Olpp
Gottlieb Friedrich Adolf Olpp was a German missionary and tropical medicine doctor, accredited with spreading Traditional Chinese Medicine and aiding the development of sinology in Germany and the West in early 20th century. As a medical mission ...
- on medical missionary
Philosophers
*
Wolfgang Abendroth
Wolfgang Walter Arnulf Abendroth (2 May 1906 – 15 September 1985) was a socialist German jurist and political scientist. He was born in Elberfeld, now a part of Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia. Abendroth was an important contributor to the c ...
Karl Theodor Bayrhoffer
Karl Theodor Otto Christian August Bayrhoffer (14 October 1812, in Marburg – 3 February 1888) was a German American philosopher, free-thinker, and publicist.
In 1834 he received his PhD from the University of Marburg, where he later became a pr ...
*
Ernst Cassirer
Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( , ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic philosophy of science.
A ...
*
Hermann Cohen
Hermann Cohen (4 July 1842 – 4 April 1918) was a German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century ...
*
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer (; ; February 11, 1900 – March 13, 2002) was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 ''magnum opus'', '' Truth and Method'' (''Wahrheit und Methode''), on hermeneutics.
Life
Family ...
*
Nicolai Hartmann
Paul Nicolai Hartmann (; 20 February 1882 – 9 October 1950) was a Baltic German philosopher. He is regarded as a key representative of critical realism and as one of the most important twentieth-century metaphysicians.
Biography
Hartmann was ...
*
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th ce ...
Friedrich Albert Lange
Friedrich Albert Lange (; 28 September 1828 – 21 November 1875) was a German philosopher and sociologist.
Biography
Lange was born in Wald, near Solingen, the son of the theologian, Johann Peter Lange. He was educated at Duisburg, Zürich ...
*
Karl Löwith
Karl Löwith (9 January 1897 – 26 May 1973) was a German philosopher in the phenomenological tradition. A student of Husserl and Heidegger, he was one of the most prolific German philosophers of the twentieth century.
He is known for his two ...
*
Paul Natorp
Paul Gerhard Natorp (24 January 1854 – 17 August 1924) was a German philosopher and educationalist, considered one of the co-founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism. He was known as an authority on Plato.
Biography
Paul Natorp was b ...
*
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset (; 9 May 1883 – 18 October 1955) was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century, while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism, and dictatorship. His philosoph ...
*
Isaac Rülf
Isaac (Yitzhak) Rülf (February 10, 1831 – September 18, 1902) was a Jewish teacher, journalist and philosopher. He became widely known for his aid work and as a prominent early Zionist.
Rülf was born in Rauischholzhausen, Hesse, Germany ...
Eduard Zeller
Eduard Gottlob Zeller (; 22 January 1814, Kleinbottwar19 March 1908, Stuttgart) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian of the Tübingen School of theology. He was well known for his writings on Ancient Greek philosophy, especiall ...
* Hermann Behrends (1907–1948), German Nazi SS officer executed for war crimes
*
Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.
Biography and work
Family and beginnings
Go ...
Georg Friedrich Creuzer
Georg Friedrich Creuzer (; 10 March 1771 – 6 February 1858) was a German philologist and archaeologist.
Life
He was born at Marburg, the son of a bookbinder. After studying at Marburg and at the University of Jena, he went to Leipzig as a ...
Wilhelm Grimm
Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm.
Life and work
Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in Hanau, ...
Gustav Heinemann
Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Mini ...
Beatrice Heuser
Beatrice Heuser (born 15 March 1961 in Bangkok), is an historian and political scientist. She holds the chair of International Relations at the University of Glasgow.
Heuser has a B.A. in History from Bedford College, a M.A. in International Hi ...
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).Mikhail Lomonosov
*
Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre
Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre (July 16, 1890 - June 30, 1967) is an American poet, known for his poetry and translations of Baudelaire, Verlaine, George, Goethe and Rilke. His work appeared in ''The Nation'', and ''Harper's''.
Biography
He was born ...
*
Ulrike Meinhof
Ulrike Marie Meinhof (7 October 1934 – 9 May 1976) was a German left-wing journalist and founding member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, commonly referred to in the press as the "Baader-Meinhof gang". She is the reputed author ...
*
Friedrich Paulus
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (23 September 1890 – 1 February 1957) was a German field marshal during World War II who is best known for commanding the 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). The battle ende ...
Ferdinand Sauerbruch
Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (; 3 July 1875 – 2 July 1951) was a German surgeon. His major work was on the use of negative-pressure chambers for surgery.
Biography
Sauerbruch was born in Barmen (now a district of Wuppertal), Germany. He ...
*
Friedrich Carl von Savigny
Friedrich Carl von Savigny (21 February 1779 – 25 October 1861) was a German jurist and historian.
Early life and education
Savigny was born at Frankfurt am Main, of a family recorded in the history of Lorraine, deriving its name from the cast ...
*
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He ...
Wilhelm Röpke
Wilhelm Röpke (October 10, 1899 – February 12, 1966) was a German economist and social critic, best known as one of the spiritual fathers of the social market economy. A Professor of Economics, first in Jena, then in Graz, Marburg, Ist ...
*
Costas Simitis
Konstantinos G. Simitis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Σημίτης; born 23 June 1936), usually referred to as Costas Simitis or Kostas Simitis (Κώστας Σημίτης), is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece a ...
List of early modern universities in Europe
The list of early modern universities in Europe comprises all universities that existed in the early modern age (1501–1800) in Europe. It also includes short-lived foundations and educational institutions whose university status is a matter o ...
*
List of universities in Germany
This is a list of the universities in Germany, of which there are about seventy. The list also includes German ''Technische Universitäten'' (universities of technology), which have official and full university status, but usually focus on engin ...