Academic history in Osnabrück

Osnabrück has a relatively new academic history: the high education institution was established in 1974. Before that, the most prestigious educational center was since 1632 the Gymnasium Carolinum. Nowadays, with its 13,500 students from all over Germany and abroad, it is considered a prestigious university center in Lower Saxony area. 

The architecture style combines the classical, well-tempered bourgeois balance of volumes characteristic for the most part of the historical building with some bold, white and steal very modern buildings. The main offices are hosted in the baroque castle, but the majority of the classes are held in modern classrooms. Among the specialities studied here are: Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Business Administration and Economics. One of the famous students of the university is the former German president Christian Wulff. 

The university staff comprises 209 professors and more than 900 additional academic personnel. As a first time traveler in Osnabrück, I noticed how much life the young people, reading or carrying books on the old cobblestone streets bring to the city. Either staying in the grass and discussing or solitarily reading or talking to each other, the students bring dynamism to the city and make everything around them feel and look young.

German university history: Lutherstadt Wittenberg

As a visitor in the city of Luther, it is hard to imagine nowadays how the city used to look like in the 16th century when the University was first created here. Most of the houses from what it is now the old city were used as accommodation for students from all over the German speaking area and even from abroad. On many houses, names of famous students are written on the front of the doors of what used to be their study homes. Among the famous visitors or students are Giordano Bruno, poet Martin Opitz or the first African student in Germany, Anton Wilhelm Arno, Schiller, Lessing and Goethe.

Compared to other university cities, the majority of studies here were dedicated to religious topics and hence, probably the streets were less lively then in Heidelberg, for instance. 

Shortly after the creation, the university turned into an important center of protestant reformation. In 1512, Luther himself took his PhD in theology and continued to be part of the university as teacher of Bible studies. In 1580, Augusteum was built, one of Germany's oldest university buildings.

Nowadays, the university from Wittenberg bears the name of Luther and is part of a consortium together with the University of Halle. The University from Halle is much younger, being created in 1694. The current structure is functioning since the 1930s. 

The Leucorea center in Wittenberg hosts seminars and various conferences on topics regarding theology or social sciences. This center was created in 1842/43, during the time when the university was closed during the Napoleonic Wars and currently hosts the foundation dedicated to academic studies.

Wittenberg is no more the very active university center that used to be, but it keeps the prestige of academic excellence and the memory of prestigious personalities that studied and taught here.

University life in Halle an der Saale

As in the case of good restaurant, there are many good universities in Germany with a long intellectual tradition situated in relatively small towns. This geographic reality of the intellectual local map is probably due to the fact of the former autonomous structure of the relatively new German state. What is now considered 'small' at the scale of the Federal Republic used to play an important administrative role at the overall scale of the state administration. This is the case with Halle (an der Saale) with a 4-century long academic tradition. 

Halle can market itself not only as an important academic and intellectual standpoint in the Eastern part of the German lands, but also as the place where the first student of African origin attended a high-education institution in Europe. The presence of Anton Wilhelm Amo, a teacher and philosopher of African origin, that grew up in Germany, is outlined by an interesting statuary group. Amo was originally from Ghana and was brought to Europe at an early age and adopted by Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuetel. He started his education in 1727 at the Law School Salle, and continued further with studies in the field of logic, metaphysics, physiology, medicine, astronomy and history. Fluent in six languages - French, English, Dutch, German, Greek and Latin - he also studied at Jena or Wittenberg University, at the latter for his PhD in philosophy that he received in 1734. 

The main university area of is situated close to the Operahaus and includes several buildings designed according to the principles of classical architecture, many of them freshly restored in the last years. Additional modern construction were successfully integrated into the older complex. 

The current university is made up of two traditional centers of high-education: the university of Halle and the one from Wittenberg. Mostly focused on sciences, law and humanist knowledge, it contributed to the development of various technologies and studies, but also to the creation of interesting places that are integrated into the tourist local recommendations, such as the Botanical Gardens. 

 

I visited Martin Luther University premises during the day of rest of 1st of May, and everything was quiet around. The vicinity to the old historical city center inspires to meditation and introspection, a feeling created by the big green spaces with statues of various intellectual representations. 

The University from Halle is considered among the first to introduce the 'modern university model' in Europe, where the students are encouraged to critically address their sources rather than to reproduce sheepishly the words and insights of their teachers. Nowadays, the main faculties are: Theology, Law and Economics, Medicine, Philosophy and Natural Sciences.

Another intellectual reference for Halle an der Saale is Academia Leopoldina, labelled as the oldest and most respected German Academy of Sciences nowadays. Viewed from the outside, it looks as a serious castle where eventually important decisions are taken, and this impression was not necessarily influenced by the vicinity with the Moritzburg Castle who's situated just on the opposite side of the street. It was initially created in 1652, in Schweinfurt and counted more than 7,000 members since its foundation. Among the most prestigious representatives, we can mention: Goethe, Marie Curie, Max Planck, Albert Einstein or Charles Darwin.