University of Greifswald

The University of Greifswald (German: [ˈɡʁaɪfsvalt]; German: Universität Greifswald), formerly known as Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, is a public research university located in Greifswald, Germany, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Founded in 1456, it is the fourth oldest university in Germany and one of the oldest universities in Europe, with generations of notable alumni and staff having studied or worked in Greifswald. Approximately two-thirds of the 10,179 students are from outside Mecklenburg–Vorpommern, including international students from 90 countries.

History

1456–1600: Founding

The University of Greifswald was founded on 17 October 1456 with the approval of the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope. This was possible due to the great commitment of Greifswald's lord mayor, Heinrich Rubenow, who was also to become the university's first rector, with the support of Duke Wartislaw IX of Pomerania and Bishop Henning Iven of the local St Nicolas' Cathedral. The founding took place in the local cathedral, which was later remodeled by Caspar David Friedrich and his brother and can still be visited today. The founding of the university was made possible by a decree that restricted teaching activity at the University of Rostock (founded 1419). Several professors left Rostock for Greifswald to continue their work there, where Heinrich Rubenow took the chance of establishing his own university. Originally, the university consisted of the four traditional divisions: Theology, Philosophy, Medicine and Law.

In the late Middle Ages the University of Greifswald was one of the most important centers of science in the Duchy of Pomerania. The rest of Pomeranian schools – including those in Stettin and Stargard – did not have the university status in this time. Nowadays in Germany, there are only three older universities by count of the years of existence: the University of Heidelberg (established 1386), the University of Leipzig (1409), and the University of Rostock (1419).

International co-operation with other institutions of higher education in northern Europe existed already in the earliest years, sparked and accelerated by the transnational trading network Hanse. From 1456 until 1526, 476 Scandinavians were enrolled at Greifswald University and 22 faculty members as well as six rectors came from Scandinavia. This was a relatively high percentage compared to the total number of students at the time. Sources suggest a relatively segregated life of Swedish students in the primarily German university though.

The early sixteenth century saw significant co-operation of the university, the Lutheran church, the city and the Duchy of Pomerania. Professors of theology simultaneously served as pastors in the three cathedrals. Professors of medicine usually served as personal physicians of the duke. Professors of law were also working at the local courts while professors of the faculty of philosophy usually taught the sons and daughters of the ducal family. The landed nobility also funded university-related purposes such as scholarships and student bursaries.

The Protestant Reformation was introduced at the university in 1539. Johannes Bugenhagen, an alumnus of the university, was an important figure during the German and Scandinavian reformation as well as a good friend of Martin Luther. After the secularisation of the monastery at Eldena near Greifswald, Duke Philipp I of Pomerania gave all revenue created by the now secularised Amt Eldena to the university. His successor, Duke Ernst Ludwig, began the construction of a college building, which could only be completed after his death. Duke Philipp Julius presented the university a gown that was used by the rector on ceremonial occasions up until very recently.

Organisation

Central governance

The Rectorate, consisting of the rector, three pro-rectors, and the registrar, represents the university as a whole, sets the main guidelines development, distributes the finances, opens and closes study programmes, and appoints professors. The registrar is the head of the university administration, and manages the university's budget. The rector is elected by the Senate for a four-year term, the registrar for an eight-year term, and the three pro-rectors are elected to serve for two years.

The Senate is the second governing institution of the university. The Senate elects the Rectorate, and is itself elected by the members of the university, i.e. by students and members of staff. Senators serve for two years, student senators for one year. The Senate consists of academic staff members (divided into professors and non-professors), students, and non-academic staff members (librarians, administration officials, etc.).

Moreover, there is a University Council (Universitätsrat), consisting of six prominent members of the public who are elected by the Senate to advise the university in various ways.

The Student's Union (AStA) and the Student Parliament (StuPa) represent the interests of the students.

Faculties

The buildings of the arts and humanities, law, business studies, and theology are scattered about the historic centre of the town of Greifswald. The newly built facilities for the natural sciences, mathematics, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry are situated to the east of the city centre, offering first-class research opportunities. Like many European universities, the University of Greifswald has five faculties (German: Fakultät) which are structured into departments, institutes, and chairs

Arts and Humanities

Source:

• Sacred Music and Musicology
• Fine Art
• German Philology
• History
• Modern Languages (including English, Baltic Languages, Scandinavian Languages and Slavic Languages)
• Philosophy
• Political and Communication Science
• Education

Law and Economics

Due to an education reform from 2013 in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Law can only be taught at the University of Greifswald. The Faculty of Law in Rostock had to be closed.

Undergraduate degree courses offered at the Faculty of Law and Economics include Business Administration, Law and Management and Law. Master students can enroll for courses such as Health Care Management and Business Administration.

University Medicine

The Medical Faculty at the University of Greifswald is among the best-ranked in Germany and the admission requirements are among the highest in Germany. Courses are offered in Human Medicine and Dentistry.

Cooperation

Aside from teaching and research, one of major tasks of the university is cooperation with partners outside the actual university.

Research partners

The university's research emphasis lies in the field of plasma physics, landscape ecology, medicine, biotechnology, the Middle Ages and the languages and cultures of countries bordering the Baltic Sea.

• Alfried Krupp Institute of Advanced Study (Krupp-Kolleg)
• Biotechnikum Greifswald
• Friedrich Loeffler Institute (National Research Institute of Animal Diseases), Riems Island (FLI)
• Leibniz Institute of Plasma Research and Technology (LIPT)
• Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
• Nuclear fusion research reactor Wendelstein 7-X
• Diabetes Research Centre, Karlsburg (near Greifswald)
• Siemens Public Networks, Greifswald
• Technology Centre Vorpommern
• Technologiepark (under construction)

International cooperation

The University of Greifswald aims to extend and efficiently use its international contacts. The primary geographic focus of international collaboration is Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, which is due to the university's research focus in this area. Partnerships with foreign universities to foster exchange of people (staff and students alike) and ideas is conducted in two different ways. Firstly, through official partnership agreements with foreign universities, which involves the entire university and most or all of her disciplines. Secondly, through contacts of professors, departments, and schools, which usually involves only one or few disciplines.

Student exchange from and to Greifswald is co-ordinated by the university's international office (Akademisches Auslandsamt). The University of Greifswald has signed several official partnership agreements with other universities to foster international co-operation through faculty and student exchange and academic co-operation. In Northern Europe, the university has signed partnership agreements with universities in Denmark (Århus, Holbæk), Finland (Joensuu and Kuopio), and Sweden (Lund). In Eastern Europe, partnership agreements have been signed with universities in the Czech Republic (Brno), Estonia (Tartu), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius, Klaipeda), Poland (Poznan, Szczecin), and Russia (Kaliningrad, Saint Petersburg). Exceptions are the University of Aberdeen as one of the ancient universities of Scotland, and the University of Padua in Italy. The university has also signed various cooperation agreements with universities outside of Europe, e.g. the University of South Australia, the University of Newcastle, Australia, Widener University in Pennsylvania, the University of Manitoba and the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), the National University of Singapore (humanities) or Berkeley (humanities) and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (United States).

Statistics

Admission

The University of Greifswald is frequently described as one of the most popular universities for undergraduate admission in Germany, which is due to a very good study environment as well as a co-operative spirit between the teaching staff and students. Due to its small size, with only 10,179 students, the university is comparable to other small universities such as St Andrews or Yale.

Rankings

In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2024, the university is placed at 401–500th globally and 37–41st within the country.Today, the continued efforts to regain academic leadership are mirrored in national top placements, e.g. in the 2009 Die Zeit university ranking, in several subjects including for instance biology (2009), medicine (2009), geography, law (2008) pharmacy, psychology, dentistry (2009), and business administration (2008).

Student body

In the autumn of 2009, there were 12,500 students enrolled in Greifswald, i.e. a quarter of the town's total population of 53,000 were students. According to a 2008 study, Greifswald is Germany's 'youngest city', having the highest percentage of households by people under 30 years of age. In 2008, 59.4 percent of all students were female, the remaining male. Two-thirds of the enrolled students in 2009 came to Greifswald from outside the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and 5.3 percent were foreign nationals.

Student life

Greifswald is situated in close proximity to the sea (near the islands Rügen and Usedom), about 200 km to the north of Germany's capital city, Berlin, and 100 km east of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's largest city, Rostock. There are train connections, and high-speed autobahn links to Hamburg, Rostock, and Berlin.The city of Greifswald has several museums, a theatre and a philharmonic orchestra as well as a breadth of sports clubs and societies. A medium-sized convention centre called Stadthalle Greifswald exists.

According to a 2009 study, 44% of all people in Greifswald use their bicycle for daily transport, which is the highest such rate in Germany.

Athletics

The university's Hochschulsport (college sports) offers a wide range of opportunities to students who wish to do sports. Courses are available in nearly all disciplines, for instance aerobics, American football, football (soccer), dragon boat, fencing, handball, judo, karate, canoeing, lacrosse, rugby, surfing, diving, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, volleyball or yoga. The regular local sports clubs are frequented by students, too.Greifswald is situated near the sea and the area between isles of Rügen and Usedom is among the most picturesque and best sailing and yachting regions in the whole of Germany. It is renowned for its steady winds.

There are a number of sailing and yachting clubs that are frequented by staff and students alike. There are two Sailing Clubs especially for students, the Studentischer Regattaverein, founded in 2007, which offers its Members a wide Range of Sailing Boats to take part in Regattas like Star, J/24, OK Dinghy, Europe, Vaurien, H Dinghy and a Nacra 5.0. The other one, being the oldest Sailing Club in Greifswald, is the Akademischer Seglerverein (Academic Sailing Club).

There is a golf club called Hanseatischer Golfclub which is popular with university staff and students alike. It hosts the annual Moritz Golf Cup.

Activities

The student-run, not-for-profit clubs Mensaclub, Geographenkeller, Geologenkeller, Club 9 and Kiste are very popular and provide an inexpensive way of going out and meeting other students. There are several movie clubs who regularly show movies in German, English or in other languages. Apart from the localities that are run by students, there is an abundance of different pubs, clubs and restaurants.

For those wishing to attend music events, there are a number of concerts (rock, pop, etc.) in local pubs and venues throughout the year, as well as the annual "Bach Festival" called Greifswalder Bachwoche and the philharmonic concerts, open air operas and concerts, operas, theatre performances, and ballet are offered by the Theater Vorpommern.

Notable people

The University of Greifswald is associated with several notable people, including both former students and faculty. For instance, 17th-century lawyer David Mevius,

two Nobel Prize laureates as well as two German chancellors have studied or worked in Greifswald.

Johannes Stark (1874–1957) received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 (see Nobel Prize Website) "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields" during his time at the University of Greifswald. In 1939, Gerhard Domagk (1895–1964) received the Nobel Prize in Medicine (see Nobel Prize Website) "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil". The university was named in honor of its former student and faculty member, the writer, politician, and poet Ernst Moritz Arndt. Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of the German Empire from 1871 to 1890 and the "engineer" of the Unification of Germany in 1871, had a connection to Greifswald when he studied at the agricultural college, as well as one of his successors, Prince Bernhard von Bülow, who was chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.

Franz Seldte, a chemist by profession, worked as a German labour minister. Johannes Bugenhagen, who introduced the Reformation in much of Northern Germany and Scandinavia was a student at the University of Greifswald and Thomas Thorild, a Swedish poet spent parts of his life in Greifswald. Alfred Gomolka, Member of the European Parliament for the CDU, worked for the university as well as the mathematician Felix Hausdorff. Bernhard Windscheid is one of the fathers of present German civil law. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Theodor Billroth, Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach and Friedrich Loeffler made important contributions to the field of medical science. Hermann Löns became famous as a poet just like the discovers of Africa explorer Gustav Nachtigal became known around the world. Carl Schmitt, one of the most influential figures of 20th century political science was a member of staff. Mie scattering is named for Gustav Mie, a former professor of physics. Georg Friedrich Schömann, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff were noted classical philologists. Ernst W. Mayr, one of the 20th century's most influential evolutional biologists, studied at the University of Greifswald.

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