University of Marburg

University of Marburg
The Philipps University of Marburg is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It 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 university in the world. It is now a public university of the state of Hesse, without religious affiliation.
The University of Marburg has about 23,500 students and 7,500 employees and is located in Marburg, a town of 76,000 inhabitants, with university buildings dotted in or around the town centre. About 14% 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, the Department of Social Sciences has been 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)
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 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
, 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
As per the QS World University Rankings of 2024, the institution is situated within the 761–770 range globally, and it holds the 40–41 position nationally. According to the THE World University Rankings of 2024, it ranks within the 401–500 bracket globally, while its national standing falls between 37 and 41. In the ARWU World Rankings of 2023, the university is listed in the 401–500 range worldwide, and it takes a national position between 25 and 31.
Gallery
Notable alumni and faculty
Natural scientists
Ludwig Aschoff
Emil von Behring
Karl Ferdinand Braun
Klaus Bringmann
Robert Bunsen
Adolf Butenandt
Georg Ludwig Carius
Stefanie Dehnen
Franz Ludwig Fick
Hans Fischer
Edward Frankland
Frederick Augustus Genth
Johann Peter Griess
Juan Gundlach
Karl Eugen Guthe
Otto Hahn
Johannes Hartmann
Thomas Archer Hirst
Erich Hückel
Kathrin Jansen
Hermann Knoblauch
Hermann Kolbe
Albrecht Kossel
Ulrich Lemmer
Otto Loewi
Carl Ludwig
Hans Meerwein
Ludwig Mond
Denis Papin
Heinrich Petraeus
Otto Schindewolf
Thorsten M. Schlaeger
Sunao Tawara
John Tyndall
Wilhelm Walcher
Alfred Wegener
Georg Wittig
Alexandre Yersin
Karl Ziegler
Theodor Zincke
Adolf Fick
Theologians
Marburg was always known as a humanities-focused university. It retained that strength, especially in Philosophy and Theology for a long time after World War II.
Rudolf Bultmann
Karl Barth
Friedrich Heiler
Wilhelm Herrmann
Aegidius Hunnius
Andreas Hyperius
Otto Kaiser
Helmut Koester
Jacob Lorhard
Rudolf Otto
Johann Jakob Pfeiffer
Kurt Rudolph
Annemarie Schimmel
Paul Tillich
August Friedrich Christian Vilmar
Gottlieb Olpp – on medical missionary
Philosophers
Wolfgang Abendroth
Hannah Arendt
Karl Theodor Bayrhoffer
Ernst Cassirer
Hermann Cohen
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Nicolai Hartmann
Martin Heidegger
Hans Heinz Holz
Hans Jonas
Friedrich Albert Lange
Karl Löwith
Paul Natorp
José Ortega y Gasset
Isaac Rülf
Leo Strauss
Christian Wolff
Eduard Zeller
Other
Annette Henninger
Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann
Alumni
Kunigunde Bachl
Hermann Behrends (1907–1948), German Nazi SS officer executed for war crimes
Gottfried Benn
Gerold Bepler
Jessie Forbes Cameron (1883–1968)
Georg Friedrich Creuzer
T. S. Eliot (who had to quit a summer school in August 1914, at the start of World War I)
Johannes Goddaeus
Jacob Grimm
Wilhelm Grimm
Caspar Friedrich Hachenberg
Gustav Heinemann
:de:Jost Hermand
Beatrice Heuser
Stefan Hofmann
Kim Hwang-sik
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Mikhail Lomonosov
Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre
Ulrike Meinhof
Friedrich Paulus
Boris Pasternak
Ernst Reuter
Ferdinand Sauerbruch
Friedrich Carl von Savigny
Heinrich Schütz
Moritz Schuppert
Manfred Siebald
Wilhelm Röpke
Costas Simitis
Jack Thiessen
Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov
Richard Wiese (linguist)
See also
List of early modern universities in Europe
List of universities in Germany
University hospital Giessen und Marburg
Notes
External links
1527 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Biosafety level 4 laboratories
Educational institutions established in the 1520s
Universities and colleges in Hesse