The University of Erfurt is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after German reunification. Therefore, it claims to be both the oldest and youngest university in Germany. The institution identifies itself as a reform university, due to its most famous alumnus Martin Luther, the instigator of the Reformation, who studied there from 1501 to 1505. Today, the main foci centre on multidisciplinarity, internationality, and mentoring. The university is home to the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, the Gotha Research Center for Cultural and Social Scientific Studies, and the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. The Gotha Research Library, which has one of Germany's largest collections of early modern manuscripts, is part of the university. The University Library is also the keeper of the Bibliotheca Amploniana, a collection of nearly 1000 medieval manuscripts collected by the scholar Amplonius Rating de Berka (c.1363–1435), who was a former List of rectors and presidents of the University of Erfurt of the university.

History

1379–1816

The University of Erfurt was founded in 1379 in the Holy Roman Empire, in territory which is now modern day Germany. When the town of Erfurt became part of Prussia in 1816, the government closed the university after more than 400 years of operation.

1994–present

Erfurt was in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1949 to 1990. In December 1993, the State Government of Thuringia in reunified Germany, Landtag of Thuringia, voted to re-establish the university. The university was re-founded on 1 January 1994. Lectures began in the winter term of 1999/2000. Shortly afterwards, the Rector who had overseen the founding, Peter Glotz, a politician in the Social Democratic Party, left the university. The position was taken over by Wolfgang Bergsdorf. In 2001, the Erfurt Teachers' Training College (Pädagogische Hochschule Erfurt), founded in 1953, became part of the university. On 1 January 2003, a fourth faculty was added to the university: the Roman Catholic Theological Faculty, which had belonged to Erfurt's Philosophical and Theological Centre (Philosophisch-Theologisches Studium Erfurt). The University of Erfurt is a liberal arts university with reform and socio-cultural profile. The close integration of the Philosophical, Educational Research, Governmental Studies, the Catholic Theological Faculty, and the Max Weber Center, promotes interdisciplinary alongside innovative approaches to research and teaching through a mentoring program. The University of Erfurt has no tuition fees and represents the first institution of higher education to receive the family-friendly certificate for employers.

Faculties and institutions

The University of Erfurt has five faculties and three academic institutes: The academic institutes are:

Academic programs and priorities

Academic priorities

Regular summer schools

University research groups and projects

Current research groups

Currently following colleges and research teams are part of the Erfurt doctoral and postdoctoral program (EPPP):

University projects

In the summer semester of 2003, a project group was formed at the university to take part in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) in New York City in April 2004. The pilot project has become a regular, student-organized seminar at the university. The various groups received several awards for their participation at the conference in 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2018, the university's Gotha Research Centre launched FactGrid as a joint venture with Wikimedia Germany and the German National Library. FactGrid is a Wikibase database intended to help historians collaborate in international projects.

People

Original foundation (1392–1816)

Re-establishment (since 1996)

Presidents

Faculty

Alumni