The University of Leipzig celebrates its 600th anniversary

10-16-2008

Climax 2009: History

The University of Leipzig is the second oldest in Germany, after the Ruprecht-Karl University in Heidelberg (founded 1385), to have performed research and teaching activities without interruption since its foundation. It was formally opened on 2 December 1409 in the presence of the Wettin rulers, Margraves Frederick and William, in the refectorium of St. Thomas' monastery. Johannes Otto von Münsterberg was appointed as its first rector. The university was established after a number of German students and professors abandoned the University of Prague in response to the Hussite adjustment of voting rights in favour of the Czech lecturers and students, and the appointment of a Czech rector. Many of those leaving Prague headed for Leipzig in June 1409, where they quickly integrated. By the beginning of July, the city authorities had already purchased a building in Petersstraße and handed it to the lecturers of the artists' faculty. With his Bull of Acknowledgement of 9 September 1409, Pope Alexander V officially endorsed the University of Leipzig as a studium generale, before it was founded on 2 December 1409. Lectures began with a total of 46 teaching staff and 369 students.

New university campus due to open in 2009

Today, the University of Leipzig is one of the most renowned in Europe. Around 50 Nobel laureates, including Theodor Mommsen, Wilhelm Ostwald and Werner Heisenberg, had close links to the University. Many famous personalities, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner, as well as the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, studied here. And the University is still as popular as ever. Over 31,000 students matriculated for the 2008/2009 winter semester to study in one of the 14 faculties and over 150 institutes. The city-centre campus is currently undergoing redevelopment and is due to open in 2009. On 24 March 2004, a jury gave the nod to the fascinating design submitted by the Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat which, in its external form, offers a visual reminder of the historic building complex around the university church that was blown up in 1968 on the orders of Walter Ulbricht, the head of state of the GDR at the time. The majority of the new university complex is due for completion in 2009, the university's anniversary year.

Highlights of the anniversary celebrations

To mark the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig, numerous special guests will be invited to the Gewandhaus building for the grand opening ceremony on 9 May 2009. The procession will serve as a reminder of the exodus of the German professors and students from the University of Prague 600 years previously. The ceremony will also mark the starting point for wide-ranging programme of events which will run until the official week of celebrations from 29 November to 6 December 2009. One particular highlight will be the anniversary exhibition "(En)Lighting the World. Saxony and the Beginning of Modern Scholarship", which will be open from 9 July to 26 December 2009 in the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (www.erleuchtung-der-welt.de). The display will demonstrate how Leipzig and the surrounding central German states provided many material stimuli in the development of the European educational landscape. Other highlights in 2009 include the symposium entitled "University Cultures" (11-13 May), the spectacular Prague-Leipzig run which will form part of Leipzig's city festival (arrival in Leipzig: 7 June), the international congresses "Education and Learning in the 21st Century" (18-20 June) and "Economic Necessities in the Knowledge Society" (30 November - 6 December). On 2 December, the official ceremony will be held in the new Paulinum, with the subsequent university ball providing an appropriate finale to the day. For more information on the anniversary programme, please visit: www.uni-leipzig.de/2009/

Acknowledging the Peaceful Revolution of 1989

The 2009 anniversary year will be celebrated by both the University and the City of Leipzig. And it is thus equally important to both parties that the Peaceful Revolution of autumn 1989 is also suitably acknowledged 20 years on. The establishment of a Hans-Dietrich Chair in International Studies on Peaceful Revolutions at the University on 9 October 2009 is one such event. In addition, the congress "1989 in a Global Context" is planned (15-17 October). Focussing on the massive changes which were triggered in Leipzig in 1989, it will also address the consequences from a global perspective.

Scientific congresses and conferences in Leipzig

In recent years, Leipzig has developed into one of the most important scientific centres in Germany. Investments of more than EUR 750 million led to the erection of a biotechnology campus on the Deutscher Platz, known as BIO CITY LEIPZIG, the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology. As an economic region, Leipzig boasts rich research and development potential in the form of the University, six institutions of higher education, three Max-Planck institutes and many other independent research establishments. The University of Leipzig holds more than 200 congresses and conferences every year, most of which take place on the new trade fair site. With the new Augustusplatz campus, this number will increase still further. The numerous medical congresses alone, which attract experts from around the world to Leipzig, are evidence of the esteem in which Leipzig is held in scientific circles. Leipziger Messe GmbH is a reliable partner when it comes to the professional organisation and execution of specialist congresses and conferences, and the University of Leipzig concluded a cooperation agreement with the company, which offers advice and expertise on applications, presentations, event planning and congress organisation, back in 2007. The entire Leipzig region benefits from this partnership, which generated approximately EUR 79.4 million for the region as a whole in 2006. This means that for every euro that changes hands in the Congress Center Leipzig, another 14 euros are spent in Leipzig itself. Information: Congress Center Leipzig, www.ccl-leipzig.de

Major congresses at the University of Leipzig 2009-2010

- 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Virology, 18.-21.3.2009 (at the Carl Ludwig Institute)

- Annual Meeting of the German Society of Nuclear Medicine (22.-25.4.2009 + 21.-24.4.2010)

- German Anaesthesia Congress (9.-12.5.2009)

- 44^th Annual Meeting of the German Diabetes Society (20.-23.5.2009)

- Congress of the German-Speaking Association of Arthroscopy (17.-19.9.2009)

- 107^th DOG Congress (German Society of Ophthalmology (24.-27.9.2009)

- Annual Meeting of the German Society of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (7.-10.10.2009)

- World Congress of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (Mai 2010)

- 9^th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production (WCGALP) (August 2010)

 

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