Universität Erfurt | |
 | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1379; 646 years ago (1379) (closed 1816–1993); reestablished 1994 |
Academic affiliation | TPC |
| Budget | € 59.5 million[1] |
| President | Walter Bauer-Wabnegg |
Academic staff | 358[1] |
Administrative staff | 287[1] |
| Students | 5,715[2] |
| Location | ,, Germany 50°59′26″N11°00′39″E / 50.99056°N 11.01083°E /50.99056; 11.01083 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | www.uni-erfurt.de |
 | |
TheUniversity of Erfurt (German:Universität Erfurt) is a public university located inErfurt, the capital city of the German state ofThuringia. It was founded in 1379,[3] and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years afterGerman 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 alumnusMartin Luther, the instigator of theReformation, who studied there from 1501 to 1505. Today, the main foci centre on multidisciplinarity, internationality, and mentoring.
The university is home to theMax Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, the Gotha Research Center for Cultural and Social Scientific Studies, and theWilly 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 theBibliotheca Amploniana, a collection of nearly 1,000 medieval manuscripts collected by the scholarAmplonius Rating de Berka (c.1363–1435), who was a formerrector [de] of the university.[4]
The University of Erfurt was founded in 1379[3] in theHoly Roman Empire, in territory which is now modern-day Germany. When the town of Erfurt became part ofPrussia in 1816, the government closed the university after more than 400 years of operation.
Erfurt was in theGerman 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 theSocial 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 a reformed and socio-cultural profile. The close integration of the Philosophical, Educational Research, Governmental Studies, the Catholic Theological Faculty, and theMax 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 thefamily-friendly certificate for employers.
The University of Erfurt has five faculties and three academic institutes:
The academic institutes are:
Currently following colleges and research teams are part of the Erfurt doctoral and postdoctoral program (EPPP):
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 launchedFactGrid as a joint venture withWikimedia Germany and theGerman National Library. FactGrid is aWikibase database intended to help historians collaborate in international projects.[5][6][7]
