TheUniversity of Bonn, officially theRhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (German:Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn), is apublicresearch university inBonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as theRhein-Universität (English:Rhine University) on 18 October 1818 byFrederick William III, as the linear successor of theKurkölnische Akademie Bonn (English:Academy of the Prince-elector of Cologne) which was founded in 1777. The University of Bonn offers many undergraduate and graduate programs in a range of subjects and has 544 professors. The University of Bonn is a member of theGerman U15 association of major research-intensive universities in Germany and has the title of "University of Excellence" under theGerman Universities Excellence Initiative.
Bonn has 6 Clusters of Excellence, the most of any German university;[4] theHausdorff Center for Mathematics, the Matter and Light for Quantum Computing cluster, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, PhenoRob: Research for the Future of Crop Production, the Immune Sensory System cluster, and ECONtribute: Markets and Public Policy. TheUniversity and State Library Bonn (ULB Bonn) is the central university and archive library of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and North Rhine-Westphalia; it holds more than five million volumes.
The university's forerunner was theKurkölnische Akademie Bonn (English: 'Academy of thePrince-elector ofCologne') which was founded in 1777 byMaximilian Frederick of Königsegg-Rothenfels (who was also one of the first employers ofBeethoven), the prince-elector of Cologne. In the spirit of theEnlightenment the new academy was nonsectarian. The academy had schools fortheology,law,pharmacy and general studies. In 1784Emperor Joseph II granted the academy the right to award academic degrees (Licentiat and Ph.D.), turning the academy into a university. The academy was closed in 1798 after the left bank of theRhine was occupied by France during theFrench Revolutionary Wars.
TheRhineland became a part ofPrussia in 1815 as a result of theCongress of Vienna. KingFrederick William III of Prussia thereafter decreed the establishment of a new university in the new province (German:den aus Landesväterlicher Fürsorge für ihr Bestes gefaßten Entschluß, in Unsern Rheinlanden eine Universität zu errichten) on 18 October 1818. At this time there was no university in the Rhineland, as all three universities that existed until the end of the 18th century were closed as a result of the French occupation. The Kurkölnische Akademie Bonn was one of these three universities. The other two were the Roman CatholicUniversity of Cologne and the ProtestantUniversity of Duisburg.
The Electoral Palace, the main building of the University of Bonn
The new Rhine University (German:Rhein-Universität) was then founded on 18 October 1818 by Frederick William III. It was the sixth Prussian University, founded after the universities inGreifswald,Berlin,Königsberg,Halle andBreslau. The new university was equally shared between the two Christian denominations. This was one of the reasons why Bonn, with its tradition of a nonsectarian university, was chosen over Cologne and Duisburg. Apart from a school of Roman Catholic theology and a school of Protestant theology, the university had schools for medicine, law and philosophy. Initially 35 professors and eight adjunct professors were teaching in Bonn.
The university constitution was adopted in 1827. In the spirit ofWilhelm von Humboldt the constitution emphasized the autonomy of the university and the unity of teaching and research. Similar to theUniversity of Berlin, which was founded in 1810, the new constitution made the University of Bonn amodern research university.
Only one year after the inception of the Rhein University thedramatistAugust von Kotzebue was murdered byKarl Ludwig Sand, a student at theUniversity of Jena. TheCarlsbad Decrees, introduced on 20 September 1819 led to a general crackdown on universities, the dissolution of theBurschenschaften and the introduction of censorship laws. One victim was the author and poetErnst Moritz Arndt, who, freshly appointed university professor in Bonn, was banned from teaching. Only after the death of Frederick William III in 1840 was he reinstated in his professorship. Another consequence of theCarlsbad Decrees was the refusal by Frederick William III to confer the chain of office, the official seal and an official name to the new university. The Rhine University was thus nameless until 1840, when the new King of Prussia,Frederick William IV gave it the official nameRheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität. (This last sentence conflicts with pg. 176 ofDie Preussischen Universitäten, which states a cabinet order on 28 June 1828 gave the university the following name:Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität.)[5]
Despite these problems, the university grew and attracted scholars and students. At the end of the 19th century the university was also known as thePrinzenuniversität (English: 'Princes' university'), as many of the sons of the king of Prussia studied here. In 1900, the university had 68 chairs, 23 adjunct chairs, two honorary professors, 57Privatdozenten and six lecturers. Since 1896, women were allowed to attend classes as guest auditors at universities in Prussia. In 1908 the University of Bonn became fully coeducational.
Stolperstein for Felix Hausdorff and his family members in Bonn
The growth of the university came to a halt withWorld War I. Financial and economic problems in Germany in the aftermath of the war resulted in reduced government funding for the university. The University of Bonn responded by trying to find private and industrial sponsors. In 1930 the university adopted a new constitution. For the first time students were allowed to participate in the self-governing university administration. To that effect thestudent council Astag (German:Allgemeine Studentische Arbeitsgemeinschaft) was founded the same year. Members of the student council were elected in a secret ballot.
After the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, theGleichschaltung transformed the university into a Nazi educational institution. According to theFührerprinzip the autonomous and self-governing administration of the university was replaced by a hierarchy of leaders resembling the military, with the university president being subordinate to the ministry of education. Jewish professors and students and political opponents were ostracized and expelled from the university. The theologianKarl Barth was forced to resign and to emigrate to Switzerland for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler. The Jewish mathematicianFelix Hausdorff was expelled from the university in 1935 and committed suicide after learning about his impending deportation to a concentration camp in 1942. The philosophersPaul Ludwig Landsberg and Johannes Maria Verweyen were deported and died inconcentration camps. In 1937Thomas Mann was deprived of his honorary doctorate. His honorary degree was restored in 1946.
The university was re-opened on 17 November 1945 as one of the first in theBritish occupation zone. The first university president wasHeinrich Matthias Konen, who had been expelled from the university in 1934 because of his opposition toNazism. At the start of the first semester on 17 November 1945 the university had more than 10,000 applicants for only 2,500 places.
The university greatly expanded in the postwar period, in particular in the 1960s and 1970s. Significant events of the postwar era were the relocation of the university hospital from the city center toVenusberg in 1949, the opening of the new university library in 1960 and the opening of a new building, the Juridicum, for the School of Law and Economics in 1967.
In 1980 the Pedagogical University Bonn was merged into the University of Bonn, although eventually all the teachers education programs were closed in 2007. In 1983 the new science library was opened. In 1989Wolfgang Paul was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics. Three years laterReinhard Selten was awarded theNobel Prize in Economics. The decision of the German government to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin after thereunification in 1991 resulted in generous compensation for the city of Bonn. The compensation package included three new research institutes affiliated or closely collaborating with the university, thus significantly enhancing the research profile of the University of Bonn.
In the 2000s the university implemented theBologna process and replaced the traditionalDiplom andMagister programs with Bachelor and Master programs. This process was completed by 2007.[6]
The University of Bonn does not have a centralized campus. The main building is theKurfürstliches Schloss, the former residential palace of the prince-elector of Cologne in the city center. The main building was built byEnrico Zuccalli for the prince-elector of Cologne,Joseph Clemens of Bavaria from 1697 to 1705. Today it houses the faculty of humanities and theology and the university administration. TheHofgarten, a large park in front of the main building is a popular place for students to meet, study and relax. The Hofgarten was repeatedly the place for political demonstrations as for example the demonstration against theNATO Double-Track Decision on 22 October 1981 with about 250,000 participants.[7]The school of law and economics, the main university library and several smaller departments are housed in modern buildings a short distance south of the main building. The department of psychology and the department of computer science are located in a northern suburb of Bonn.
The school of medicine is located on the Venusberg, a hill on the western edge of Bonn. Several residence halls are scattered across the city. In total the University of Bonn owns 371 buildings.
The university library was founded in 1818 and started with 6,000 volumes inherited from the library of the closedUniversity of Duisburg. In 1824 the library becamelegal deposit for all books published in the Prussian Rhine province. The library contained about 200,000 volumes at the end of the 19th century, and about 600,000 volumes at the outbreak ofWorld War II. Anair raid on 10 October 1944 destroyed about 200,000 volumes and a large part of thelibrary catalog. After the war the library was housed in several makeshift locations until the completion of the new central library in 1960. The new building was designed byPierre Vago and Fritz Bornemann and is located close to the main building. In 1983 a new library building was opened in Poppelsdorf, west of the main building. The new library building houses the science, agriculture and medicine collections. Today, the university library system comprises the central library, the library for science, agriculture and medicine and about 160 smaller libraries. It holds 2.2 million volumes and subscribes to about 14,000 journals.[8]
A nurse attending to an infant in the University Hospital of Bonn in November 1953
The university hospital (German:Universitätsklinikum Bonn) was founded at the same time as the university and officially opened on 5 May 1819 in the former Electoral Palace (German:Kurfüstliches Schloss), the main building, in the western wing (internal medicine) and on the second floor (obstetrics). In its first year, the hospital had thirty beds, performed 93 surgeries and treated about 600 outpatients. From 1872 to 1883 the hospital moved to a new complex of buildings in the city center of Bonn, where today the Beethoven Concert Hall stands, and afterWorld War II to theVenusberg on the western edge of Bonn. On 1 January 2001 the university hospital became a public corporation. Although the university hospital is since then independent from the university, the School of Medicine of the University of Bonn and the university hospital closely collaborate. Today the university hospital comprises about thirty individual hospitals, employs more than 990 physicians and more than 1,100 nursing and clinical support staff and treated about 50,000 inpatients.[9]
TheAkademisches Kunstmuseum (English: 'Academic Museum of Antiquities') was founded in 1818 and has one of the largest collections of plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the world. At this time collections of plaster casts were mainly used in the instruction of students at art academies. They were first used in the instruction of university students in 1763 byChristian Gottlob Heyne atUniversity of Göttingen. The Akademisches Kunstmuseum in Bonn was the first of its kind, as at this time collections at other universities were scattered around universities libraries. The first director wasFriedrich Gottlieb Welcker, who also held a professorship of archaeology. His tenure was from 1819 until his retirement in 1854. He was succeeded byOtto Jahn andFriedrich Wilhelm Ritschl, who shared the directorship. From 1870 to 1889Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz, nephew of the organic chemistFriedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz, was the director. In 1872 the museum moved to a new building that was formerly used by the department of anatomy. The building was constructed from 1823 to 1830 and designed byKarl Friedrich Schinkel andHermann Friedrich Waesemann. Other directors of the museum wereGeorg Loeschcke (from 1889 to 1912),Franz Winter (from 1912 to 1929),Richard Delbrück (from 1929 to 1940),Ernst Langlotz (from 1944 to 1966), Nikolaus Himmelmann (from 1969 to 1994) and Harald Mielsch (since 1994). All directors, with the exception ofFriedrich Wilhelm Ritschl held a professorship of archaeology at the university.[10]
Arithmeum
TheEgyptian Museum (German:Ägyptisches Museum) was founded in 2001. The collection dates back to the 19th century and was formerly part of the Akademisches Kunstmuseum. Large parts of the collection were destroyed in World War II. Today the collection comprises about 3,000 objects.[11]
TheArithmeum was opened in 1999. With over 1,200 objects it has the world's largest collection of historicalmechanical calculating machines. The museum is affiliated with the Research Institute for Discrete Mathematics.[12]
The Teaching Collection of Archaeology and Anthropology (German:Archäologisch-ethnographische Lehr- und Studiensammlung) was opened in 2008. The collection comprises more than 7,500 objects of mostly pre-Columbian art.[13]
TheBotanical Garden was officially founded in 1818 and is located around the Poppelsdorf Palace. A garden existed at the same place at least since 1578, and around 1720 a Baroque garden was built forClemens August of Bavaria. The first director of the Botanical Garden wasNees von Esenbeck from 1818 to 1830. In May 2003 the world's largesttitan arum, some 2.74 meters high, flowered in the Botanical Garden for three days.[14]
The natural history museum was opened in 1820 byGeorg August Goldfuss. It was the first public museum in the Rhineland. In 1882 it was split into theMineralogical Museum [de][15] located in the Poppelsdorf Palace and a museum of palaeontology, now namedGoldfuß Museum [de].[16]
The Horst Stoeckel-Museum of the History of Anesthesiology (German:Horst Stoeckel-Museum für die Geschichte der Anästhesiologie) was opened in 2000 and is the largest of its kind in Europe.[17]
TheMuseum Koenig is one of the largest natural history museums in Germany and is affiliated with the university. The museum was founded in 1912 by Alexander Koenig, who donated his collection of mounted specimens to the public.[18]
The University of Bonn has 32,500 students, and 4,000 of these are international students. Each year about 3,000 undergraduate students graduate. The university also confers about 800 Ph.D.s and about 60habilitations. More than 90 programs in all fields are offered. Strong fields as identified by the university aremathematics,physics,law,economics,neuroscience,medical genetics,chemical biology,agriculture,Asian andOriental studies andPhilosophy and Ethics. The university has more than 550 professors, an additional academic staff of 3,900 and an administrative staff of over 1,700. The annual budget was more than 570 million euros in 2016.[3]
From the foundation in 1818 to 1928 the University of Bonn had five faculties, that is, the Faculty of Catholic Theology, the Faculty of Protestant Theology, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts and Science. In 1928, the Faculty of Law and the Department of Economics, that until then was part of the Faculty of Arts and Science, merged into the new Faculty of Law and Economics. In 1934 the until then independent Agricultural University Bonn-Poppelsdorf (German:Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Bonn-Poppelsdorf) was merged into the University of Bonn as the Faculty of Agricultural Science. In 1936, the science departments were separated from the Faculty of Arts and Science. Today the university is divided into seven faculties.[19]
The Protestant Theological Faculty has existed at the University of Bonn since 1818 (Unlike other universities, only Bonn and the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Wroclaw, founded in 1811, had both a Catholic and a theological faculty). The thematic focuses are in the areas of "Texts of Theology", "Historical Theology", "Theory of Theology", "Theology in Dialogue with the Human Sciences" and "Ecumenical Theology". Other institutes of the faculty are the Institute ofHermeneutics and the Institute ofEcumenism. The faculty is located in the main building of the university, where the Protestant Castle Church is also located. The universitypreacher is Eberhard Hauschildt. The faculty operates its own dormitory for students of Protestant theology. With 187 students, it is the smallest faculty of the University of Bonn. In teacher training, the Faculty of Protestant Theology cooperates with the Institute of Protestant Theology of theUniversity of Cologne. Numerous members of the faculty are also involved in the Center for Religion and Society of the university.
The Faculty of Catholic Theology was also founded in 1818 with six chairs; it began teaching in the summer half of 1819. Today, the faculty comprises 13 chairs. A special feature is the workplace for theological gender research. With 243 students, it is also one of the small faculties of the university. It cooperates with the Institute for Catholic Theology of the University of Cologne and is part of the ZERG degree program. The Chair of Fundamental Theology was held by Joseph Ratzinger from 1959 to 1963, the laterPope Benedict XVI.
In 1934, the Faculty of Agriculture was established at the university. It originated from the former Agricultural University Poppelsdorf, which was founded in 1847. Today, the faculty has its scientific focus in the areas of "Agrar Systems Sensing Analysis and Management", "Food and Nutrition" and "Enlightenment of genetically determined metabolic functions in crops, farm animals and humans using molecular biological methods" (From Molecules to Function: Crop - Livestock - Human). Courses of study for students include Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional and Food Sciences, Animal Sciences, as well as Geodesy andGeoinformation. The location of the faculty is the Poppelsdorf campus. The faculty has about 2,500 students. In the winter semester 2008/09, the Theodor Brinkman Research Training Group was established at the faculty.[20]
Poppelsdorf Agricultural University
The faculty comprises the following seven institutes:
IEL - Institute of Nutrition and Food Sciences,
IGG - Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation,
ILR - Institute of Food and Resource Economics,
ILT - Institute of Agricultural Engineering,
INRES - Institute of Crop Sciences and Resource Protection
The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences includes the subject groupsMathematics,Computer Science,Physics-Astronomy,Chemistry,Earth Sciences,Biology,Pharmacy andMolecular Biomedicine. In 1936, the natural science subjects were separated from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was founded.[21] With 7,636 students, it is now one of the largest faculties of the university. The locations are spread over the districts of Castell, Endenich and Poppelsdorf.
The Informatics Section includes the Institute of Computer Science and the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (b-it). They were founded in April 2011 and emerged from the Department of Mathematics/Computer Science. TheInstitute ofApplied Mathematics and Computer Science was founded in 1969. This institute was divided into two independent institutes in 1975. The Institute of Computer Science has been using the computer science center on the Poppelsdorf campus together with b-it since 2018.[23] The Institute of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science was founded in 1969. This institute was divided into two independent institutes in 1975.[24] The Institute of Computer Science has been using the computer science center on the Poppelsdorf campus together with b-it since 2018.[25]
The Physics-Astronomy Section includes the Institute of Physics (PI), the Institute ofApplied Physics (IAP), the Argelander Institute for Astronomy (AIfA) and the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics (HISKP).[26] Together with the University of Cologne, Bonn hosts theBonn-Cologne Graduate School of Physics and Astronomy, which is funded by Excellence Initiatives. The Institute of Physics operates the particle accelerator ELSA and organizes the Wolfgang Paul lectures. The chairs of theoretical physics as well as some of mathematics merged into the "Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics" in 2008.[27] The Argelander Institute for Astronomy, named after the astronomerFriedrich Wilhelm Argelander, was founded in 2006 by the merger of the previous three astronomical university institutes: the Observatory, the Radio Astronomical Institute (RAIUB) and the Institute of Astrophysics and Extraterrestrial Research.
When it was built 1864 to 1867, the Old Chemical Institute was the largest institute building in the world. Today it houses the Institute ofMicrobiology and the Institute of Geography. The Biology Section (2019) consists of eight institutes: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Zooecology, Institute of Genetics, Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Molecular Physiology and Biotechnology of Plants (IMBIO), Institute of Cell Biology, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB), Institute of Zoology, Nees Institute for Biodiversity of The IZMB as well as parts of the IMBIO and the Institute of Genetics are located in the old Soennecken building. In addition, theZoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig and theBotanical Gardens are associated with the Departmentof Biology as a cooperating institute.
TheSteinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology has replaced the former separate Geological Institute, Mineralogical-Petrological Institute and Institute of Paleontology since 2007. It is divided into the departments ofgeochemistry/petrology,geology,paleontology andgeophysics and recently, since the merger with the Meteorological Institute, alsometeorology. In addition, he is integrated into theMineralogical Museum of the University of Bonn [de] and the PaleontologicalGoldfuß Museum [de].
The Faculty of Medicine focuses on neurosciences, genetic foundations and genetic epidemiology of human diseases, hepato-gastroenterology, cardiovascular diseases and immunology and infectious diseases. The DFG Cluster of Excellence "ImmunoSensation: The Immune System as a Sensory Organ" approved in 2012 is largely located at the Faculty of Medicine. In the field of health care, there is a cooperation with theUniversity Hospital Bonn. The majority of the buildings are located on Venusberg, but individual institutes are also in the city center. The institutes of the pre-clinic focus around the Anatomical Institute on Nußallee in the Poppelsdorf district. 2,699 students study at the faculty.
The Faculty of Law and Political Science, which until the Second World War was housed in the main building and then provisionally in various places, received its newly built Juridicum in 1967, a building on Adenauerallee opposite the Beethoven-Gymnasium near theUniversity Library. The faculty currently has about 5,000 students and consists of the departments oflaw andeconomics.
The Faculty of Law currently comprises sixteen institutes for teaching. Since 1989, the Center for European Business Law has existed with an affiliated DFG Research Training Group on the subject of "Legal Issues of the European Financial Area" and a European Documentation Center. In addition, the Department of Political Science also includes the Institute for Water and Waste Management Law. This is a research institute whose task is to scientifically deal with the main questions of water law and to develop practical solutions.
The Department of Economics comprises three institutes for academic teaching as well as the research institutionsBonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE), DFG Research Training Group on the topic of Quantitative Economics and the Laboratory for Experimental Economic Research or the Reinhard Selten Institute. Renowned and well-known members of the department are the economistsIsabel Schnabel, the Leibniz Prize winnerArmin Falk,Martin Hellwig and theNobel Prize winnerReinhard Selten. The Institute for the Future of Work (IZA) and the Institute on Behaviour and Inequality (briq), are two research institutions also connected to the department. In addition, there is a cooperation with theUniversity of California, Berkeley. In 2018, the department won the Cluster of Excellence "ECONtribute: Markets and & Public Policy" of the Excellence Initiative of the Federal and State Governments for the Reinhard Selten Institute.
Courtyard of Electoral Palace, that houses the Faculty of Arts at Bonn
The Faculty of Arts includes the Institutes of English Studies, American Studies and Celtology, History, German Studies, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Classic and Romance Philology, Communication Sciences, Oriental and Asian Studies, Philosophy, Political Science and Sociology, Psychology, Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology and the Institute of Art History.With over 8,753 students, it is the largest faculty of the university.
Tillmannhaus Bonn foyer in 1950, one of the earliest Studierendenwerk housing in Germany
On the 4 May 1860, the first German-language chair for art history was established at the university;Anton Springer was appointed chair for Middle and Modern Art History. Today's Department of Art History at the Institute of Art History and Archaeology has emerged from this Institute of Art History.[citation needed] From the winter semester 2009/2010, the philosophical faculties of the University of Bonn and theUniversity of Cologne have worked together, so that in selected courses of study, it is possible for students to attend events in bothBonn andCologne. In February 2009, the "International Center for Philosophy North Rhine-Westphalia" was founded on an initiative of Wolfram Hogrebe. Since 2011, theThomas Kling Poetry Lectureship has been awarded in cooperation with theKunststiftung NRW.[28] For the 200th anniversary of the university in 2018, 110 Bonn professors, especially from the Faculty of Humanities, presented theBonn Encyclopedia of Globality, edited by the political scientists Ludger Kühnhardt and Tilman Mayer.[29]
In addition, the following interdisciplinary centers have been set up:
Center for Aging Cultures (ZAK)
Center for Contemporary Historical Foundations (ZHGG)
Centre for the Classical Tradition (CCT)
Bonn Medieval Center (BMZ)
Center for Cultural Studies/Cultural Studies (ZfKW)
Mensa Roemerstrasse. Bonn has one of the three oldest student unions in Germany.
The Bonn Studentenwerk (English: Student union) is one of the three oldest in Germany.Studentenwerke provide public services for the economic, social, medical and cultural support forstudents enrolled at German universities. In particular, they run university cafeterias, dormitories, and provide theBAföG program to finance studies with grants and loans. The national association includes multiple stakeholders of German society and collaborates with other students' affairs organizations worldwide. This includes the UniradioBonnFM,Bonn University Shakespeare Company, Debating club of the University of Bonn (which was European Champion in 2006), and various sport clubs.
The University of Bonn has one of the largestuniversity sports companies in North Rhine-Westphalia, with around 200 sports facilities, 38 sports facilities throughout the city as well as two of its own sports facilities on Venusberg and Römerstraße in the Castell district of Bonn. WithHall 5, the university also operates its own gym with equipment and course rooms for all strength and endurance sports.
Rowing enjoys supra-regional importance within Bonn university sports. In their own boathouse on the banks of the Rhine, located between the two Bonn districts of Beuel and Limperich, the Bonn rowers have a diverse and modern boat park of training and racing boats at their disposal. The rowing team of the University of Bonn is one of the most traditional in the German Rowing Association and participates inregattas throughout Germany every year in partly mixed teams in four or eight. The highlight is the annual participation in the German university championships, where the Bonn rowers have repeatedly qualified for the respective final in recent years.
The Erasmus program gives students the opportunity to exchange with over 300 European higher education institutions. Moreover, the Global Exchange Program allows for study free of charge for one to two semesters at non-European partner universities of the University of Bonn.[30]
Rabinstraße 8, the ex-Zürich Insurance headquarters housing the humanities departments while the Electoral Palace is being renovated
The university and North Rhine-Westphalia state construction and real estate agency is investing €2 billion in refurbishing existing buildings and new construction.[32] One project currently under construction is the €55 million project constructing a 'Teaching and Research Forum I & II' that is expected to be completed by 2024. This will become a central research hub with lecture halls, a library andseminar rooms for the Economics department, the Clusters of Excellence, the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics, HPCA, and DiCe. By mid-2023 the €45 million research building for the new Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change of theZoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig will be completed; this will allow for more collaborative research between the museum and the Department of Biology, and will house a data center, laboratories, a biobank, a cryogenic storage facility, spaces for collections, and a library. The University of Bonn is also currently replacing its chemistry building with a new €37.2 million five-story building for the chemical institutes that will house 17,750 square feet of laboratory space and 6,500 square feet of office space by 2023. From 2022, theAkademisches Kunstmuseum has been under renovation by the North Rhine-Westphalia state construction agency and expected to be completed by 2025. It will also accommodate the library, offices and lecture hall for theclassical archaeology department, including providing access for teaching purposes to items in the collection.
A lecture theatre at the Electoral Palace
Over €1 billion is being spent on the main building, the Electoral Palace, which will be out of service for several years and completed in 2030; this includes work on fire protection, re-wiring, and plumbing, as well as modernization of lecture halls, common areas, and offices. The Humanities departments are being accommodated in the formerZurich Insurance building on Rabinstraße throughout the construction works, while the administrative staff are being housed in the formerDeutscher Herold headquarters. Both temporary locations have been equipped with library areas, seminar rooms and meeting rooms. In addition, by 2031 €128 million will be spent on a 'Forum of Knowledge' which will extend the main building on a site spanning several tens of thousands of square feet, and will be open to members of the university and city residents. The university is also planning spaces for study spaces, shops, catering, and bike parking in the extension.
A strategic objective of the University of Bonn since 2015 has beenincreasing internationality in the areas of research, teaching, and administration.[33] With this aim, since 2015 six international transdisciplinary research areas and six clusters of excellence were formed, Bonn ranked second in Germany for international co-publications in the Nature Index 2018, The Bonn International Graduate Schools (BIGS) system was expanded to twelve graduate schools, and there was continuation of the "International Doctorate" program withDAAD.
The current strategic research aims for 2025 are to increase percentage of non-German national professors to 15% of total, increase the number of joint international research projects being conducted, increase application filing and approval rates in European Union research funding programs, to build up and expand European research and innovation networks, and to raise the international profile of the Bonn International Graduate Schools (BIGS). This will include formation of a global network with the existing strategic partner universities and establishing new partners for research, teaching and administration, continuation of efforts to build up the European University of Brain and Technology (NeurotechEU) within the European University Network funding framework, choosing at least two countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America as focus countries for international cooperation, and establishment of joint doctoral programs, and expansion of bi-national doctorate programs.
Saeulenhalle ("Pillared Hall") of the Electoral Palace
The strategic teaching aims for 2025 are digital internationalization of study offerings and teaching, increasing the number of English-language bachelor's degree modules, increasing the number of incoming international exchange students (in particularbachelors programs), increase outgoing student mobility through theGlobal Exchange Program, improving access to underrepresented groups of students. This will include expanding thebilingually of services in central administration, enhancement of foreign language and intercultural competency acquisition opportunities as part of personnel staff skill development, further development of existing internationalization structures within the faculties, departments and institutes, digitalization of service structures for international students and academics at the University of Bonn, and increasing the University of Bonn's international marketing and public relations.
Additional strategic objectives for the university are the increased bilateral cooperation between the University of Bonn andUnited Nations University, increased cooperation with international academic and science organizations active in Bonn, increased cooperation withprivate-sector firms based in the region, increased cooperation with the City of Bonn on internationalization-relevant initiatives, and development of long-term internationalization plans aligned with the identity of the City of Bonn as a center forsustainability policy.
The Franz Joseph Dölger-Institute studies thelate antiquity and in particular the confrontation and interaction of Christians, Jews and Pagans in the late antiquity. The institute edits theReallexikon für Antike und Christentum, aGerman languageencyclopedia treating the history of early Christians in late antiquity.The institute is named after the church historianFranz Joseph Dölger who was a professor of theology at the university from 1929 to 1940.[34]
The Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics "is a joint enterprise of theoretical physicists and mathematicians at various institutes of or connected with the University of Bonn. In the spirit of Hans Bethe it fosters research activities over a wide range of theoretical and mathematical physics." Activities of the Bethe Center include a short- and long-term visitors' program, workshops on dedicated research topics, regular Bethe Seminar Series, lectures and seminars for graduate students.[37]
The German Reference Center for Ethics in the Life Sciences (German:Deutsches Referenzzentrum für Ethik in den Biowissenschaften) was founded in 1999 and is modeled after theNational Reference Center for Bioethics Literature atGeorgetown University. The center provides access to scientific information to academics and professionals in the fields of life science and is the only one of its kind in Germany.[38]
Institute for Study of Labour headquarters in 2008
After the German government's decision in 1991 to move the capital of Germany from Bonn to Berlin, the city of Bonn received generous compensation from the federal government. This led to the foundation of three research institutes in 1995, of which two are affiliated with the university:
TheCenter for European Integration Studies (German:Zentrum für Europäische Integrationsforschung) studies the legal, economic and social implications of theEuropean integration process. The institute offers several graduate programs and organizes summer schools for students.[39]
The Center for Development Research (German:Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung) studies global development from an interdisciplinary perspective and offers a doctoral program in international development.[40]
TheCenter of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) is an interdisciplinary applied research institute. Research is conducted in the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and medical technology. The institute is a private foundation, but collaborates closely with the university.
TheInstitute for the Study of Labor (German:Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit) is a private research institute that is funded byDeutsche Post. The institute concentrates on research on labor economics, but is also offering policy advice on labor market issues. The institute also awards the annualIZA Prize in Labor Economics. The department of economics of the University of Bonn and the institute closely cooperate.
TheMax Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (German:Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) was founded in 1966 as an institute of the Max Planck Society. It operates the radio telescope inEffelsberg.
TheMax Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (German:Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Gemeinschaftsgütern) started as a research group in 1997 and was founded as an institute of the Max Planck Society in 2003. The institute studies collective goods from a legal and economic perspective.
The Center for Economics and Neuroscience, founded in 2009 byChristian Elger,Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winnerArmin Falk, Martin Reuter and Bernd Weber, provides an international platform for interdisciplinary work inneuroeconomics.[41][42] It includes the Laboratory for Experimental Economics that can carry out computer-based behavioral experiments with up to 24 participants simultaneously, twomagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners for interactive behavioral experiments and functional imaging, as well as a biomolecular laboratory for genotyping different polymorphisms.
The university has nine collaborative research centres and five research units funded by theGerman Science Foundation and attracts more than 75 million Euros in external research funding annually.
The Excellence Initiative of the German government in 2006 resulted in the foundation of theHausdorff Center for Mathematics as one of the seventeen nationalClusters of Excellence that were part of the initiative and the expansion of the already existingBonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).TheExcellence Initiative also resulted in the founding of theBonn-Cologne Graduate School of Physics and Astronomy (an honors Masters and PhD program, jointly with theUniversity of Cologne). Bethe Center for Theoretical Physics was founded in the November 2008, to foster closer interaction between mathematicians and theoretical physicists at Bonn. The center also arranges for regular visitors and seminars (on topics including String theory, Nuclear physics, Condensed matter etc.).
According to the QS rankings for Mathematics in 2023, it sits at 39th globally and is the leading institution nationally.[46] The ARWU's 2022 Mathematics rankings further bolster this reputation, placing the university 15th in the world and maintaining its first-place national standing.[47]
The University of Bonn maintains a variety of relationships with renowned higher education institutions from around the globe.[49] In addition to the numerous research collaborations of its scholars, institutes and faculties, the University of Bonn has a cross-faculty partnership network with over 70 higher education institutions worldwide. In 2023, Bonn built on its strategic partnerships with its existing partner universities and launched a global university network consisting ofEmory University,Hebrew University of Jerusalem,University of St Andrews, andWaseda University to foster collaboration in education, research, leadership and innovation.[50]
^Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Bonn (October 2003)."Geschichte der ULB Bonn". Archived fromthe original on 27 November 2007. Retrieved8 February 2008.
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