Uniwersytet Wrocławski | |
 | |
| Latin:Universitas Wratislaviensis[1][2] | |
Former names | German:Leopoldina, Universität Breslau,Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau(before 1945) |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 21 October 1702; 323 years ago (1702-10-21)(reorganised 1945) |
| President | Robert Olkiewicz |
Administrative staff | 3,569[3] |
| Students | 20,293[4](12.2023) |
| Location | ,, |
| Campus | Urban |
| Colors | Blue |
| Website | uwr.edu.pl |
 | |
TheUniversity of Wrocław (Polish:Uniwersytet Wrocławski, UWr;Silesian:Uniwerzytet we Wrocławie;Latin:Universitas Wratislaviensis) is apublicresearch university inWrocław,Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in theLower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researchers, among whom many have received the highest awards for their contributions to the development of scientific scholarship.[5]
The university was established in 1701 and reconstituted in its current form in 1945, as a direct successor to the previous GermanUniversity of Breslau. Following theterritorial changes of Poland's borders, academics primarily from theJan Kazimierz University ofLwów restored the university building, which had been heavily damaged in the1945 Battle of Breslau.
The oldest mention of a university in Wrocław comes from the foundation deed signed on 20 July 1505 for theGenerale litterarum Gymnasium in Wrocław by KingVladislaus II of Hungary (Polish:Władysław II Jagiellończyk) of the PolishJagiellonian dynasty. However, the new academic institution requested by the town council was not built, because the King's deed was rejected byPope Julius II for political reasons.[5] Also, the numerous wars and opposition from theUniversity of Kraków might have played a role. The first successful founding deed known as theAurea bulla fundationis Universitatis Wratislaviensis was signed two centuries later, on 1 October 1702, by the Holy Roman EmperorLeopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.[5]
The predecessor facilities, which existed since 1638, were converted into Jesuit school, and finally, upon instigation of the Jesuits and with the support of the Silesian Oberamtsrat (Second Secretary) Johannes Adrian von Plencken, donated as a university in 1702 by EmperorLeopold I as a School of Philosophy and Catholic Theology with the designated nameLeopoldina. On 15 November 1702, the university opened. Johannes Adrian von Plencken also became chancellor of the university. As a Catholic institute in Protestant Breslau, the new university was an important instrument of theCounter-Reformation in Silesia. AfterSilesia passed to Prussia, the university lost its ideological character, but remained a religious institution for the education of Catholic clergy in Prussia.
After the defeat of Prussia byNapoleon and the subsequent reorganisation of the Prussian state, the academy was merged on 3 August 1811 with the ProtestantViadrina University, previously located inFrankfurt (Oder), and re-established in Breslau as theKönigliche Universität zu Breslau – Universitas litterarum Vratislaviensis (in 1911 named theSchlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau, to honour the founderFrederick William III of Prussia). At first, the conjoint academy had five faculties: philosophy, medicine, law,Protestant theology, andCatholic theology.
Connected with the university were three theological seminars, a philological seminar, a seminar for German Philology, another seminar for Romanic and English philology, an historical seminar, a mathematical-physical one, a legal state seminar, and a scientific seminar. From 1842, the university also had a chair ofSlavic Studies. The university had twelve different scientific institutes, six clinical centers, and three collections. An agricultural institute with ten teachers and forty-four students, comprising a chemical veterinary institute, a veterinary institute, and a technological institute, was added to the university in 1881. In 1884, the university had 1,481 students in attendance, with a faculty numbering 131.
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The library in 1885 consisted of approximately 400,000 works, including about 2,400 incunabula, approximately 250 Aldines, and 2,840 manuscripts. These volumes came from the libraries of the former universities of Frankfurt and Breslau and from disestablished monasteries, and also included the oriental collections of the Bibliotheca Habichtiana and the academicLeseinstitut.
In addition, the university owned an observatory; a five-hectarebotanical garden; a botanical museum and a zoological garden founded in 1862 by a joint-stock company; anatural history museum; zoological, chemical, and physical collections; the chemical laboratory; the physiological plant; a mineralogical institute; an anatomical institute; clinical laboratories; a gallery (mostly from churches, monasteries, etc.) full of old German works; the museum of Silesian antiquities; and the state archives of Silesia.
In the late 19th century, numerous internationally renowned and historically notable scholars lectured at the University of Breslau,Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet,Ferdinand Cohn, andGustav Kirchhoff among them.In 1817, Poles made up around 16% of the student body.[6][7] At the end of the 19th century around 10% of the students were Polish and 16% wereJewish.[8] This situation reflected the multi ethnic and international character of the university.[9] Both minorities, as well as the German students, established their own student organisations, calledBurschenschaften. Polish student organisations included Concordia, Polonia, and a branch of theSokol association. Many of the students came from other areas of partitioned Poland. The Jewish students unions were the Viadrina (founded 1886) and the Student Union (1899).Teutonia, a German Burschenschaft founded in 1817, was actually one of the oldest student fraternities in Germany, founded only two years after theUrburschenschaft. The Polish fraternities were all eventually disbanded by the German professorFelix Dahn,[7] and in 1913 Prussian authorities established a numerus clausus law that limited the number of Jews from non-German Eastern Europe (so calledOstjuden) that could study in Germany to at most 900. The University of Breslau was allowed to take 100.[10]AsGermany turned to Nazism, the university became influenced byNazi ideology. Polish students were beaten by NSDAP members just for speaking Polish.[11] In 1939, all Polish students were expelled and an official university declaration stated, "We are deeply convinced that [another] Polish foot will never cross the threshold of this German university".[12] In that same year, German scholars from the university worked on a scholarly thesis of historical justification for a "plan of mass deportation in Eastern territories"; among the people involved wasWalter Kuhn, a specialist ofOstforschung. Other projects duringWorld War II involved creating evidence to justify German annexation of Polish territories, and presentingKraków andLublin as German cities.[13][verification needed]
In January 2015, the university restored 262 PhD degrees stripped during the Nazi period from Jews and other scholars seen as hostile to the Nazis.[14]
After theSiege of Breslau, theRed Army took the city in May 1945. Breslau, now known as Wrocław, became part of theRepublic of Poland. The first Polish team of academics arrived in Wrocław in late May 1945 and took custody of the university buildings, which were 70% destroyed.[15] Parts of the collection of the university library perished during the Soviet offensive in 1945,[16]burned by soldiers on 10 May 1945, four days after the German garrison surrendered the city[citation needed].
| University rankings | |
|---|---|
| Global – Overall | |
| CWTS World[17] | 710 |
| QS World[18] | 801–1000 |
| THE World[19] | 801–1000 |
| USNWR Global[20] | 833 |
| Regional – Overall | |
| QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia[21] | 49 (2022) |
Very quickly, some buildings were repaired, and a cadre of professors was built up, many coming from prewar PolishJan Kazimierz University of Lwów andStefan Batory University of Wilno.[15] Followingpostwar border shifts, thousands of former employees of the Lwów Library, the Jan Kazimierz University andOssoliński National Institute moved to the city.[22] In mid-1948, over 60% of professors at the Wrocław University and Polytechnic were fromKresy, with academics from prewar Lwów playing a particularly important role in the newly established Polish institutions of higher learning.Stanisław Kulczyński from the University of Lwów was nominated the first president of the two Polish universities in Wrocław, whileEdward Sucharda from the Lwów Polytechnic became the vice-president.[23]
The University of Wrocław was refounded as a Polish state university by the decree of theState National Council issued on 24 August 1945. The first lecture was given on 15 November 1945, byLudwik Hirszfeld. Between 1952 and 1989 the university was named Bolesław Bierut University of Wrocław (Polish:Uniwersytet Wrocławski im. Bolesława Bieruta) afterBolesław Bierut, the communist President of theRepublic of Poland (1947–52).
In 2015, nearly 80 years after the fact, the university restored academic degrees stripped from German Jews by the Nazis owing to German anti-Semitism. "Wroclaw University estimates that in total some 262 people suffered a similar fate."[24]
There are 10 faculties that provide 44 areas of study, in which the language medium is mostly in Polish, with only some in English. The University of Wrocław provides Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral level programmes. The degree certificates awarded by UWr are recognised globally.
Honorary Doctorates
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)T. Kulak, M. Pater, W. Wrzesiński,Historia Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 1702-2002, Wrocław 2002
Media related toWrocław University at Wikimedia Commons
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51°6′49″N17°2′0″E / 51.11361°N 17.03333°E /51.11361; 17.03333
