University of Halle-Wittenberg

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Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Established:	1502
Type:	Public university
Rector:	Prof. Dr. Wulf Diepenbrock
Staff:	5.017 (of which 335 tenured university professors)
Students:	18.690 (2006)
Location:	Halle, Saxony Anhalt, Germany
Campus:	Urban
Colors:	Emerald green
Affiliations:	Global Compact
Website:	http://www.uni-halle.de/

The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (German: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg within Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

The university was created in 1817 through the merger of the University of Wittenberg (founded 1502) and the University of Halle (founded 1694). The university is named after the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, who was a professor in Wittenberg. Today, the university itself is located in Halle, while the Leucorea Foundation in Wittenberg serves as MLU’s convention centre (and hotel) for seminars as well as for academic and political conferences. Leucorea also hosts the Wittenberg Centre for Global Ethics. Both Halle and Wittenberg are about one hour from Berlin by ICE high speed train.

Contents 1 History 2 Faculties 3 Cooperating research institutions 4 Collegium musicum 5 Partner universities 6 Notable scholars 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

The University of Wittenberg was founded in 1502 by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony.^[1] Under the influence of Philipp Melanchthon, building on the works of Martin Luther, the university became a centre of the Protestant Reformation. Notable attendees include George Müller, Georg Joachim Rheticus, and, in fiction, William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The University of Halle was founded in 1694 by Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, who became Frederick I, King in Prussia, in 1701. Halle subsequently became a center for Pietism within Prussia.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the universities were centers of the German Enlightenment. Christian Wolff was an important proponent of rationalism. He influenced many German scholars, such as Immanuel Kant. Christian Thomasius was at the same time the first philosopher in Germany to hold his lectures not in Latin, but German. He contributed to a rational program in philosophy but also tried to establish a more common-sense point of view, which was aimed against the unquestioned superiority of aristocracy and theology.

The University of Wittenberg was closed in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. The town of Wittenberg was granted to Prussia in the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the university was then merged with the Prussian University of Halle in 1817.

[edit] Faculties

Following the continental European academic tradition, MLU has several faculties, regrouping academic staff and students according to their field of studies (as opposed to the anglo-saxon collegiate university model):

• Faculty of Theology [2]
• Faculty of Law and Economics [3]
• Faculty of Medicine [4]
• Faculty of Philosophy I (social and cultural studies, history) [5]
• Faculty of Philosophy II (ancient and modern languages, communication studies, music) [6]
• Faculty of Philosophy III (peadagogy) [7]
• Faculty of Natural Sciences I (biochemistry, biology, pharmacy) [8]
• Faculty of Natural Sciences II (physics and chemistry) [9]
• Faculty of Natural Sciences III (agriculture, geology, mathematics, computer science) [10]

[edit] Cooperating research institutions

Martin Luther University is enclosed by a variety of research institutions, which have either institutional or personal links with the university or cooperate occasionally in their respective fields of studies:

• The German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina[11]
• The Halle Institute for Economic Research
• The Frauenhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials
• The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe
• The Leibniz Institute for Botanical Biochemistry
• The Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding
• The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
• The Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics
• The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
• The International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies

[edit] Collegium musicum

Even though Martin Luther University is an academic, research oriented institution, not an academy of music or conservatory, the university has an academic orchestra (founded in 1779) and a choir (founded in 1950), which constitute the so called Collegium musicum. Members are mostly gifted students of all faculties, but also academic staff and alumni. In 2007, the "Johann Friedrich Reichardt University Choir", led by MLU’s musical director Jens Lorenz and Jens Arndt, took part in the "18th International Competition of Choral Music" in Verona, Italy. The choir was awarded the overall distinction "Gold – Excellent" for its performance with spiritual and secular a cappella works from the renaissance, baroque and romantic periods and the 20th century. In addition, it was awarded one of three special awards for the best interpretation of the compulsory piece "As Torrents in Summer" by Edward Elgar.^[2] The choir is also regularly performing at "International Handel Festival" [12] in George Frideric Handel’s birthplace Halle.

[edit] Partner universities

Martin Luther University has 42 partner universities in 22 countries, including:

• Argentina: National University of La Plata
• Australia: University of Queensland
• Austria: Johannes Kepler University Linz
• Canada: University of Ottawa
• China: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
• France: Charles de Gaulle University - Lille III
• India: Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• Israel: Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University
• Italy: University of Palermo, University of Pisa
• Japan: Senshu University, Sophia University, Waseda University
• Peru: National University of San Marcos
• South Korea: Hanbat National University
• United States: University of South Carolina, University of Alabama, University of Florida, Illinois Institute of Technology.

[edit] Notable scholars

Given the history^[4] and reputation^[5] of Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, numerous notable personalites have attended the institution, such as Nobel laureates Gustav Ludwig Hertz, Hermann Staudinger, and Karl Ziegler, as well as Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first colored Sub-Saharan African known to have attended a European university, Dorothea Erxleben, the first female medical doctor in Germany, Frederick Muhlenberg, the first Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, Hans Dietrich Genscher, Germany’s longest serving Foreign Minister, and:

• A: Thomas Abbt, Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, Hermann Abert, Erasmus Alberus, Anton Wilhelm Amo, Nicolaus von Amsdorf, Abraham Angermannus, Johann Arndt, Ludwig Achim von Arnim, Gottfried Arnold, Gustav Aschaffenburg, Matthäus Aurogallus,

• B: Ernst Gottfried Baldinger, Caspar Bartholin the Elder, Anton de Bary, Karl Adolph von Basedow, August Immanuel Bekker, Gottfried Bernhardy, Julius Bernstein, Willibald Beyschlag, Jan Blahoslav, Friedrich Blass, Philipp August Böckh, Julius Oscar Brefeld, Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Heinrich Brandt, Theodor Brugsch, Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Johann Franz Buddeus, Johann Christian Buxbaum,

• C: Joachim Camerarius, Johann Heinrich Callenberg, Georg Cantor, Martin Chemnitz, Hermann Cohen, Alexander Conze, Valerius Cordus, Caspar Cruciger the Younger, Caspar Cruciger the Elder, Johann Crüger,

• D: Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann, Daniel Dahm, Richard Walther Darré, Friedrich Dedekind, Christoph Demantius, Gábor Döbrentei, Johan Gabriel Doppelmayr, Friedrich Ernst Dorn, Ernst Dümmler, Maximilian Wolfgang Duncker,

• E: Johann August Eberhard, Martin Eichler, Johann Sigismund Elsholtz, Karl Elze, Francisco de Enzinas, Johann Eduard Erdmann, Johann August Ernesti, Johann Samuel Ersch, Dorothea Erxleben,

• F: Justus Falckner, Georg Forster, August Hermann Francke, Georg Franck von Franckenau, Bengt Gottfried Forselius

• G: Nicolaus Gallus, Hans Dietrich Genscher, Scipione Gentili, Johann Gerhard, Wilhelm Gesenius, Heinrich Ernst Ferdinand Guericke, Albrecht Giese, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, Rudolph Goclenius, Johann Nikolaus Götz, Alfred Carl Graefe, Friedrich Albrecht Carl Gren, Johann Jakob Griesbach, Julius Waldemar Grosse, Johann Gottfried Gruber, Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner, Jan Gruter, Simon Grynaeus, Erich Gutenberg,

• H: Johann Habermann, Horatio Balch Hackett, Rudolf Haym, Rudolf Heidenhain, Hermann Theodor Hettner, Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen, Patrick Hamilton (martyr), Georg Frideric Handel, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (in fiction), Gottlieb Christoph Harless, Christian August Hausen, Sven Hedin, Gustav Ludwig Hertz, Christian Gottlob Heyne, Adolf Bernhard Christoph Hilgenfeld, Ferdinand Hitzig, Erich Hoffmann, Anton Ludwig Ernst Horn, Eugen Huber, Gottlieb Hufeland, Gustav Hugo, Nicolaus Hunnius, Hermann Hupfeld, John Fletcher Hurst, Edmund Husserl, Leonhard Hutter,

• I: Karl Leberecht Immermann, Nitobe Inazō,

• J: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob, Jeremiah Jenks, Jan Jesenius,

• K: Saul Isaac Kaempf, Andreas Karlstadt, Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner, Bartholomäus Keckermann, Petrus Kenicius, Karl-Hermann Knoblauch,

• L: Heinrich Laube, Johann Gottlob Lehmann, Edwin Linkomies, Christian Lobeck, Otto Heinrich von Löben, Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, Valentin Ernst Löscher, Karl August Lossen, Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke, Martin Luther, Cyprián Karásek Lvovický of Lvovice,

• M: Johann Friedrich Meckel, Johann David Michaelis, Gustav Mie, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Friedrich Mohs, Joachim Mrugowsky, Julius Müller, Lucian Müller, Frederick Muhlenberg, Henry Muhlenberg,

• N: Johann August Nauck, August Neander, Michael Neander, Felix von Niemeyer, Benedikt Niese, Karl Immanuel Nitzsch,

• O: Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger,

• P: Peter Simon Pallas, Simon Patten, Jöran Persson, Olaus Petri, Caspar Peucer, Julius Plücker, August Pott, Johannes Praetorius, Edmond de Pressensé, Robert Prutz,

• Q: Johannes Andreas Quenstedt,

• R: Karl Wilhelm Ramler, Werner Rauh, Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, Ernst Raupach, Hermann Samuel Reimarus, Erasmus Reinhold, Johann Jakob Reiske, Julius Reubke, Edouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss, Peter Riedel, Eduard Karl August Riehm, Albrecht Ritschl, Lars Roberg, Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, David Ruhnken,

• S: Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Nikolaus Selnecker, Johann Salomo Semler, Daniel Sennert, Philip Schaff, Max Scheler, Valentin Schindler, Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal, Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, August Ludwig von Schlözer, Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, Max Schultze, Karl Schwarz, Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, George Spalatin, Philipp Jakob Spener, Oswald Spengler, Walther Spielmeyer, Curt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel, Georg Ernst Stahl, Hermann Staudinger, Henrik Steffens, Martin Stephan, Rudolf Ewald Stier, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, Johann Friedrich Struensee, Aleksandras Stulginskis, Carl Stumpf,

• T: Friedrich Tholuck, Christian Thomasius, Ludwig Tieck, Jiří Třanovský,

• U: Hermann Ulrici, Dimitri Uznadze,

• V: Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, Abraham Vater, Daniel Vorländer, Hugo Marie de Vries,

• W: Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Julius Wegscheider, Hermann Welcker, Julius Wellhausen, Joachim Westphal (of Hamburg), Carl Ludwig Willdenow, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Friedrich August Wolf, Christian Wolff (philosopher), F. C. D. Wyneken,

• Z: Karl Ziegler, Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, Leopold Zunz.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition. Chicago, 1988.

[edit] External links

• Official website (English)
• Official website (German)
• Download MLU Yearbook 2007(German) / (English)

Coordinates: 51°29′11″N, 11°58′08″E