Giessen , spelled Gießen in German ( German pronunciation: [ˈɡiːsn̩] ), is a town in the German state ( Bundesland ) of Hesse , capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen . The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students.
34-564: University of Giessen , official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (German: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen ), is a large public research university in Giessen , Hesse , Germany . It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world . It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von Liebig , the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertiliser. It covers
68-587: A Lutheran institution had the primary function of ensuring the education of pastors and civil servants. Endowed with a charter issued by Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor , on 19 May 1607, the university was allowed to proceed with instruction in October 1607. During the Thirty Years' War , when Hesse-Darmstadt was able to take the area around Marburg for itself, the University of Giessen ceased instruction and
102-459: A double grave at Alter Friedhof cemetery in Giessen. That both died on the same day sparked the myth that they had fought against each other in a duel . However, in 2008 the local newspaper Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung , referencing a 1939 chronicle of the fraternity Corps Teutonia zu Gießen which Karl von Müller co-founded, revealed that both students had died of typhus . Von Müller had contracted
136-513: A new impulse in their respective areas of knowledge; among these scientists were the antiquarian Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker , the lawyer Rudolf von Jhering , the theologian Adolf von Harnack , the mathematician Moritz Pasch and the physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen . At the turn of the 20th century, the Ludoviciana began to expand into a modern university. During this period, new clinics in human and veterinary medicine were established, and
170-551: A number of these youths were able to gain recognition in the Faculties of Medicine and Philosophy. They established the unusually diverse course offerings that continue to exist to the modern day at the University of Giessen. The University of Giessen weathered the transition from the 18th to the 19th century unscathed and was still the only university of an enlarged territory, the Grand Duchy of Hesse . Alongside Jena, Giessen
204-528: Is an Ethiopian teacher and politician who leads the FDRE Minister of Planning and Development. Also Hans-Joachim Preuss , former Secretary General of Welthungerhilfe and managing director of the giz (gtz) graduated and worked at the University of Giessen. Giessen The name comes from Giezzen , as it was first referred to in 1197, which refers to the position of the town between several rivers, lakes and streams. The largest river in Giessen
238-450: Is an area on the outskirts of the city bordering the city forest. A number of faculty buildings and lecture theaters are located there, including Audimax, a building containing several lecture halls whose atrium is often the venue for concerts and disco nights, locally known as "Uni-Party". Two law students of University of Giessen, Karl Siegfrieden (4 June 1822 – 10 March 1840) and Karl von Müller (10 June 1799 – 10 March 1840), are buried in
272-688: Is home to the basketball club Giessen 46ers , five-time champion of the Basketball Bundesliga . Its home games take place at the Sporthalle Gießen-Ost . Also, Giessen has an American football team called Giessen Golden Dragons. The Catholic Scouts of Europe were founded in Giessen in 1975. Manisch is a dialect of rotwelsch spoken in and around Giessen by people in lower income neighbourhoods, some of which are known as "Eulenkopf", "Gummiinsel", "Heyerweg" and "Margaretenhütte". Approximately 700–750 residents spoke
306-678: Is the Lahn , which divides the town in two parts (west and east), roughly 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Frankfurt am Main . Giessen is also home to the University of Giessen . In 1969, the town hosted the ninth Hessentag state festival. Giessen came into being as a moated castle in 1152 built by Count Wilhelm von Gleiberg , although the history of the community in the northeast and in today's suburb called "Wieseck" dates back to 775. The town became part of Hesse-Marburg in 1567, passing to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1604. The University of Giessen
340-679: The German-speaking world. It was founded in 1607 as a Lutheran university in the city of Giessen in Hesse-Darmstadt because the all-Hessian Landesuniversität (the nearby University of Marburg ( Philipps-Universität Marburg ) in Marburg , Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)) had become Reformed (that is, Calvinist ). Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt , whence the university got its original name "Ludoviciana", founded his own institution of higher education in Giessen, which as
374-417: The Giessen students of Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen , makes Giessen the most student-dominated German city. In December 2019 the university shut down all of its IT-servers after a "serious IT security incident". Hess State Prosecution Office investigated the case of a suspected hacker-attack. Following is the growth in the student population of University of Giessen In the 2014/2015 winter semester
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#1732771898839408-528: The Keller Theatre, is a converted German Army Officers' Club. As of 28 September 2007, the Giessen Depot and all other U.S. facilities in the greater Giessen area were returned to local German authorities. The former U.S. Army buildings were used to house refugees after the large influx of 2016. After the war, the city was twinned with Winchester , UK. Giessen is twinned with: Giessen
442-598: The Rutherford atomic model 's creator, studied in Giessen. Alumnus William Schlich founded Oxford University 's forestry program. Ruth Kajander was a psychiatrist who pioneered use of chlorpromazine as a treatment for schizophrenia. Carl A. Schenck , who received his PhD in forestry from Giessen, founded the Biltmore Forest School , the first such school in the United States. Fitsum Assefa
476-697: The Veterinary Faculty. Recent alumni in the area of politics include current President of Germany and former Vice Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Brigitte Zypries , current Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy and former Federal Minister of Justice. Notable alumni of the university include organic chemist August Kekulé , X-ray physicist Simone Techert , health sociologist Thomas Abel , romantic dramatist and revolutionary Georg Büchner , literary and political historian Georg Gottfried Gervinus and botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius . Ernest Rutherford ,
510-594: The ancient life, in contrast with members of the school of Hermann, who were disposed to limit the field to the language and text of the Greek and Roman writers. Welcker was thoroughly imbued with the harmony of the whole Greek conception, whether expressed in art, literature, or religion, and it was to the presentation of this as a complete whole that he devoted his efforts. Besides early work on Aristophanes , Pindar , and Sappho , whose character he vindicated, he edited Alcman (1815), Hipponax (1817), Theognis (1826) and
544-467: The areas of arts/humanities, business, dentistry, economics, law, medicine, science, social sciences and veterinary medicine. Its university hospital , which has two sites, Giessen and Marburg (the latter of which is the teaching hospital of the University of Marburg ), is the only private university hospital in Germany. The University of Giessen is among the oldest institutions of higher educations in
578-465: The dialect fluently as of 1976. Although the dialect still influences the Giessen vernacular , it is nearly extinct in terms of fluent speakers. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is " Cfb ". (Marine West Coast Climate). Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868)
612-548: The disease while nursing his sick friend. The Corps buried both students after a torch-lit funeral procession. According to the 2024 QS World University Rankings , the university was placed 396th globally and 22nd nationally. In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2023, it fell within the 351–400 bracket internationally and ranked between 34th and 36th at the national level. The 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) placed
646-488: The honorary title of "Rector Magnificentissimus". In 1902 the student body surpassed one thousand. For the first time included in the student body were women, who since 1900 were admitted as guest students and starting in 1908 were admitted for regular study. After the different Hessian states were (re-)united in 1929, both universities became public universities of that German state. The University of Giessen now has almost 23,000 students and 8,500 employees, which together with
680-416: The institution in the 601–700 range globally, and between 37th and 40th nationally. Next to Liebig, famous professors at the university included the physician Georg Haas (who carried out the world's first human hemodialysis in Giessen in 1924), the theologian Adolf von Harnack , the lawyer Rudolf von Jhering , the economist and statistician Etienne Laspeyres , the physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen ,
714-631: The latter of which were mostly "Landeskinder". In the 18th century came gradual modernization of the curricula and reforms in the instruction, which were definitively influenced by the local lordly court in Darmstadt. The example for the reforms were both of the "model universities of the Enlightenment", the University of Halle, founded in 1694, and more still Georgia Augusta, founded in Göttingen in 1734/37. Indeed, all attempts at reform were from
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#1732771898839748-476: The mathematicians Moritz Pasch and Alfred Clebsch , the gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka , the philologist and archaeologist Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker , the orientalists Friedrich Schwally , Paul E. Kahle and Eberhard Schrader , and the president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem Benjamin Mazar . From 1901 to 1918 Hermann Friedrich Gmeiner was the first Professor for veterinary internal medicine at
782-595: The start limited by the limited finances of Hesse-Darmstadt. The noteworthy creation of a Faculty of Economics (1777–1785) was ultimately born out of this financial hardship. In the Faculty of Economics, new practical subjects were brought together ( veterinary medicine , forestry , and cameral sciences ), which the university was supposed to make "expedient" and "profitable". (One of the earliest courses of study in forestry in Europe.) After finishing studies in this Faculty,
816-507: The student population exceeded the mark of more than a total of 28,000 students and 7,000 first-semester students for the first time. In the years 2019 to 2021 the student number was about 28,300, with a decrease to 27,400 students in the winter term 2021/2022 (probably due to COVID restrictions). Although the university has no defined campus, buildings and facilities are grouped together according to their subject areas and situated in various locations around Giessen. Philosophikum II, for example
850-484: The town's historic buildings. It became part of the modern state of Hesse after the war. In 1977, Giessen was merged with the neighbouring city Wetzlar to form the new city of Lahn . However, this attempt to reorganize the administration was reversed in 1979. It was part of the Darmstadt region (regierungsbezirk) between 1945 and 1981, until the Giessen (region) was founded on 1 January 1981. A U.S. military base
884-533: The university authorities of Giessen, he exchanged that university for Göttingen in 1816, and three years later received a chair at the new University of Bonn , where he established the art museum and the library, of which he became the first librarian . In 1841–1843 he travelled in Greece and Italy (cf. his Tagebuch , Berlin, 1865), retired from the librarianship in 1854, and in 1861 from his professorship, but continued to reside at Bonn until his death. Welcker
918-409: The university library received its first proper building. With the creation of the university's central building (inaugurated 1880) and the adjacent newly constructed facilities for chemistry and physics a new cultural centre was established on what was then the border of the city. The decisive backer of this project was the last Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, to whom the university bestowed out of thankfulness
952-567: Was a German classical philologist and archaeologist . Welcker was born at Grünberg , Hesse-Darmstadt . Having studied classical philology at the University of Giessen , in 1803 he was appointed master in the high school, an office which he combined with that of lecturer at the university. In 1806 he journeyed to Italy , and was for more than a year private tutor at Rome in the family of Wilhelm von Humboldt , who became his friend and correspondent. Welcker returned to Giessen in 1808, and resuming his school-teaching and university lectures
986-400: Was a pioneer in the field of archaeology, and was one of the first to insist, like Böckh and his pupil Karl Otfried Müller , on the necessity of co-ordinating the study of Greek art and religion with philology, in opposition to the methods of the older Hellenists, like Gottfried Hermann , which they perceived as too narrow. The later workers took as their aim the complete reconstruction of
1020-767: Was founded in 1607. Giessen was included within the Grand Duchy of Hesse created in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars . After the First World War , it was part of the People's State of Hesse . During the Second World War , a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was in the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Licher Straße . Heavy bombing destroyed about 75 percent of Giessen in 1944, including most of
1054-475: Was in the following year appointed the first professor of Greek literature and archaeology at that or any German university. After serving as a volunteer in the campaign of 1814 he went to Copenhagen to edit the posthumous papers of the Danish archaeologist Georg Zoega (1755–1809), and published his biography, Zoegas Leben (Stuttgart, 1819). His liberalism in politics having brought him into conflict with
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1088-483: Was located in Giessen after the Second World War. The U.S. Army Garrison of Gießen had a population of up to 10,000 American soldiers and their families. Gießen was also the site of the central US army depot for all of Europe as well as the site of a special ammunition depot. The base is a converted German Army Air Field which is reflected in some of the buildings including the housing area. A theatre, known as
1122-522: Was moved back to its more long-standing location in Marburg (1624/25). The Peace of Westphalia led to the restoration of the old location and in 1650 to the relocation of the university to Giessen. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Ludoviciana was a typical small state university that then had the four common faculties (theology, law, medicine, and philosophy). The instruction was reasonable, with about 20 to 25 professors teaching several hundred students,
1156-512: Was the prototype for the politicized Vormärz university, and the "Giessener Schwarzen" with Karl Follen and Georg Büchner , marked the revolutionary spirit of this decade. With the appointment of the 21-year-old Justus von Liebig in 1824 through the Grand Duchy—against the will of the university on the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt —a new era in the natural sciences began, not only in Giessen. Young, promising scientists created
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