University of Halle-Wittenberg

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The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (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.

History

The University of Wittenberg was founded in 1502 by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. 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.

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
Faculty of Law and Economics
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Philosophy I (social and cultural studies, history)
Faculty of Philosophy II (ancient and modern languages, communication studies, music)
Faculty of Philosophy III (peadagogy)
Faculty of Natural Sciences I (biochemistry, biology, pharmacy)
Faculty of Natural Sciences II (physics and chemistry)
Faculty of Natural Sciences III (agriculture, geology, mathematics, computer science)

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
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

Collegium musicum

Martin Luther 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. The “Johann Friedrich Reichardt Choir” has been awarded several prizes at international vocal competitions and is regularly performing at “International Handel Festival” in George Frideric Handel’s birthplace Halle.

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.

Notable scholars

Given the history and reputation 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: