University of Heidelberg

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The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg is a public, comprehensive research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Commonly referred to as University of Heidelberg, Ruperto Carola, or simply Heidelberg, it is the oldest university in Germany. The University of Heidelberg consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programs at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral level in a wide array of disciplines. It is a German Excellence University, and a founding member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association.

Rupert I, Elector Palatine established the university in 1386 in the town of Heidelberg, then the seat of Prince-Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. It acted from the outset as a center for theologians and law experts from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. After having gone into decline as a result of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), it overcame its fiscal and intellectual crisis not until the early 19th century. It then became a hub for independent thinkers and developed into a stronghold of humanism and democracy. However, during the Nazi era between 1933 and 1945, the university lost many of its dissident professors and was consequently ill-famed as a NSDAP cadre university. It thus underwent an extensive denazification after World War II. In the 1970s, the University of Heidelberg was one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany.

Today, the university puts an emphasis on natural sciences and medicine, but it retains its traditions with strong faculties of humanities and social sciences. The university is closely associated with some of the foremost science institutes in Europe and is particularly research oriented. It is consistently ranked among Europe's top universities, and it is one of the internationally leading education venues for doctoral students, with approximately 1,000 doctorates successfully completed every year. Although there is an increasing number of commercial sponsors, the university depends mostly on financial support by the state. International students from some 130 countries usually account for more than 20 percent of the entire student body; at some graduate programs the proportion of international students approaches 50 percent.

History

Founding

The university was founded in 1386 at the behest of Rupert I, Count Palatine of the Rhine, in order to provide faculties for the study of philosophy, theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. On October 19 1386 the first lecture was held. Thus, the University of Heidelberg is the oldest university in Germany.

The Great Schism in 1378, which split European Christendom into two hostile groups, was initiated by the election of two popes after the death of Pope Gregory XI in the same year. One successor was in Avignon (elected by the French) and the other in Rome (elected by the Italian cardinals). The German secular and spiritual leaders voiced their support for the successor in Rome, which had far reaching consequences for the German students and teachers in Paris: they lost their stipends and had to leave. Rupert I recognized the opportunity and initiated talks with the Curia, which ultimately lead to the creation of the Papal Bull of Foundation, which can be considered the establishment of the University of Heidelberg. On October 18, 1386 a ceremonial fair in the Heiliggeistkirche commemorated the opening of the doors of the university. As a motto for the seal, Marsilius von Inghen, the first rector of the university chose "semper apertus" - the book of learning is always open. At this point in time, the city of Heidelberg could not have had more than 3500 inhabitants and, yet, the university had almost 600 students enrolled.

Early development

The newly created university acted from the outset as an intellectual center for theology and jurisprudence scholars from throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Nominalism had been prevalent from the time of Marsilius until after 1406, when Jerome of Prague, the friend of John Hus, introduced realism at Heidelberg, on which account he was expelled by the faculty. Six years later, the teachings of John Wycliffe were also condemned. Between 1414 and 1418, several distinguished professors of the University of Heidelberg took part in the Council of Constance and acted as counsellors for Louis III, who attended this council as representative of the emperor and chief magistrate of the realm and had John Hus executed as a heretic. In 1432 the university, pursuant to papal and imperial requests, sent two delegates to the Council of Basle who faithfully supported the legitimate pope.

The transition from scholastic to humanistic culture was effected by the learned chancellor and bishop Johann von Dalberg in the late 15th century. Humanism was represented at the University of Heidelberg particularly by the founder of the older German Humanistic School Rudolph Agricola, the young humanist Conrad Celtes, the pedagogue Jakob Wimpheling, and that "marvel in three languages" Johann Reuchlin. The learned Æneas Silvius Piccolomini was chancellor of the university in his capacity of provost of Worms, and later always favored it with his friendship and good-will as Pope Pius II. In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV permitted laymen and married men to be appointed professors in the ordinary of medicine through a papal dispensation. In 1553, Pope Julius III sanctioned the allotment of ecclesiastical benefice to secular professors.

Despite Martin Luther's presence in Heidelberg, the University of Heidelberg was not to a great extent influenced by the Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century until Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, converted the university into a calvinsitic institution. Thereafter, it underwent a flowering time. In 1563, the Heidelberg Catechism was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school. As the 16th century was passing, the late humanism stepped beside Calvinism as a predominant school of thought; and figures like Paul Schede, Jan Gruter, Martin Opitz, and Matthäus Merian taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed to a cultural and academic center of Europe. However, with the beginning of the Thirty Years' War in 1618, the intellectual and fiscal wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then world-famous Bibliotheca Palatina - the library of the university - was stolen from the University Cathedral and brought to Rome. The burdensome reconstruction thereafter was shattered by the troops of King Louis XIV, which destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely. As a consequence of the late Counter-Reformation, the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by Jesuits. In 1735, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the Jesuits a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the French Congregation of Lazarists in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward. The university itself continued to lose in brilliance and prestige until the reign of the last elector Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of political economy from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an observatory in the neighboring city of Mannheim, where the celebrated Jesuit Christian Meyer laboured as director. In connexion with the commemoration of the four hundredth anniversary of the university, a revised statute book, which several of the professors had been commissioned to prepare, was approved by the elector. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that period, the number of students varied from three to four hundred; in the jubilee year 133 matriculated. As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the French Revolution and particularly because of the Peace of Lunéeville, the university lost all its property on the left bank of the Rhine, so that its complete dissolution was expected.

19th and early 20th century

It was not until 1803 that this decline stopped. In this year, the university was reestablished as a state-owned institution by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden, to whom the part of the Palatinate situated on the right bank of the Rhine was allotted. Since then, the university bears his name together with the one of Ruprecht I. Karl Friedrich divided the university into five faculties and placed himself as rector at its head, as did also his successors. During this decade Romanticism found expression in Heidelberg through Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim, Ludwig Tieck, Joseph Görres, and Joseph von Eichendorff, and there went forth a revival of the German Middle Ages in speech, poetry, and art. The German Students Association exerted great influence, which was at first patriotic and later political. After Romanticism had eventually died out, Heidelberg became a center of Liberalism and the movement in favour of German national unity. The historians Friedrich Christoph Schlosser and Georg Gottfried Gervinus were the guides of the nation in political history. The modern scientific schools of medicine and natural science, particularly astronomy, were models in point of construction and equipment, and the University of Heidelberg was especially noted for its influential law school. Heidelberg’s professors were important supporters of the Vormärz revolution and many of them were members of the revolutionary Frankfurt Parliament of 1848. During the late 19th century, the university housed a very liberal and open-minded spirit which was deliberately fostered by Max Weber, Ernst Troeltsch and a circle of colleagues around them. In the Weimar Republic, the university was widely recognized as a center of democratic thinking, coined by professors like Karl Jaspers, Gustav Radbruch, Martin Dibelius and Alfred Weber. Unfortunately, there were also dark forces working within the university: Nazi physicist Philipp Lenard was head of the physical institute during that time. Following the assassination of Walther Rathenau, he refused to half mast the national flag on the institute, thereby provoking its storming by communist students.

Nazi era and Federal Republic

With the advent of the Third Reich in 1933, the university supported the Nazis like all other German universities at the time. It decruited a large number of lecturers and expelled many students for political and racist reasons. Many dissident fellows had to emigrate, some Jewish and Communist professors were deported, and two professors directly fell victim to Nazi terror. Particularly members of the university took actively part in a book burning at University Square, and Heidelberg was eventually ill-famed as a NSDAP cadre university. The inscription above the main entrance of the New University was changed from "The Living Spirit" to "The German Spirit" and many professors paid homage to the new motto. After the end of World War II, the university underwent an extensive denazification. Since Heidelberg was for the most part spared from destruction during the war, the reconstruction of the university was realized rather quickly. With the foundation of the Collegium Academicum, the University of Heidelberg became the home of Germany's first and, until today, only self-governed student hall. Newly laid statutes obliged the university to "The Living Spirit of Truth, Justice and Humanity". During the Sixties and Seventies, the university grew dramatically in size. At this time, it developed into one of the main scenes of the left-wing student protests in Germany. In 1975, a massive police force arrested the entire student parliament AStA. Shortly thereafter, the building of the Collegium Academicum, a progressive college in immediate vicinity to the universities main grounds, was stormed by over 700 police officers and closed once and for all. On the outskirts of the city, in the Neuenheimer Feld Area, a large campus for medicine and natural sciences was constructed. Today, about 25,000 students are enrolled for studies at the University of Heidelberg. More than 15,000 academic staff and over 400 University Professors make it one of Germany's larger universities. In 2007, the university was appointed University of Excellence within the scope of an initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation in order to enhance the German university system by establishing a small group of exceptionally well funded elite universities which are expected to generate a strong international appeal.

Campuses

Heidelberg is a city with approx. 140,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the Rhine Neckar Triangle, an European metropolitan area with approx. 2.4 million people living there, comprising the neighboring cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and a number of smaller towns surrounding them. Heidelberg is known as the cradle of Romanticism, and its old town and castle are among the most frequented tourist destinations in Germany. Its pedestrian zone is a shopping and night life magnet for the surrounding area and beyond. Heidelberg is about 40 minutes by train away from Frankfurt International Airport. The University of Heidelberg’s facilities are, generally speaking, separated in two parts. The faculties and institutes of humanities and social sciences are embedded in the Old Town Campus. The sciences faculties and the medical school, including three large university hospitals, are located on the New Campus in the Neuenheimer Feld on the outskirts of Heidelberg.

Old Town Campus

The so-called New University can be regarded as the center of the Old Town Campus. It is situated in the pedestrian zone at University Square in direct neighbourhood to the University Library and to the main administration buildings. The New University was officially opened in 1931. Its erection was largely financed by donations of American tycoon families, such as Goldman, Sachs, Morgan, Chrysler, Ford, and many others, in line with a fundraising campaign of Jacob Gould Schurman, an alumnus of the University of Heidelberg and former US Ambassador to Germany. It houses the new assembly hall, the largest lecture halls, and a number of smaller seminar rooms, mostly used by faculties of humanities and social sciences. Education in humanities and social sciences takes place to a great extent in the respective faculty buildings which are spread all over the ancient part of town, though, they are mostly a maximum of ten minutes walk away from University Square. The faculties maintain own extensive libraries, and working places for their students. Seminars and tutorials are usually held in the faculty buildings.

New Campus

The New Campus is located in the newest district of the town called Neuenheimer Feld. It is today the larger part of the university. Almost all science faculties and institutes, the medical school, the university hospitals, and the science branch of the University Library are situated at the New Campus. Most of the dormitories and the athletic facilities of the university can be found there as well. Lots of independent research institutes, such as the German Cancer Research Center, Max-Planck-Institutes, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory have settled there. The New Campus is also seat of several biomedical spin-off companies. The ancient part of the town can be reached by streetcar in about ten minutes. The Faculty of Physics and Astronomy is in an exceptional position since its faculty buildings are located in Heidelberg's exclusive residential area, overlooking the River Neckar, the ancient town, and the castle.

Libraries

The University Library is the main library of the university, and constitutes together with the decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes the integral university library system, headed by the director of the University Library. Besides the usual tasks of a library for research and teaching, the University Library contains special collections in the following concentration areas: literature concerning the Palatinate and Baden, Egyptology, archeology, history of art, and South Asia. The University Library's stocks exceeded one million in 1934. Today it holds about 3.2 million books, about 500,000 other media like microfilms and video tapes, 10,732 current scientific journals, as well as 6000 ancient manuscripts. The 83 decentralized libraries contain another 3.5 million printed books. In 2005, 34,500 active users of the University Library accessed 1.4 million books a year. The conventional book supply is complemented by numerous electronic services. Around 3000 commercial scientific journals can be accessed via e-journal. The University Library of today traces its roots back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche, then the University Cathedral. Additional foundations of the library were laid by means of donations from the bishops, chancellors, and early professors. Louis III willed his large and valuable collection to the university, as did also the Fugger of Augsburg. Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, combined the university's libraries in the 16th century, thus creating the Bibliotheca Palatina. In the 17th century, the greatest part of the Bibliotheca Palatina was donated to the Vatican in Rome as a loot of the Thirty Years War. The libraries of the secularized monasteries Salem and Petershausen constituted the basis for the reconstruction. From 1901 to 1905 a richly ornamented, four-wing red sandstone building was constructed for the library across from the Church of St. Peter. It was designed by Josef Durm, who adapted the Renaissance style of Heidelberg Castle and added numerous elements of art noveau. The building was expanded several times, lately by enlarged basements under the courtyard of the neighboring New University. The frontage is punctuated with many windows for the sake of natural illumination. Since 1978, the science branch of the University Library serves the institutes of natural sciences and medicine at the New Campus.

Facilities abroad

The University of Heidelberg has founded a Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile in 2001. It has the task of organizing, managing, and marketing the courses of study maintained either independently by the University of Heidelberg or in cooperation with the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. The University of Heidelberg has arranged cooperation agreements with both of these universities. The center has responsibility for programs of postgraduate education. It also coordinates the activities of the University of Heidelberg in Latin America, and provides a platform for scientific cooperation. In addition, the university is currently about to set up a Heidelberg Center for North America, with similar tasks, in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Organization

Faculties

After a structural reformation in 2003, the university consists of twelve faculties which in turn comprise several disciplines. As a consequence of the Bologna process, most faculties now offer Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD degrees in order to comply with the new European degree standard.

Graduate Research Schools

Besides the various doctoral programs offered by the Heidelberg Graduate Academy, and in addition to the opportunity to pursue individual doctoral studies in all disciplines offered, instructed by a University Professor as dissertation adviser, the university has recently set up interdisciplinary international graduate schools offering PhD programs for outstanding graduates in relevant disciplines. As for most doctoral programs, the lectures, seminars, and tutorials will be held in English.

Noted research centers

The university and its faculties maintain 102 research centers and institutes. Some of the most notable are listed below:

Associated institutions

The university is organizationally and personally interlinked with the following independent and semi-independet institutions. Besides joint research, they take also part in the educational tasks at undergraduate and graduate level.

Academics

Reputation

The THES - QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Heidelberg overall between 12th and 15th in Europe, between 45th and 60th in the world, and consistently as the foremost German university. Based on the overall academic peer review score of 2005, Heidelberg ranked 6th in Europe and 28th in the world. In the separate THES - QS rankings of broad subject areas, Heidelberg ranked globally between 17th and 43rd in life science and biomedicine, between 22nd and 45th in science, between 41st and 61st in arts and humanities, and between 54th and 78th in social sciences. The Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked Heidelberg between 12th and 18th in Europe, and between 58th and 66th in the world. With these placings Heidelberg outranks many world-renowned institutions of higher education, such as most often two Ivy League universities. (Note that the THES - QS and Jiao Tong tables are the only annual comprehensive world university rankings, and that their methodologies are subject to controversy.)

According to the Ranking of Scientific Impact of Leading European Research Universities compiled by the European Commission, Heidelberg ranks 9th in Europe. The CHE Excellence Ranking, measuring academic performance of European graduate programs in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, placed Heidelberg in the excellence group for physics and chemistry, and in the top group for mathematics and biology, which is overall a joint 9th place in Europe. Ranked by the number of Nobel Laureates affiliated with the university at the time of Nobel Prize announcement, Heidelberg is placed 4th in Europe and 13th in the world by 2007. A study based on a survey of scientific journal referees created by Braun et al. in 2007 ranks the University of Heidelberg at the top of German universities in academic reputation. The Times referred to the University of Heidelberg as "the oldest and most eminent in the country of Luther and Einstein" and as "the jewel of German learning".

Organization and length of courses

The academic year is divided into two semesters. The winter semester runs from 1st of October - 31st of March and the summer semester from 1st of April - 30th of September. Classes are held from mid-October to mid-February and mid-April to mid-July. Students can generally begin their studies either in the winter or the summer semester. However, there are several subjects students can begin only in the winter semester. The standard time required to finish a Bachelor's degree is principally 6 semesters, and a further 4 semesters for consecutive Master's degrees. The normal duration of PhD programs for full-time students is 6 semesters. The overall period of study for an undergraduate degree is divided into two parts: a period of basic study, lasting at least 4 semesters, at the end of which students must sit a formal examination, and a period of advanced study, lasting at least 2 semesters, after which students take their final examinations.

Tuition fees

Studying at German universities is heavily subsidized by the state in order to keep higher education affordable regardless of socio-economic background. Therefore, Heidelberg charges tuition fees of approximately € 1,200 p.a., including student union fees, for undergraduate, consecutive Master's, and doctoral programs, for both EU and non-EU citizens, and for any subject area. The usual housing costs for on-campus dormitories range from € 2,200 to € 3,000 p.a.

Admission

In the winter-semester 2006/2007 the university offered 3926 places in undergraduate programs restricted by numerus clausus, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.3 percent. Most selective are the undergraduate programs in clinical medicine, molecular cell biology, political science, and law, with acceptance rates of 3.6 percent, 3.8 percent, 7.6 percent and 9.1 percent respectively. The selection is exercised by allocating the best qualified applicants to a given number of places available in the respective discipline, thus depending primarily on the chosen subjects and the grade point average of the high school degree equivalent. For some majors and minors in humanities, particularly for those which are conceptually non-vocational like classics, philosophy, and ancient history, unrestricted admission is granted if certain criteria (e.g. relevant language proficiency) are fulfilled, as applications regularly do not exceed the number of places available. For prospective international undergraduate students a language test for German, such as the DSH, is required. Admission to consecutive Master's programs always requires at least an undergraduate degree equivalent to the German grade "good" (i.e., normally B+ in American, or 2:1 in British terms). Except for the Master's programs taught in English, a language test for German must be passed as well. PhD admission prerequisite is normally a strong Master's-level degree, but specific admission procedures vary and cannot be generalized. International applicants usually make up considerably more than 20 percent of the applicant pool, and are considered individually by the merits achieved in their respective state of origin.

International cooperations

The University of Heidelberg is a founding member of the League of European Research Universities, the Coimbra Group, and the European University Association. It has further specific agreements with 17 partner universities, among which are the University of Montpellier, Hebrew University, Kyoto University, Tsinghua University, and the University of Cambridge. Additionally, the university has student exchange programs with 23 universities in 17 countries world-wide, and it participates in 7 European exchange programs, such as ERASMUS. Moreover, the faculties maintain own international cooperations. For instance the Medical School has ties with the Huazhong University Tongji Medical College, the Faculty of Modern Languages with the Shanghai International Studies University, and the Faculty of Law with the Georgetown University Law Center.

Student life

Athletics

The university offers a broad variety of athletics, such as teams in 16 different court sports from American football to volleyball, courses in 11 different martial arts, 26 courses in fitness and body building, 9 courses in health sports from aquapower to yoga, and groups in 12 different dance styles. Moreover equestrian sports, sailing, rowing, skiing in the French alps, track and field, swimming, fencing, cycling, acrobatics, gymnastics, and much more. Most of the sports are free of charge. Heidelberg’s competition teams are particularly successful in soccer, volleyball, equestrian sports, judo, karate, track and field, and basketball. The track and field team regularly achieves best placings at the German university championships. The University Sports Club men's basketball team, USC Heidelberg, is the championship record holder, won 13 national championships, and is the only university team playing at a professional level in the second division of Germany's national league.

Student groups

Moreover, the university supports a number of student groups in various fields of interest. Among them are the student parliament AStA, the student councils of the twelve faculties, four drama clubs, the university orchestra Collegium Musicum, four choirs, six student media groups, six groups of international students, nine groups of political parties and NGO’s, several departments of European organizations of students in certain disciplines, 4 clubs dedicated to fostering international relations and cultural exchange, a chess club, a literature club, a debate society, two student management consulting groups, and four religious student groups.

Newspapers

Heidelberg’s student newspaper “ruprecht” is, with editions of more than 10.000 copies, one of Germany’s largest student-run newspapers. It was recently distinguished by the MLP Pro Campus Press Award as Germany’s best student newspaper. The jury, consisting of journalists of major newspapers, commended its “well balanced, though critical attitude”, and its “simply great” layout which “suffices highest professional demands”. The ruprecht is financed entirely by advertising revenues, thus retaining its independence from the university's management. Some very renowned journalists emerged from ruprecht’s editorial board. Heidelberg is also home of Germany’s oldest student law review “StudZR”. The journal is published quarterly, at the beginning and end of each semester break, and is circulated throughout all of Germany.

Corporations

Heidelberg hosts 34 student corporations, which have a long tradition as most of them were founded in the 19th century. Corporations are to some extent comparable to the fraternities in the US. As traditional symbols (couleur) corporation members wear colored caps and ribbons at ceremonial occasions (Kommers) and some still practice the traditional academic fencing, a kind of duel, in order to "shape their members for the challenges of life". In the 19th and early 20th century, corporations played an important role in Germany's student life. Today, however, corporations include only a relatively small number of students. Their self-declared mission is to keep academic traditions alive and to create friendships for life. The corporations' often representative 19th century mansions are present throughout the old town.

Night life

Heidelberg is not least famous for its student night life. Besides the various parties regularly organized by the student councils of the faculties, the semester opening and closing parties of the university, the dormitory parties, and the soirées of Heidelberg's 34 student fraternities, the city, and the metropolitan area even more, offers night life for any taste and budget. Adjacent to University Square is Heidelberg's major night life district, where one pub is placed next to each other. From Thursday on, it is all night very crowded and full of atmosphere. Moreover, Heidelberg has four major clubs playing black music, house, rock, and all time classics. The largest of them, having three floors, is located at the New Campus. The city of Mannheim, which is about triple as large as Heidelberg, is 15 minutes by train away, and offers an even more diverse night life, having a broad variety of clubs and bars well-frequented by Heidelberg's and Mannheim's student community.

People associated with the university

Alumni and faculty of the University of Heidelberg include 26 Nobel Laureates, many founders and pioneers of academic disciplines, and a large number of internationally noted philosophers, poets, jurisprudents, theologians, natural and social scientists. Moreover at least 5 Chancellors of Germany, a Secretary General of NATO, and Heads of State or Government of Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Nicaragua and Thailand, as well as a Pope, Cardinals and Bishops.

The University of Heidelberg in fiction and popular culture

• Mark Twain wrote as detailed as humorously about his impressions of Heidelberg's student life in A Tramp Abroad.
• The 1927 silent film The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, based on a novel by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster and starring Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer, shows the story of a German prince who comes to Heidelberg to study there, but falls in love with his innkeeper's daughter. Having been very popular in the in the first half of the 20th century, it presents the typical student life of the 19th and early 20th century, and it is today considered a masterpiece of the late silent film era. MGM's 1954 color remake The Student Prince, featuring Mario Lanza, is based on Sigmund Romberg's operetta version of the story.
• The university was the main scene of the successful 2000 German horror film Anatomy. The medical student Paula Henning (played by Franka Potente) wins a place in a summer course at the prestigious Heidelberg Medical School. When the body of a young man she met on the train turns up on her dissection table, she begins to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, uncovering a gruesome conspiracy perpetrated by an Antihippocratic secret society operating within the university.

Literature on the University of Heidelberg

• Steven P. Remy: The Heidelberg Myth: The Nazification and Denazification of a German University. Cambridge, Harvard University Press 2002. ISBN 0-674-00933-9
• Andreas Cser: Kleine Geschichte der Stadt Heidelberg und ihrer Universität. Verlag G. Braun, Karlsruhe 2007, ISBN 978-3-7650-8337-2
• Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon, Bd. 1: 1803-1932, Bd. 2: 1652-1802, Bd. 3: 1386-1651. Heidelberg 1986, 1991, 2002. (Bd. 4: 1933-1986 in Vorbereitung)
• Sabine Happ, Werner Moritz: Die Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Ansichten - Einblicke - Rückblicke. Erfurt 2003.
• Wolfgang U. Eckart, Volker Sellin, [Eike Wolgast (Hrsg.): Die Universität Heidelberg im Nationalsozialismus. Springer Verlag, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3540214429
• H. Krabusch: Das Archiv der Universität Heidelberg. Geschichte und Bedeutung, in: Aus der Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg und ihrer Fakultäten. Sonderbd. der Ruperto Carola, hrsg. von G. Hinz (1961), S. 82-111;
• Die Rektorbücher der Universität Heidelberg, Bd. I-II, bearb. von Heiner Lutzmann u. a. hrsg. v. Jürgen Miethke. (Bd. 1: 1386-1410, Heft 1-3, Heidelberg 1986/1990/1999. Bd. 2: 1421-1451, Heft 1, Heidelberg 2001)
• Peter Moraw: Heidelberg: Universität, Hof und Stadt im ausgehenden Mittelalter, in: Studien zum städtischen Bidlungswesen des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, hrsg. von Bernd Moeller, Hans Patze, Karl Stackmann, Redaktion Ludger Grenzmann (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philol.-hist. Klasse, III.137), Göttingen 1983, S. 524-552.
• Werner Moritz: Die Aberkennung des Doktortitels an der Universität Heidelberg während der NS- Zeit, In: Armin Kohnle/ Frank Engehausen: Zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik. Studien zur deutschen Universitätsgeschichte. Festschrift für Eike Wolgast zum 65. Geburtstag, Stuttgart 2001, S. 540-562
• Gerhard Ritter: Die Heidelberger Universität im Mittelalter (1386-1508), Ein Stück deutscher Geschichte, Heidelberg 1936, Neudruck 1986.
• Gotthard Schettler (Hrsg.): Das Klinikum der Universität Heidelberg und seine Institute. Berlin-Heidelberg, Springer 1986. ISBN 3540160337
• Wilhelm Doerr u.a. (Hrsg.): ‚Semper apertus', Sechshundert Jahre Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1386-1986, Festschrift in sechs Bänden. Berlin-Heidelberg, Springer 1985
• Eduard Winkelmann (Hrsg.): Urkundenbuch der Universität Heidelberg, Bd. I-II, Heidelberg 1886.
• Eike Wolgast: Die Universität Heidelberg, 1386-1986, Berlin-Heidelberg, Springer 1986.

Notes and References

See also

External links

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