Humboldt University in Berlin, 1949–1953

Abstract

My application to the Humboldt University(HU) was submitted on June 24, 1949 to the “Volksbildungsamt” (office for people’s education) in Brandenburg. This was the premier university of the newly founded GDR (see pages 3-16 and 29). The university was founded in 1810 by the liberal, Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt.1 Over the years it has become the model of many western universities. Figure 1 shows its main building “Unter den Linden #6,” as it appeared in 1999. The university was given its present name on February 8, 1949. In 1948, when the political freedom was curtailed in the university, a rival university, the Free University, the FU, was founded in West Berlin. Today, both universities continue in the city with approximately 40,000 students each. A third university in Berlin is the Technical University, TU. It was founded in 1879 and was also located in West Berlin. Today it has about 30,000 students, and its list of alumni and professors includes eight Nobel Prize winners.