University of Cologne
The University of Cologne is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was the sixth university to be established in Central Europe and, although it closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919, it is now one of the largest universities in Germany with more than 48,000 students. The University of Cologne is a former German Excellence University, and as of 2017 it ranks 145th globally according to Times Higher Education.
History
1388–1798
The University of Cologne was established in 1388 as the fourth university in the Holy Roman Empire, after the Charles University of Prague, the University of Vienna and the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg. The charter was signed by Pope Urban VI. The university began teaching on January 6, 1389.In 1798, the university was abolished by the French, who had invaded Cologne in 1794, because under the new French constitution, many universities were abolished all over France. The last rector Ferdinand Franz Wallraf was able to preserve the university's Great Seal, now once more in use.
1919–today
In 1919, the Prussian government endorsed a decision by the Cologne City Council to re-establish the university. This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the University of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine, which contemporaneously reverted to France with the rest of Alsace. On May 29, 1919, the Cologne Mayor Konrad Adenauer signed the charter of the modern university.At that point, the new university was located in Neustadt-Süd, but relocated to its current campus in Lindenthal on 2 November 1934. The old premises are now being used for the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
Initially, the university was composed of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine. In 1920, the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts were added, from which latter the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences was split off in 1955 to form a separate Faculty. In 1980, the two Cologne departments of the Rhineland School of Education were attached to the university as the Faculties of Education and of Special Education. In 1988, the university became a founding member of the Community of European Management Schools and International Companies, today's Global Alliance in Management Education.
The University is a leader in the area of economics and is regularly placed in top positions for law and business, both for national and international rankings.
Organization
The University of Cologne is a statutory corporation, operated by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.Faculties
The university is divided into six faculties, which together offer 200 fields of study. The faculties are those of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Law, Medicine, Arts, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Human Sciences.| faculty | students |
| Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences | ca. 10,000 |
| Faculty of Law | ca. 5,000 |
| Faculty of Medicine with University Hospital of Cologne | ca. 3,200 |
| Faculty of Arts and Humanities | ca. 16,500 |
| Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences | ca. 7,500 |
| Faculty of Human Sciences | ca. 2,800 |
Rectors
On November 24, 2004, the physicist Axel Freimuth was elected as Rector of the :de:Liste der Rektoren der Universität zu Köln|University. His term began on April 1, 2005. He succeeded Tassilo Küpper and was the 49th Rector since 1919. He was previously Dean of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.Academic profile
Museums and collections
- GeoMuseum: The only natural history museum in Cologne
- Theatre Collection in Schloss Wahn: images and text from European theater from the 16th century
- Max Bruch Archive of the Institute of Musicology: autographs and writings from and about Max Bruch
- The Kathy Acker Reading Room, the personal library of author Kathy Acker.
- Musical Instrument Collection of the Musicology Institute
- Egyptian collection: Papyri and parchments, ceramics and small sculptures
- Prehistoric collection artefacts from all periods of prehistoric and early history also from foreign sites, from the Neanderthal fist to the bronze sword and iron weapons of the early Middle Ages
- Papyrus collection of the Institute of Antiquity:
- Barbarastollen''': Under the main building, a mining gallery was built as part of a museum for trade and industry in 1932
Students and faculty
There were 6,157 international students in the 2005 Summer Semester, approximately 13% of all students. Those from developing countries made up about 60%, representing a total of 123 nations. The largest contingents came from Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, China and Ukraine.
There are 508 professors at the university, including 70 women. In addition, the university employs 1,549 research assistants, with an additional 765 at the clinic, and 1,462 other assistants.
Partner universities
The University of Cologne maintains twenty official partnerships with universities from ten countries. Of these, the partnerships with Clermont-Ferrand I and Pennsylvania State are the oldest partnerships. In addition, Cologne has further cooperations with more than 260 other universities.Notable alumni and professors
Over the centuries, scholars from Cologne have been among the most prominent in their fields, beginning with Albertus Magnus and his pupil Thomas Aquinas. Notable alumni of the 20th century include among others Kurt Alder, Peter Grünberg, Heinrich Böll, Karl Carstens, Gustav Heinemann, Karolos Papoulias, Erich Gutenberg, Axel Ockenfels, and Eberhard Voit.Jenny Gusyk, a Jewish woman of Turkish citizenship, was the first female and foreign student to be enrolled in 1919.