YEARS
of Marburg University

The cradle of university chemistry lies in Marburg: in 1609 Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel appoints the chemist Johannes Hartmann (1568-1631) as the world's first professor of chemiatria (medical chemistry).

International students have studied at Marburg University since its founding. In 1718 the first Syrian student known to us enrolled: Karl Dadichi, an orientalist and interpreter at the court of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Wolff taught at Marburg University from 1723 to 1740 and was, alongside G. W. Leibniz, the most important philosopher of the early German Enlightenment. He gave philosophy a profile grounded in science and reason that carried on into Neo-Kantianism and still shapes how the discipline sees itself in Marburg today.

The Brothers Grimm's years of study in Marburg became the starting point for a way of thinking that links scholarship, collecting and the passing on of knowledge across generations.

Bacteriologist Emil von Behring (1854–1917) received the very first Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on serum therapy for diphtheria.

Alix Westerkamp is one of the great pioneers and trailblazers for women in academia. Her doctorate was completed successfully in 1907, making her the first woman to gain a doctorate in law at a German university and only the second woman to gain a doctorate at Marburg University.

On 25 April 1933 the classical philologist and head of the German Language Atlas, Hermann Jacobsohn, was dismissed under the provisions of the 'Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service'. Because Jacobsohn had entered the civil service before 1914, he could not formally be suspended as a Jew; instead he lost his post on political grounds, as a member of the German Democratic Party (DDP). In the days after his dismissal, Jacobsohn took his own life.

Analysing, defending and developing democracy. Leading thinkers such as the political scientist Wolfgang Abendroth shape the university as a place of debate and social impact. In a tradition of change and of active shaping, the university brings different perspectives together and takes on its responsibility in a democratic society.

When Elisabeth Blochmann (1892-1972) was appointed full professor of education at Marburg University in 1952, she made German academic history. Education had first been taught in Marburg by the philosopher Paul Natorp (from 1893) and later by psychologists; with Blochmann it became a discipline in its own right. She was the first woman in Germany to hold a full professorship in education, and the first woman to hold a full chair at Marburg University.

Philipps University Marburg looks ahead to 2027 and beyond: as a place of research, teaching, and social responsibility, it is preparing for the next chapter in its history – together with society, partners, and generations of students.