University of Gottingen, Gottingen

Institute Brief

IN PUBLICA COMMODA - FOR THE GOOD OF ALL reads the inscription on the Foundation Medal of Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen. Established in the age of the Enlightenment (1737) and committed to its critical spirit, the "Georgia Augusta" was one of Europe's first universities to abandon the supremacy of theology and achieve equality for all faculties. Emphasis on basic research and orientation towards source criticism and experimentation proved to be decisive preconditions for the development of the modern humanities and natural sciences, a development strongly influenced by the Georgia Augusta.

The history of Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen has to this day been characterised by scholarly pragmatism and a sense of reality as well as keen awareness for science's societal responsibility. This tradition embraces the contributions of the "Gottinger Sieben" (1837) and those of Max Born, Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg and Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, who initiated the "Gottinger Erklarung" (1957) calling for the abandonment of nuclear weapons of every description. It is in this tradition that the Georgia Augusta today defines itself and its mission. Remembering the darkest chapter of its history during the period of National Socialism, the University is committed to utilising its strengths in shaping a humane, tolerant and peaceful world.