Humboldt University of Berlin

Founded 1810. Origin of the modern research university model, Einstein taught here.

Overview

Wilhelm von Humboldt's 1810 founding of Berlin University invented the model uniting teaching and research that every modern university copies. Einstein held a chair from 1914 while general relativity was brewing; Planck and the quantum pioneers clustered around the same era. The main building on Unter den Linden sits behind statues of Humboldt brothers. NS crimes emptied its Jewish faculty in the 1930s, a history the university documents openly. Reborn in the east after 1989, Humboldt enrolls some 36,000 students and counts dozens of Nobel affiliates historically.