Goethe University's History
Set up in 1914 as a foundation university, Goethe University Frankfurt quickly gained recognition for its progressive teaching and innovative faculty structure.
A University for the Urban Community
Goethe University is a relatively young university: It was founded as the "Royal University" with permission from Kaiser Wilhelm II on June 10, 1914. The planned grand opening ceremony was canceled due to the outbreak of war, and instead, a modest celebration took place at the Jügelhaus on October 26. Despite its name, the Frankfurt university was purely a municipal foundation.
Academic assembly to mark the inauguration of the university in the auditorium of the Jügelhaus.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
Academic assembly to mark the inauguration of the university in the auditorium of the Jügelhaus.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
The foundation of the university was supported not only by the city of Frankfurt but also by the Academy for Social and Commercial Sciences, established in 1900, the Senckenberg Foundation, the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, the Physical Society, the Stern Medical Institute, the Neurological Institute, as well as the Speyer and Jügel Foundation, the Carolinum Foundation, and the Institute for Public Welfare.
The decorative page of the founding charter, featuring the goddess Athena at its center, designed by Otto Linnemann (Städelschule).
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
The decorative page of the founding charter, featuring the goddess Athena at its center, designed by Otto Linnemann (Städelschule).
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
Civic Participation
Frankfurt's mayor at the time, Franz Adickes, tirelessly advocated for the foundation; in industrialist Wilhelm Merton, he found a financially strong ally. The citizens of Frankfurt, including many Jewish families, supported this idea, leading to the creation of a university in Frankfurt funded entirely by private means—the first foundation university in Germany.
The internationally oriented and globally active commercial hub of Frankfurt planned a university equipped to meet the demands of modernity, offering theoretically grounded responses to contemporary challenges such as industrialization, social issues, and internationalisation. The constitution of the new higher education institution was distinctive in that, alongside the rector and the deans of the initial five faculties, it included a Board of Trustees and a "Grand Council," where donor families, entrepreneurs, and city politicians worked in communication with the Prussian cultural bureaucracy to guide the university's pathway. This close connection to society shaped its distinctly urban and civic character.
Wilhelm Merton (left) and Franz Adickes, the two founding fathers of the university, at Lake Como in October 1909.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
Wilhelm Merton (left) and Franz Adickes, the two founding fathers of the university, at Lake Como in October 1909.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
A Dedicated Natural Sciences Faculty
The desire to find solutions to contemporary challenges was closely tied to the founding of the university in Frankfurt. Teaching and instruction were organized in a modern way, and the founders placed importance on ensuring that, alongside traditional subjects, new and practical disciplines were also taught. The natural sciences were given their own faculty and were not — as was still common elsewhere — integrated into the Faculty of Philosophy. In addition to traditional faculties such as Medicine and Law, Frankfurt established Germany's first Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences. However, there was initially no Faculty of Theology in Frankfurt. In line with the vision of its founders, the university was intended to be a secular, liberal institution free in its hiring practices.
The foundation's assets were almost entirely lost due to World War I and inflation; however, an agreement between the city and the state helped navigate the crisis, allowing the higher education institution to enter a second phase of growth and renewal, during which it soon flourished.
Before 1933, renowned scholars were active at the University of Frankfurt, including future Nobel Prize winners Paul Ehrlich (Medicine), Max von Laue, Max Born, and Otto Stern (Physics). Other notable figures among the academic staff were Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, Friedrich Dessauer, Fritz Neumark, Adolph Löwe, Franz Oppenheimer, Karl Mannheim, Kurt Goldstein, Karl Herxheimer, and Max Dehn. Many later prominent individuals studied at the University of Frankfurt, such as Carl Zuckmayer, Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, Ludwig Erhard, Theodor W. Adorno, Ruth Moufang, Gisèle Freund, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, and Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt.
Otto Stern in his laboratory.
Privatarchiv von Horst Schmidt-Böcking
Otto Stern in his laboratory.
Privatarchiv von Horst Schmidt-Böcking
In 1932, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Goethe’s death, the university changed its name from the “Royal University” to “Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main” as a hopeful symbol for the political future and in homage to the “Son of Frankfurt” and “representative of civil order,” as Thomas Mann described in his final major speech in the Weimar Republic on March 18, 1932, at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. However, the new name could not prevent the era of the liberal university from coming to an end; even at the time of the renaming, there was significant pressure from nationalist students and faculty.
University and National Socialism
After Hitler's "seizure of power," Jewish and politically unwelcome scholars and students were expelled from German universities and persecuted under the new laws. In Frankfurt, 128 out of 351 scholars lost their teaching authorization in the spring of 1933, which accounted for clearly more than a third of the faculty. The dismissals affected more individuals here than at any other German university. Students perceived as Jewish were forcibly deregistered and had to abandon their courses. Jewish university foundations were appropriated, and other institutions, such as the Institute for Social Research, went into exile.
The University of Frankfurt faced particular pressure: the city's Nazi leadership advocated for the university's preservation, but only under the condition that it be aligned with the Nazi framework. As a young university without a long-standing tradition but with potential for implementing Nazi ideology, it was seen as especially adaptable and receptive to the educational goals of the Third Reich.
The Aula in the Jügelhaus after a bombing attack in 1944
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
The Aula in the Jügelhaus after a bombing attack in 1944
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
Soon, the university witnessed a Nazi-driven mobilization of resources, which distorted the intentions of its founders. This included the restructuring of governing bodies and institutional frameworks that had previously reflected its foundation-based character, a focus on war-related research (military/armament research), the introduction of new courses such as military science and ethnology, the establishment of an Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene, and participation in human experiments.
The once open-minded and liberal Frankfurt University had been transformed into a university brought into line with Nazi ideology — a process known as “Gleichschaltung", or enforced conformity.
Reopening in 1946, “Zero Hour”
After World War II and the reconstruction of the destroyed buildings, Frankfurt University once again found its place within the German university landscape. The reopening took place in February 1946: With the “Zero Hour,” the question arose of how the university could renew itself in the pursuit of democratization, academic freedom, and the relationship between science and the university, politics, and the state. The university remained a municipal foundation; however, the state of Hesse began contributing to the expenses. Max Horkheimer returned from the United States, first serving as the university’s rector and later as the head of the Institute for Social Research, which had also returned.
Focus of Student Protests
The university grew, adding new disciplines. In 1967, Goethe University became a state university. The five faculties were reorganized into 19 departments. The fact that this organizational restructuring did not include a reform of teaching content and methods fueled the student protests of 1968 and 1969. Alongside Freie Universität Berlin, Goethe University became a central stage for the student movement. The Socialist German Student Union symbolically renamed the higher education institution “Karl Marx University,” the rector’s office was occupied, and new teaching methods were tested during teach-ins and sit-ins. Student representative and Adorno doctoral candidate Hans-Jürgen Krahl faced trial for occupying the Institute for Social Research. One outcome of the protests was expanded rights to co-determination for all university interest groups.
In 1968, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University was temporarily renamed Karl Marx University.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
In 1968, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University was temporarily renamed Karl Marx University.
Universitätsarchiv Frankfurt am Main
In the wartime winter of 1914/15, there were around 600 prospective students, each greeted personally with a handshake by the rector. Today, Goethe University ranks among the ten largest universities in Germany, with more than 40,000 students. With its current five current locations – Westend Campus, established in 2001, now houses most disciplines and the central administration – Goethe University is deeply rooted in Frankfurt, staying true to its founding principles. The university remains committed to serving society through its research focus and academic programs.
Theodor W. Adorno (left), Hans-Jürgen Krahl, and KD Wolf at the 1968 Book Fair.
Barbara Klemm
Theodor W. Adorno (left), Hans-Jürgen Krahl, and KD Wolf at the 1968 Book Fair.
Barbara Klemm
Goethe University in the 21st Century
Since 2008, Goethe University has returned to its roots as a foundation university: an autonomous civic university, deeply integrated into the city community and committed to active societal engagement and support. This Frankfurt-based university is an internationally oriented university offering a comprehensive range of subjects, distinguished by its excellent research focus in six interdisciplinary, cross-departmental profile areas, as well as the diversity of its disciplines spanning the humanities, social sciences, cultural studies, natural sciences, life sciences, and medicine. Together with TU Darmstadt and the University of Mainz, it forms the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance. Goethe University is a member of the “German U15,” a consortium of Germany's 15 leading research universities with a strong focus on medicine, and collaborates with 15 non-university research institutions in the Rhine-Main region as part of the scientific network “Frankfurt Alliance.”
Groundbreaking ceremony for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, one of the final buildings on Riedberg Campus.
Uwe Dettmar
Groundbreaking ceremony for the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, one of the final buildings on Riedberg Campus.
Uwe Dettmar
Marc Jaquemin
Our Mission Statement
Goethe University is a forward-thinking workshop of the future in the heart of Europe. Founded in 1914 by citizens for citizens, it has embraced this tradition once again as an autonomous foundation university since 2008.
Marc Jaquemin
Our Strategy
For Goethe University to meet its responsibilities in line with its vision and mission statement, it needs a strategy. The university development plan outlines the necessary goals and plans.