Goethe University Frankfurt (German: Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, shortened JWGU) is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens’ university by the liberal mayor Franz Adickes with the help of private donations from wealthy citizens. The university played an important role during the German student movement of 1968 and has been one of the leading universities in Germany ever since.
The campus of Goethe University is centrally located within Frankfurt’s inner-city district and covers an area of about 4.5 km². The main campus comprises several historic buildings that have been renovated and re-purposed for academic use. These include the former Kaufhaus des Westens (now the library), which was built in 1927, and parts of the former city fortifications dating back to 1848 that now house several institutes and clinics. In addition to these, there are numerous modern buildings on campus, most notably the new library complex that opened in 2000.
With over 48,000 students enrolled in more than 170 different degree programs across 12 faculties, Goethe University is one of the largest universities in Germany. It offers a wide range of subjects spanning arts and humanities, business and economics, law, medicine, sciences, social sciences as well as teacher training. Research at Goethe University is conducted across all disciplines with a strong focus on interdisciplinary work. The university is also home to four major research institutes: The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History; The Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders”; The House of Finance; and The Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
In recent years, Goethe University has been successful in attracting internationally renowned researchers to its faculty ranks. This includes Nobel Laureates Herta Müller (2009), Elfriede Jelinek (2004) as well as three winners of the prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize: Peter Gruss (2010), Christoph Engelhardt (2011) and Reinhard Selten (2012). Additionally, nine members of Goethe University’s staff have been awarded honorary doctorates by other institutions over the past few years.