Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg

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For the American university in Springfield, Ohio, see Wittenberg University.

The Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg is located in the German city Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. The Leucorea foundation, which belongs to the university is located in Wittenberg.

It was merged in 1817 from the University of Halle (founded 1694) and the University of Wittenberg (founded 1502^[1], closed in 1813 by Napoleon).

It is named after the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, and is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt with approximately 19,000 students.

The University became a centre of the Reformation under the influence of Philipp Melanchthon and building on the works of Martin Luther. Notable graduates include George Müller.

In the 17th and 18th century it became one major center of the German Enlightenment. Christian Wolff was an import proponent of rationalism, which was not at all an innocuous position at that time. He had major influences on many German scholars i.e. Kant. Christian Thomasius was at the same time the first philosopher in Germany to hold his lectures not in Latin, but German. He contributed to a rational program in philosophy but also tried to establish a more common-sense point of view, which was aimed against the unquestioned superiority of aristocracy and theology.

The first Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, Frederick Muhlenberg, was a graduate. Notable faculty members include Johann Matthias Hase.