University of Düsseldorf

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Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Heinrich Heine, 1831

Established:	1966
Provost:	Alfons Labisch
Students:	ca 18,000
Location:	Düsseldorf, Germany
Website:	http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de

The Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf (German: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) is a university in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is named after the German poet and political thinker Heinrich Heine, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1797. Since 1965 it has been a fully-fledged university, consisting today of faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences, and economics. Its current enrollment is slightly over 18,000 students. The rector is Prof. Dr. Dr. Alfons Labisch M.A. (Soz.).

1 History
2 Honorary Degrees
3 Partner Universities
4 List of subjects
5 External links

[edit] History

In 1806, Joachim Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother-in-law, who had been put in charge of the Duchy of Berg, wanted to found a university in Düsseldorf. At the time, there existed only a few college-like institutions that had developed between the 16th and 18th centuries.

On 12 December 1811, Napoleon issued a decree, calling for a university with five faculties to be chartered in the duchy. The French invasion of Russia, however, impeded its establishment.

In 1907, a medical academy was founded in Düsseldorf, and in 1923 it started training students. In 1962 the state of North Rhine-Westphalia took over responsibility for the academy from the city of Düsseldorf.

In 1965, the state government decided to transform the medical academy into a university. On 1 January 1966 the university constituted itself with a faculty of medicine, and a combined faculty for natural sciences and philosophy. On 14 February of the same year, there was an opening ceremony. The buildings of the central campus, located in the south of Düsseldorf, were completed in the 1970s, a fact which is self-evident in the architectural style prevailing on campus. At this point the university was not yet named after Heinrich Heine due to controversies that carried on for decades. Heine was not considered an appropriate figurehead, first for pragmatic then for political reasons. Not until 20 December 1988, did the university's senate decide to name the university after Düsseldorf's most famous son.