| Goethe University Frankfurt am Main | |
|---|---|
| Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main | |
| Established | 1912/1914 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | € 518 Million (2011)[1] |
| Rector | Prof. Werner Müller-Esterl |
| Academic staff | 535 (2009)[2] |
| Students | 38,000 (4100 International students) (2009)[2] |
| Location | Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
| Website | www.uni-frankfurt.de |
The Goethe University Frankfurt (or University of Frankfurt)[3] was founded in 1914 as a Citizens' University, which means that, while it was a State university of Prussia, it had been founded and financed by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt am Main, a unique feature in German university history. It was named in 1932 after one of the most famous natives of Frankfurt, the poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Today, the university has 38,000 students, on 4 major campuses.
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The university is located on four campuses in Frankfurt am Main:
Other facilities include the university sports complex on Ginnheimer Landstraße in Frankfurt-Bockenheim, the Bio Campus which houses the Botanic Garden of Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main at the Palmengarten in Frankfurt, and Art history in Frankfurt-Hausen.
The University of Frankfurt has at times been considered liberal, or left-leaning, and has had a reputation for Jewish and Marxist scholarship (or even Jewish-Marxist). Thus, during Nazi times, "almost one third of its academics and many of its students were dismissed for racial and/or political reasons—more than at any other German university" (University homepage). It also played a major part in the German student riots of 1968.
The University of Frankfurt is historically best known for the Institute for Social Research (founded 1924), institutional home of the Frankfurt School, a preeminent 20th century school of philosophy and social thought. Some of the most famous University of Frankfurt scholars are associated with this school, including Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Jürgen Habermas, as well as Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin. Others include the sociologist Karl Mannheim, the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, the philosophers of religion Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber, and Paul Tillich, the psychologist Max Wertheimer, and the sociologist Norbert Elias.
In recent years, Goethe University has turned its attention especially to law, history and economics, creating new institutes, such as the Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) and the Center of Financial Studies (CFS). One of the university's ambitions is to become Germany's leading university for finance and economics, given the school's proximity to one of Europe's financial centers.[4] Therefore, Frankfurt University's Goethe Business School developed a new M.B.A. program, in cooperation with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Today the university's Business School offers a number of programs including a Full Time MBA. Goethe university has established an international award for research in financial economics, the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics.
On 30 May 2008, the House of Finance relocated to a new building designed by the architects Kleihues+Kleihues that is located in Frankfurt University’s “Campus Westend”. The dominant feature of this campus is the “IG Farben” Building by the architect Hans Poelzig. This building is an example of neoclassicist architecture, which now lives on in the House of Finance and the other new buildings on the campus. This style was chosen according to the wish of the building contractor for "a symbol for the scientific and mercantile german manpower, made out of iron and stone", as the "IG-Farben"-director at the time of the construction, Baron von Schnitzler, stated in his opening speech of October 1930. The upper floors of the HoF building have several separate offices as well as shared office space for researchers and students. The ground floor is open to the public and welcomes visitors with a spacious, naturally lit foyer that leads to lecture halls, seminar rooms and the information center, our 24-h reference library. The ground floor also accommodates computer rooms and a café. The floors, walls and ceiling of the foyer are decorated with a grid design that is continued throughout the entire building. Inspired by Raphael's mural, The School of Athens, comes this design into its own, in the flooring.
The Goethe Business School is a Graduate Business School in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, set up as an independent, non-profit foundation under private law, held by Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Founded in 2004, Goethe Business School (GBS) is the center for management education of Frankfurt University. Goethe Business School is AACSB accredited and is located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, the largest Financial Centre of Continental Europe. Goethe Business School is part of the highly respected House of Finance at Goethe University Frankfurt’s Westend Campus. The programs at GBS are taught by much acclaimed faculty members of the University’s Faculty of Economics and Business Administration as well as internationally reputed visiting professors. In the recent past professors teaching at GBS programs have taught at schools such as Wharton School, Yale University, Duke University, University of North Carolina, Nottingham University, Grenoble Ecole de Management, Tongji University among many others. The school launched its highly competitive full time MBA program in 2009 which consists of more than 70% International students. The Chairman of the Board at GBS, Rolf-E. Breuer, is former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank. Goethe Business School has a partnership in Executive Education with the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad.
Currently, Goethe Business School offers three programs; a Full Time MBA, EMBA in Alliance with Duke University and an EMFA program. GBS also offers a number of executive programs.
The Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics honors renowned researchers who have made influential contributions to the fields of finance and money and macroeconomics, and whose work has led to practical and policy-relevant results. It is awarded biannually, since 2005, by the Center for Financial Studies, in partnership with Goethe University Frankfurt. The award carries an endowment of €50,000, which is donated by the Stiftungsfonds Deutsche Bank im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.