The Reichsuniversität Straßburg (RUS) was founded 1941 by the National Socialists in Alsace while the regular University of Strasbourg had moved to Clermont-Ferrand since 1940. The purpose was to create a continuity to the German character of the German Imperial University of Strasbourg, that had been in operation from 1872 to 1918. In 1941, it was to the fore of German invaders to propagate the „pure German knowledge“ of national socialistic character in the annexed Alsace-Lorraine. When the Allies arrived in Alsace in 1944, the Reichsuniversität was first transferred to Tübingen and then dissolved.
Nazi physician and war criminal August Hirt was the most famous professor serving at the RUS. It is at its Institut d'Anatomie Normale that he conducted his notorious experiences of "racial anatomy" and planned the Jewish skeleton collection.[1]