Philipps University of Marburg

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The University of Marburg, officially called Philipps-Universität Marburg after its founder, the Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (usually called the Magnanimous), was founded in 1527 and is the world's first and oldest Protestant university. It was the main university of the principality of Hesse and remains a public university of that German state. It now has almost 20,000 students and 8,000 employees, making Marburg the proverbial "university town" (Universitätsstadt).

In spite of many famous natural scientists teaching and studying at Marburg, such as Robert Bunsen, Hermann Kolbe, Johann Peter Griess, Emil von Behring, Rudolf Criegee, Otto Heinrich Schindewolf, Alfred Wegener and Otto Hahn, Marburg was always known as a Humanities university; it retained that strength, especially in Philosophy and Theology for a long time after World War II. Famous theologians include Rudolf Otto, Rudolf Bultmann, and today - if emeritus - Otto Kaiser; philosophers include Christian Wolff, Hermann Cohen, Paul Natorp, Martin Heidegger, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. Other famous students were Hannah Arendt, the Brothers Grimm, Gottfried Benn, Edward Frankland, Gustav Heinemann, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, Ludwig Mond, José Ortega y Gasset, Boris Pasternak, John Tyndall, Alexandre Yersin, and W.E.B. Griffin.

The University of Marburg has a bright spectrum of subjects with research highlights in nano sciences, material sciences, near eastern studies, and medicine. It is the most traditional medicine university in Germany; the German physicians' union is called "Marburger Bund" (Marburg Union).

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