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Photo: UHH/Michael Zapf

Universität Hamburg's profile

As the largest research and education institution in North Germany and Germany's third-largest University, Universität Hamburg combines a vast spectrum of courses with excellent research.

The University has a broad range of subjects with numerous interdisciplinary focus areas and maintains an extensive network of cooperation with top-notch regional, national and international institutions.

Sustainable science

Universität Hamburg is committed to sustainable science and its six schools have taken great strides towards sustainability in research and teaching.

Excellent research

Within the context of the Federal Excellence Initiative, Universität Hamburg received funding in 2007 to establish a Center of Excellence in climate research: the KlimaCampus Hamburg is an educational center for climate research and earth-systems science.

In 2012, Universität Hamburg received funding to establish another cluster of excellence, the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI): Structure, Dynamics and Control of Matter at the Atomic Scale, which aims to observe atomic motion in real-time.

Key research areas

In addition to "Climate, Earth and Environment," there are several other outstanding key research areas: Matter and the Universe, Neurosciences, Multilingualism, Governance, Infection Research, Structural Biology and Heterogeneity and Education.

Broad academic spectrum: over 170 programs

 At Universität Hamburg, students can choose from approximately 170 degree programs offered by the following six schools: Law; Business, Economics and Social Sciences; Medicine; Education, Psychology and Human Movement; Humanities and Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences.

The University also maintains numerous museums and collections such as the Zoological Museum, the Herbarium Hamburgense, the Geological-Paleontological Museu, the Botanical Garden and the Hamburger Sternwarte (observatory).

Brief history

Universität Hamburg was founded in 1919 on the initiative of Hamburg's citizenry. Central founding figures include Senator Werner von Melle and the merchant Edmund Siemers. Nobel Prize winners such as Otto Stern, Wolfgang Pauli, Isidor Rabi and Hans Jensen taught at the "Hamburg University" as did several major scientists such as Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg, William Stern, Agathe Lasch, Magdalene Schoch, Emil Artin, Ralf Dahrendorf and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker,to name but a few.