Eminent Figures
Photographs in the Henry Ford Building of friends, supporters, and celebrities connected with Freie Universität Berlin.
Image Credit: Bernd Wannenmacher
A number of celebrated public figures are closely connected with Freie Universität Berlin, whether as co-founders, former students, or members of the faculty.
Prominent university alumni include Elke Heidenreich, Renate Künast, Jutta Limbach, Otto Schily, and Klaus Wowereit. Alongside the rectors and presidents of Freie Universität, the university’s many international friends and supporters help ensure that Freie Universität remains a dynamic site of academic freedom coupled with a spirit of social responsibility.
Honorary Doctorates at Freie Universität Berlin
Since the year of its founding, Freie Universität Berlin has been granting honorary doctorates to important figures. Many of them have rendered outstanding academic or scientific services to a specific discipline, while others have had a lasting impact on the outlook of researchers, instructors, and students through their accomplishments as politicians, writers, publicists, or artists.
The most well-known recipients of honorary doctorates from Freie Universität include the following individuals:
- Reinhard Georg Lührmann (2020)
- Egbert Willem Meijer (2019)
- Matthias Melzig (2018)
- Hermann Simon (2018)
- Claudio Magris (2017)
- William A. Eaton (2016)
- Dan Diner (2015)
- Hayden White (2015)
- Carolyn Bertozzi (2014)
- Homi K. Bhabha (2012)
- Lee Schulman (2012)
- George M. Whitesides (2012)
- Edward Zajac (2012)
- Jagdish Bhagwati (2010)
- Ed Diener (2010)
- Rolf Huisgen (2010)
- Cees Nooteboom (2008)
- Orhan Pamuk (2007)
- Theodor W. Hänsch (2006)
- Marcel Reich-Ranicki (2006)
- Günter Grass (2005)
- Imre Kertész (2005) (†)
- Carlos Fuentes (2004) (†)
- Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich (2003)
- Klaus Töpfer (2002)
- Kofi Annan (2001)
- Salman Rushdie (1999)
- Umberto Eco (1998) (†)
- Paul Krugman (1998)
- Hans Jonas (1992)
- Albert O. Hirschman (1988)
- Henry Kahane (1988)
- Renée Kahane (1988)
- Alexander Rich (1986) (†)
- Carl Gustav Hempel (1984)
- Adolf F. Leschnitzer (1972)
- Robert Kennedy (1964)
- Walter Gropius (1963)
- Eduard Fraenkel (1963)
- Johann Heinrich Emil Heitz (1962)
- Fritz Neumark (1961)
- Margarete Susman (1959)
- Eleanor Lansing Dulles (1957)
- Lise Meitner (1956)
- Iwan Stanski (1954)
- Lucius D. Clay (1953)
- Ernst Reuter (1949)
- Theodor Heuß (1949)
Honorary Citizens/Honorary Members
- Ernst Jacobsthal (†)
- Theodor Litt (†)
- Paul Henri Spaak (†)
- John McCloy (†)
- Paul Löbe (†)
- Louise Schroeder (†)
- Max von Laue (†)
- George N. Shuster (†)
- Joachim Tiburtius (†)
- Edwin Redslob (†)
- Wolfgang Köhler (†)
- John F. Kennedy (†)
- Fritz von Bergmann (†)
- Hans Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein (†)
- Otto H. Hess (†)
- Ingeborg Sengpiel (†)
- Shepard Stone (†)
- Horst W. Hartwich (†)
- Hubertus Moser
- Umberto Vattani
Honorary Medal in Gold
The Honorary Medal in Gold (Ehrenmedaille in Gold) of Freie Universität Berlin was awarded to outstanding figures in international politics as part of state visits.
- Kim Dae-Jung (†)
- Suzanne Mubarak
- Vaira Vike-Freiberga