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So nothing gets lost.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The document calling for the founding of a free university, which then became Freie Universität Berlin, is in the University Archives.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In 2015 the university set up a Sustainability & Energy Management Unit. In 2022 this unit published a detailed report on Freie Universität’s activities in the area of sustainability. Among other things, the report includes the results of an evaluation of how many classes deal with or are related to sustainability.

Schools@University for Sustainability + Climate Protection is an educational program for 5th and 6th graders and their teachers from across all twelve of Berlin’s districts. It has been offered twice a year since 2009. So far, about 40,000 school students and 3,000 teachers have taken part.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The Language Center at Freie Universität Berlin was originally set up in 1973 as the Language Lab. It is the university’s central facility for foreign language learning and is responsible for language instruction and training in numerous bachelor’s and master’s degree programs as well as language classes taught within the General Professional Skills program.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Internationality has played an important role at Freie Universität Berlin ever since the university was founded. The university’s close ties to the United States have historical roots. In 1948 the United States Allies in Berlin provided substantial support for the founding and development of a free university in the western part of Berlin. The founding impulse became an important feature of the university’s reputation. Today, internationality is firmly anchored in research and teaching. For many students, researchers, and staff it is a central aspect of their everyday life.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

School children, starting as young as in the fifth grade, can be seen on campus going in and out of classrooms at Freie Universität thanks to numerous programs and facilities such as NatLab, PhysLab, Sommer-Uni, Girls’ Day and Boys’ Day, Schools@University for Sustainability + Climate Protection, MINToring, and TuWaS. During its annual Long Night of Science open house, Freie Universität offers a diverse program for the general public.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Bees have an important place at Freie Universität. Depending on the season as well as the type and number of research projects, between thirty and fifty bee colonies are cared for on campus. In 2021 the Berlin Senate set up a Coordination Office for Bee Health, which is based at Freie Universität.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Rudi Dutschke, a sociology student at Freie Universität, was a leader in the German student movement in the 1960s. As a member of the Socialist German Student Union (SDS), he played a prominent role in planning and implementing protest actions and discourse. Dutschke was a Marxist, an intellectual leader of the APO (German extraparliamentary opposition), a compelling speaker, and an analyst.

On April 11, 1968, Dutschke was severely injured. He was shot three times by Josef Bachmann, a right-wing extremist laborer. Over the Easter holidays that followed the incident, major protests erupted across Germany, the greatest and most serious unrest the German Federal Republic had experienced up to that time. Rudi Dutschke earned his doctorate in 1973. His thesis was entitled “On the Difference between the Asian and Western European Paths to Socialism.” A year later he published a popular scientific version of his dissertation on the Marxist Georg Lukács. In 1979 on Christmas Eve, Dutschke drowned in the bathtub following an epileptic seizure, a result of the brain injury caused by the assassination attempt.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The Dahlem Research School | Center for Junior Researchers is the central facility for researchers in the early phases of qualification and training. It holds workshops, courses, and various events for academic training and interdisciplinary qualification and professional orientation. It develops quality standards for doctoral education and supervision.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freie Universität Berlin currently maintains four liaison offices worldwide. They provide information and contact details for researchers, students, and prospective researchers in the various regions who are interested in working or studying at Freie Universität Berlin.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freie Universität has been a member of the international network Scholars at Risk (SAR) since 2012 (and a supporting member since 2013). The university is also a member of the Steering Group of the Scholars at Risk Network – Germany Section. In April 2018 it hosted the Scholars at Risk Network Global Congress in cooperation with SAR and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Founded in 2018 at Freie Universität Berlin, the Academics in Solidarity (AiS) program is a peer mentoring program that brings together displaced and at-risk researchers with scholars and scientists in Germany, Lebanon, and Jordan. The aim is to create a solidarity network, strengthen transnational research cooperation, and provide university support for the members of the AiS network. The program provides access to mentoring, academic advising, systematic network building, and funding opportunities for small research projects. The project was originally sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is now funded and supervised by Freie Universität Berlin.

Further Information:

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Toward the end of the 1940s, after World War II and imprisonment, Stanislaw Karol Kubicki’s life seemed to be getting a new start. He had just turned twenty and wanted to study medicine at the traditional Berlin University on Unter den Linden. However, it was located in the Soviet sector of the city of Berlin and there was no guarantee for free expression or academic freedom in teaching and research. Students were expelled from the university and arrested for expressing opinions contrary to the party line. Kubicki and his friends protested against this, but got nowhere. They were able to convince Ernst Reuter, the Mayor of Berlin, and the American Allies of the feasibility of their plan to found a new, free university in the American sector. Kubicki and his fellow student Helmut Coper tossed a coin to determine which of them would get to be the very first student to enroll at the new university. Kubicki won and became “Student Number One.”

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Since the 2018/2019 winter semester the Department of Law at Freie Universität Berlin has been cooperating with the nonprofit organization Tatort Zukunft, Alice-Salomon-Hochschule, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to teach a series of classes called “Uni im Vollzug.” Within the framework of this program, seminars take place in a prison and are attended by imprisoned students along with non-imprisoned students. The endeavor is supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Justice and Consumer Protection and Tegel Prison (JVA Tegel).

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

A large proportion of students and doctoral candidates at Freie Universität Berlin come from abroad.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Sponsoring a high or low pressure system is a popular and rather unique gift for special occasions, birthdays, or Christmas. Many people use it as an opportunity to promote their interesting but little known first names. These are some of the more unusual names given in 2022: Spiro, Xilotzin, Bahrudin, Lavinia, Wisgard, or Emmelinde.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The “Rostlaube” building complex was opened on February 13, 1973, on Habelschwerdter Allee 45. The building complex for the humanities subjects was designed by Parisian architects Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic, and Shadrach Woods. Clad in Corten steel, the structure was modeled after a growing city. University life was to expand from the three central corridors or “streets” J, K, and L to encourage communication between colleagues from different disciplines.

Between 2001 and 2007 the landmarked building received a new outer skin made of bronze during construction of the Philological Library (nicknamed “The Berlin Brain”), but with its colorful carpeting and doors, inner courtyards and small gardens, niches and spiral staircases, its character remains similar to that when it was opened fifty years ago.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Staff members in the Research Division at Freie Universität Berlin support scholars and scientists in raising external funds for research projects.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

From aikido to Zumba: Each semester the University Sports Center at Freie Universität offers up to 800 different courses covering more than 120 different sports. They are open to students, researchers, and employees.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In 2019 the Berlin University Alliance, consisting of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, was the only university consortium to win funding in the German Excellence Strategy. The funding comprises a total of 144.5 million euros and runs until 2026.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

At the Veterinary Center for Resistance Research (TZR) on Freie Universität’s Veterinary Campus in Berlin-Düppel, scientists do fundamental research as well as research on new diagnostic, therapeutic, and hygienic measures with the aim of controlling multiresistant pathogens.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In the summer of 1957, even before diplomatic relations were officially established between Germany and Israel (1965), students in the German-Israeli Study Group at Freie Universität wrote a letter to the president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. They wanted to initiate academic ties between the Hebrew University and Freie Universität Berlin. The German-Israeli Study Group at Freie Universität was founded in 1957 and was the first of its kind to be founded in the Federal Republic of Germany. Soon similar groups were also founded in other West German university cities.

The Institute of Jewish Studies founded in 1963 at Freie Universität Berlin was the first of its kind in Germany. It was established in connection with the appointment of Jacob Taubes to a professorial chair at Freie Universität. Taubes was a philosopher and Jewish studies scholar as well as a sociologist who specialized in religion. He had previously taught at Columbia University in New York.

In 2015, to mark fifty years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, Freie Universität Berlin organized numerous conferences and workshops together with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in cooperation with other Israeli universities.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The Collegium Musicum is the official institution for university music at Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin. It includes the ensembles symphony orchestra, large choir, small symphonic orchestra, chamber choir, and the UniBigband Berlin.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

According to the Berlin Senate’s university structure plan, the Berlin universities were required to save one billion German marks within ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. For Freie Universität that meant the number of students had to be reduced greatly: from 62,000 in the 1991/1992 winter semester to 43,000 in the 2001/2002 winter semester. There were many demonstrations against the austerity policy of the Berlin Senate.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

From 2020 to 2021 in a participatory strategy process, almost 300 students, employees, and members of the teaching staff worked out what teaching and learning at Freie Universität Berlin should look like in 2030. They then developed a mission statement, which was approved by the Academic Senate on July 14, 2021.

Every spring the Dahlem Center for Academic Teaching organizes week devoted to the topic of teaching where members of the university can exchange ideas on how to make teaching and learning successful.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Research is conducted on autonomous vehicles and learning robots at the Dahlem Center for Machine Learning and Robotics in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In the morning at the Schöneberg Town Hall, in the afternoon in front of the Henry Ford Building: United States President John F. Kennedy’s visit to Freie Universität Berlin on June 26, 1963, is a milestone in the history of the university, which was only fifteen years old at the time. In a carefully worded speech in front of 20,000 visitors, Kennedy urged Freie Universität – like every university – to produce “citizens of the world … who are willing to commit their energies to the advancement of a free society.” In 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s visit and speech at Freie Universität, a website was created with detailed documentation of the event, including statements by eye-witnesses, who attended it themselves.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In order to counteract the loss of biodiversity, the Blooming Campus Initiative has been active since 2019, striving for more nature and urban wilderness on the open spaces around Freie Universität Berlin. Natural history tours, events, and scientific monitoring are part of the program. For example, every second Saturday of the month, the “fire bugs,” a group of children between the ages of three and six whose parents are students or staff at Freie Universität, meet to learn through playful means about topics related to biodiversity. The Blooming Campus Initiative cooperates with the Lichterfelder Weidelandschaft, the Urbanity and Diversity Project, and the German Wildlife Foundation.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Every year ten to fifteen start-ups are founded with assistance from Freie Universität. They are started by students, graduates, and researchers. The business ideas range from plant-based drinks made with ingredients from the Berlin region to artificial intelligence for analyzing court decisions. Seminars at the School of Business and Economics teach the basics of how to start a business. There are also workshops and competitions.

The entrepreneurs receive support from start-up consultants and academic mentors from Freie Universität as well as members of the NFUSION Entrepreneurs Network. The Startup Villa on Fabeck Strasse 40 offers space for members of start-ups to work with the team of Profund Innovation, the service institution for knowledge and technology transfer within the Research Division of Freie Universität.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

On March 23, 2023, the human remains found on the grounds of Freie Universität Berlin since 2015 were buried at the Waldfriedhof cemetery in Dahlem. The steps and measures taken by Freie Universität after the first bones were found during construction in 2014, the subsequent scientific excavations and evaluations, and reports on discussions with representatives of those affected up to the burial are documented in a box underneath the article about the burial.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

A book published in German in 2015, Großes Haus für Kleine Fächer – Von der Villenkultur zum neuen Campus der Freien Universität Berlin, describes the history of the university as reflected in its villas and other buildings.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In December 2019 the Executive Board of Freie Universität declared a climate emergency. The university acknowledged its responsibility for climate protection and formulated far-reaching goals for action.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Benno Ohnesorg was twenty-six years old when he was shot in the head by police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras. On June 2, 1967, Ohnesorg was demonstrating in front of the Deutsche Oper against the visit to Germany by the Shah of Persia, when he was shot. Kurras, who was using his service weapon, claimed to have acted in self-defense. To this day, there is no evidence for his claim.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The European university alliance Una Europa has eleven members (status: 5/2022). One of them is Freie Universität Berlin. The others are based in Bologna, Dublin, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Kraków, Leiden, Leuven, Madrid, Paris, and Zurich. The alliance was founded in 2018 and is funded by the European Commission as part of its European Universities initiative. Its aim is to increase the mobility of students and staff, to create joint curricula for specific subject areas, to enable flexible study design, and to promote sustainable economic development on a regional level by having scholars and scientists along with students working closely with local companies and authorities.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The university ranking of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is conducted every three years.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freie Universität’s new Statute for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice (GWP-Satzung) was approved in December 2020, replacing the Code of Honor for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice from 2002. It incorporates the guidelines of the DFG Code of Conduct for Good Research Practice in a legally binding document.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In 1977, just four years after it opened, the “Rostlaube” was in need of renovation. The second construction phase of the building complex, known today as the “Silberlaube,” was clad with rust-free aluminum. It was based on a design by Manfred Schiedhelm.

  • Article in campus.leben, “Modellschönheit mit Macken,” posted February 13, 2023 (in German)
  • Martina Schilling (Ed.): Freie Universität Berlin. Ein Architekturführer zu den Hochschulbauten, 2011, Braun Publishing AG (in German)
Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

In 1958 Willy Brandt, then Governing Mayor of West Berlin, took the opportunity during a trip to Washington, DC, to promote the construction of a university hospital at Freie Universität Berlin. At the time the United States had already generously supported several construction projects in West Berlin and at Freie Universität Berlin. Brandt’s plea brought results. The Benjamin Franklin Foundation contributed 20 percent of the 304 million German marks required for the costs for the construction of a new university hospital. Two conditions needed to be met: Architects from the United States were supposed to design the building, and it was supposed to be patterned after the American system that includes clinics, medical care facilities, lecture halls, and scientific institutes under one roof. Finally, after eleven years of planning and construction and six months of trial operations, the Benjamin Franklin University Hospital in Berlin-Steglitz was officially turned over to Freie Universität on October 9, 1968.

Article “Endlich ein eigenes Klinikum,” published on December 3, 2018, in the science magazine fundiert for the 70th anniversary of Freie Universität Berlin (in German)

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

By implementing energy efficiency programs Freie Universität was able to reduce its electricity and heat consumption by 30 percent between 2001 and 2021. In addition to technical and structural measures, a green IT program and a bonus system for the academic departments also contributed to the reductions.

From 2001 to 2021 the campus-related CO2 emissions of the university were reduced by 88.5 percent. This was partly due to the fact that since 2010 the university has been getting energy exclusively from renewable energy sources, i.e., CO2 free. The Berlin House of Representatives made this a requirement for all the universities in Berlin. Since 2012, nine solar systems with an output of 671 kW have also been installed on the campus of Freie Universität Berlin. The use of photovoltaic energy is to be expanded considerably in the coming years.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The landmarked Düppel campus has a colorful history. Founded in 1828 as a feudal estate, it had a brief interlude as a schnapps distillery. In 1859 it was taken over by Prince Karl Friedrich von Preußen, who set up a horse stud farm there. The animal husbandry facilities were thus already in place when the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität was founded there in 1951. After World War II the site was turned over to the Americans as part of the four-power agreement for the city of Berlin. The Americans used it for a military riding school and a veterinary hospital. Ultimately, Freie Universität took over the American veterinary clinic. With nine institutes, the Veterinary Library, the Dean’s Office, and a dining hall, most of the facilities of the Department of Veterinary Medicine are located in Düppel.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Diversity refers to our ability and readiness to acknowledge and value the many interlinked differences and commonalities between groups of people, and to dismantle barriers that prevent people from being able to participate equally in society. Antidiscrimination is thus included in Freie Universität Berlin’s understanding of diversity.

Freie Universität accepts responsibility for recognizing and promoting diversity and for recognizing mechanisms of exclusion. Its approach is both self-critical and sensitive to power dynamics. The university endeavors to enable everyone to participate equally and to provide an environment conducive to appreciation in teaching, learning, and working situations. It pursues these overarching goals with a diversity strategy, which is documented in its Diversity Strategy and Action Plan with concrete goals and measures.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Students helping students – as tutors, mentors, buddies – has a long tradition at Freie Universität. It started in the early 1950s.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

A nasal spray that administers an attenuated coronavirus vaccine protects better against Covid-19 than the mRNA vaccination. At least, that is a conclusion reached by veterinarian Jakob Trimpert and his team after initial studies on animal models. Researchers from the Department of Veterinary Medicine and other institutions along with developers from the vaccine development company RocketVax are investigating whether it also works better in humans. The Patent and Licensing Service in the Research Division of Freie Universität is responsible for the legal protection of research findings as well as the use of the patents by third parties.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The demands on the digital infrastructure of universities are increasing rapidly. To meet these demands the IT landscape at Freie Universität evolved over the past decade. Recently, a new project, FUtureIT – for a Service-oriented and Future-oriented IT, was created to analyze and evaluate the system. Those involved made several changes, which resulted in the creation of a new central facility FUB-IT, which was officially founded on April 1, 2023. It combines the former Electronic Administration and Services (eAS) and ZEDAT, the Central Computing Services.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Since the fall of 2013, Freie Universität Berlin and Sciences Po Paris have been offering a dual degree program: the Franco-German bachelor’s degree in political and social sciences – Bachelor franco-allemand en sciences politiques et sociales. The integrated Franco-German degree program is funded by the Franco-German University (DFH-UFA). During the four-year program, students acquire two internationally recognized degrees: a bachelor’s degree in political science – Sciences Sociales from Freie Universität Berlin and a Diplôme du Collège universitaire de Sciences Po (Bachelor of Arts).

The Franco-German dual master’s degree program in public policy and management started in the 2009/2010 winter semester. The curriculum includes courses in economics, political science, and administration. During the two-year program students can earn two internationally recognized and complementary degrees: a master’s degree in management from HEC Paris and a Master of Arts degree in public policy and management from Freie Universität Berlin. It is also funded by the Franco-German University (DFH-UFA).

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

“Students filled the entire lobby of the Henry Ford Building. They summoned Rector Hans-Joachim Lieber, who showed up a bit later. Speeches were held until one o’clock in the morning. There were never-ending discussions about student interests and university politics,” remembers the then AStA chairman and later State Secretary for Science in Berlin, Knut Nevermann, in an interview.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Establishing strategic partnerships with leading research universities throughout the world is part of the internationalization strategy of Freie Universität Berlin. The objective of these alliances is to allow for comprehensive networking and collaboration on all university levels, i.e., regarding the sustained support of young researchers, the initiation and implementation of innovative research partnerships, the development and establishment of future-oriented teaching, and structured exchanges for researchers, students, and staff.

Freie Universität Berlin was first recognized as a German University of Excellence in 2007 in a competition held by the federal and state governments to promote research at German universities. Its development concept for the future was based on being an “International Network University.” In 2012 and 2019 the university was able to defend this title.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The university placed a strong emphasis on regional studies from the very beginning. In 1948, the year Freie Universität Berlin was founded, it established an Institute of Anthropology and a chair in Islamic studies. Professorships in Arabic studies and Turkic studies followed. The university set up research institutes to study China in 1953, Japan in Japan in 1956, and Korea in 2004. The Institute for East European Studies was established in 1951. This was followed by the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies in 1963 and the Institute for Latin American Studies in 1970. A Research Center on Brazil was set up in the Institute for Latin American Studies in 2010.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

With the timetable change on December 11, 2016, the name of the Berlin subway station “Thielplatz” of line 3 was changed to “Freie Universität.” The first signs were replaced at a BVG ceremony with representatives of the university and the district.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

For more than four decades, Freie Universität has been holding public interdisciplinary lecture series every semester. The lectures, discussions, and talks on current topics are designed to be understandable for the general public. They cover the fields of science, society, nature, and technology.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

SUSTAIN IT! is an open dialogue and action platform for anyone who wants to prepare Freie Universität Berlin for the future with their own project ideas on the subject of sustainability. The activities and courses follow a dialogic and action-oriented approach, promote inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation, and link of science, teaching, campus, and the region with sustainability issues.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The members of the International Club support students from abroad who come to Freie Universität. They organize events, field trips, and parties.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

On June 26, 1970, the not yet famous heavy metal band Black Sabbath with its front man Ozzy Osbourne performed in the sold-out Audimax in the Henry Ford Building. The concert was called “The Magic of Black Sabbath.” There are few reports about the concert itself, but after the performance the members of the band did what rock bands used to be dreaded for – they trashed the cloakroom.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Teacher education at Freie Universität Berlin is coordinated by the Dahlem School of Education.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

“The humanities at Freie Universität have always been outstanding. So far, however, there has been a lack of a center that also embodies the demands and self-confidence of modern humanities. This is exactly what the Foster Building achieves,” said Klaus Wowereit, the Mayor of Berlin at the time, in his keynote at the official opening of the Philological Library on September 14, 2005.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freie Universität has numerous formats for sharing research findings with the public. Many scholars and scientists share their expertise with the world, for example, by speaking with the media or providing consulting on policy matters. A database with roughly 500 researchers lists individuals who are available to give interviews and answer questions from journalists. Every year the university opens its institutes to the public during the Long Night of Science open house.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Two months after the end of World War II, in July 1945, the four-power agreement came into force in Berlin. Lankwitz, with barracks blocks on Malteser Strasse and Eiswald Strasse, fell under American control. In the first years after the end of the war, the buildings were used as schools for children from the surrounding area whose schools had been partially or completely destroyed. In 1949 the teacher training college (Pädagogische Hochschule) in West Berlin moved to the former barracks in Lankwitz. In the summer semester of 1949, the Lankwitz site began to be used for university training for education students. From 1981 to 2007, the Department of Communication Sciences (as it used to be called) was located there. Today, the Lankwitz Campus is home to the University Archives, the Department of Earth Sciences (since 1992), the Studienkolleg preparatory college, and the FUBiS and FU-BEST programs.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Dining halls, cafeterias, snack bars: Hungry scholars and scientists, students, and employees have numerous choices in Dahlem, Düppel, and Lankwitz with a total of nine facilities run by the Studierendenwerk Berlin (Berlin Student Union). When Freie Universität started teaching in the winter semester of 1948/1949, a wooden shed serving as a canteen provided meals for students and faculty. At the beginning of the 1950s, the architects Hermann Fehling and Peter Pfankuch were commissioned with a new building, which was opened in March 1953 at Van't Hoff Strasse 6, Mensa I. Today, the Mensa Shokudo is located there, serving Japanese-inspired food created according to its fusion concept.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The construction of the Schlachtensee student village is an example of the implementation of the United States’ reeducation program in postwar Germany. The dormitory complex was built between 1957 and 1959 in the southwestern part of West Berlin. It was built to resemble a democratic state: in the student village, the students at Freie Universität were supposed to practice democracy on a small scale. A participation model set the rules: the residents are supposed to form small households, which send representatives to the “village council,” a type of parliament. The council appoints a student mayor and forms various committees that decide, for example, on admitting new residents or setting up a cultural program.

Source:

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Scientists at the Botanic Garden have been working with scientific partner institutions all over the world to create World Flora Online, the digital image of the plants of the Earth. With the dynamic database, scientists are making all 350,000 known land plant species in the world available online for the first time. In the gardens themselves visitors can go from the Alps to Asia to America in half an hour: a distance of 23 kilometers takes them through the whole world of botany.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

After 1900, following an initiative by Friedrich Althoff, the Ministerial Director in the Prussian Ministry of Education, a unique research landscape “in the countryside” was created on the grounds of the Dahlem domain. Initially, several scientific administrative organs and the construction of two institutes of the Berlin University near the Botanic Garden contributed to the new settlement. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (KWG), founded in 1911, promoted the further implementation of Althoff’s plans for a “German Oxford.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Each semester the number of students enrolled at Freie Universität Berlin was recorded in statistics books. Dr. Reinhard Ost, a former staff member of the University Archives compiled a time chart showing the number of enrolled students from the first semester through 2016:

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

When the Berlin Wall was built in August 1961, Burkhard Veigel was twenty-three years old and a medical student at Freie Universität. He was one of several hundred students who between August 1961 and January 1962 helped more than 800 individuals flee from East Germany. At first they helped fellow students, who were living in East Berlin but wanted to continue their studies at Freie Universität, to reach the West by using passports from Luxembourg, Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland. In the fall of 1961, they started various “tunnel actions.” Later they used a modified Cadillac to smuggle people across the border.

The East German judiciary imposed high prison sentences on students from Freie Universität and Technische Universität, whose assistance was betrayed by informants for the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi). On July 4, 1962, the Supreme Court of the GDR (East Germany) sentenced three students from West Berlin to twenty-eight years in prison. Altogether more than seventy students at Freie Universität were arrested and sentenced to prison terms by East German courts for helping fellow students, friends, or relatives escape from East Germany. Later East and West Germany negotiated permits, and prisoners could be ransomed by the West German government, so by 1964 most of the imprisoned students were freed. Fifty years after the Wall was built, the escape helpers were recognized at an event at Freie Universität.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

By now almost the entire surface of Mars has been imaged by the German High Resolution Stereo Camera (HSRC), which is on board the probe. The Planetology and Remote Sensing group at the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität is now working on seamlessly merging the individual images to create a high-resolution global map of Mars. The HSRC was developed at the German Aerospace Center under the direction of Professor Gerhard Neukum. The physicist, who died in 2014, joined Freie Universität Berlin as a professor in 2002, where he established the field of planetology and remote sensing.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freedom to see things differently: In 2018, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Freie Universität Berlin, the student union AStA reacted to the reporting and official celebrations with a counterstatement: “FU70: Gegendarstellungen.” Many people who were involved in protests over the years also contributed to the document.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The Henry Ford Building (HFB) with a passageway to the University Library was opened in 1954. It was the second new building constructed for Freie Universität. It was financed by the American Ford Foundation and named after Henry Ford II, the grandson of the company founder, Henry Ford, who had passed away in 1947.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Five research groups in the Department of Physics are working on topics related to quantum physics. They are involved in ten large research groups funded by the European Research Council and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Lise Meitner was the only person Otto Hahn wrote to about the results of the radiochemical experiments in advance of publication. Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch, in exile in Sweden at the time, were then able to publish a first theoretical physical explanation in the English journal Nature at the beginning of 1939. In the article they estimated the release of a very large amount of energy. Frisch coined the term “nuclear fission,” which in the following years was recognized internationally. In 1957 Freie Universität awarded the experimental physicist Lise Meitner an honorary doctorate in recognition of her work in the discovery of nuclear fission. She passed away in Cambridge in 1968.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

As part of the reorganization of Berlin’s hospital landscape, Charité and the Virchow University Hospital were merged in 1997. In 2003 Charité-Virchow merged with the Benjamin Franklin campus in Berlin-Steglitz to become one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. From then on, the Berlin-Steglitz location had to forego a third of its state funding for research and teaching. Today, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is jointly operated by Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

After the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Freie Universität ended its cooperation with research institutions in Russia. That also applied to the Liaison Office in Moscow, which the university had maintained since 2010. It was closed a few days after the start of the war. Since the beginning of October 2022, Tobias Stüdemann, who had long headed the Liaison Office in Moscow, has been working for Freie Universität Berlin in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The FUBIC technology park is operated by Wista Management GmbH. FUBIC stands for Business and Innovation Center next to Freie Universität. More than 1,000 people are expected to work there in the future. In the main building alone there is space for about eighty companies. There are also six satellite buildings with space for more companies. The FUBIC technology park is supposed to be operated with 100 percent renewable energy.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

“New” and “old” are not contradictions at Fabeck Strasse 23/25: the characteristic architecture of rust and silver arbors was continued in 2005 with the opening of the “Holzlaube.” Architect Florian Nagler based the structure of the façade of the existing building. For the exterior, he opted for wood cladding, which corresponds to the zeitgeist and “sustainable building.” It is Canadian cedar stained gray to even out the uneven natural graying process.

The smaller subjects of the Department of History and Cultural Studies moved into the Holzlaube. There is also a new Campus Library, which contains the holdings of seventeen former institute libraries.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Freie Universität has advocated for the free availability of scientific knowledge in the spirit of open access for many years. In 2008 it was one of the first German universities to adopt an open access policy. The university supports access to free knowledge and open science. Open access publications are digitally available worldwide, permanently accessible without legal, technical, or financial hurdles. Individual researchers and science as a whole benefit from the free and immediate availability of scientific findings. Open access is an important step toward strengthening the relationship between science and society and democratizing research.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

The library of the John F. Kennedy Institute differs from other American studies libraries primarily in the breadth of its collection, which extends across the entire spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. The library not only supports teaching and research at the Kennedy Institute itself, but also serves an important function on both regional and national levels. The library carries out these services with the help of interlibrary loan and financial support from the German Research Foundation.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

What role do emotions play when we make decisions? Why does a novel like Harry Potter let us dip into strange worlds? Is it possible to feel a rubber hand as part of your body? These are just some of the types of questions researchers at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin (CCNB) are looking for answers to. Various imaging methods such as MRI or EEG can be combined in the laboratories at Freie Universität. These methods make it possible to observe the brain while it is thinking or feeling. The CCNB was opened in 2015.

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Illustration: Yves Haltner

Ernst Reuter, a former mayor of West Berlin, played a key role in founding Freie Universität in 1948. Shortly after his death on January 27, 1954, the nonprofit organization Ernst Reuter Society of Supporters and Friends of Freie Universität Berlin e. V. (ERG) was founded as a central donors’ association for alumni and other supporters of the university. The ERG provides nonmaterial and material support in order to further develop Freie Universität as a place of innovative ideas. The number of members of the Ernst Reuter Society has been growing continuously for years. Currently, it has 7,700 members.