Made up of eight institutes, the Department of Philosophy and Humanities offers students a diverse range of subjects in the humanities, from philosophy and the cultures of antiquity to the Greek, Latin, English, Romance, German, and Dutch philologies as well as comparative literature, theater studies, film studies, musicology, and culture and media management.

Wide Range of Degree Programs

The department currently offers 23 bachelor's degree programs, some with 60- and 30-credit modules, and eight of which can lead to teacher certification (optional). There are also 15 consecutive master's degree programs and three master's degree programs with a special professional orientation, Applied Literary Studies, Arts and Media Administration, and Editorial Studies. The department offers doctoral programs taught in German or English within the structure of the Dahlem Research School. Questions about the various degree programs can be addressed to the Office of Academic Affairs (Studienbüro) and the Examinations and Doctoral Studies Office of the department.

Excellent Academic Infrastructure

Students and doctoral students in the humanities are provided with an excellent academic infrastructure. The department's facilities include the Philological Library, designed by Lord Norman Foster, and the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, the only graduate school focusing exclusively on literary studies that was successful in the Excellence Initiative of the German government.

Benefits from Collaborative Research

Humanities research at Freie Universität has a breadth and diversity unparalleled in Germany. The central hub of the many departments and activities is the Dahlem Humanities Center (DHC), which was founded to create interdisciplinary networks and promote the emergence of new research initiatives.

From the beginning of their studies, students and doctoral students benefit from the work and the networks of collaborative research institutions. There are several major research alliances: They include the International Research Training Groups in InterArt Studies and Notational Iconicity, the Interdisciplinary Centers European Languages and Middle Ages – Renaissance – Early Modern Period, as well as the International Research Center being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), Interweaving Performance Cultures. The department is one of the main partners in the DFG Collaborative Research Center 626 Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of the Arts and in the Excellence Cluster Topoi.

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) recently approved funds for the establishment of a new Collaborative Research Center, CRC 980, to deal with “Epistemology in Motion – Knowledge Transfer from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period.” The scholars involved in this CRC study the processes of knowledge transition in European and non-European cultures before the modern era.

In addition to the Department of Philosophy and Humanities, there are eleven other academic departments and four central institutes at Freie Universität:

Academic Departments

• Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy
• Department of Earth Sciences
• Department of Education and Psychology
• Department of History and Cultural Studies
• Department of Law
• Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
• Department of Philosophy and Humanities
• Department of Physics
• Department of Political and Social Sciences
• Department of Veterinary Medicine
• School of Business and Economics
• Medical School - Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Central Institutes

• Dahlem School of Education
• Institute for East European Studies
• Institute for Latin American Studies
• John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies