Bonn, University of

Bonn, University of 

(Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University in Bonn), one of the largest universities in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1777 the electors of Cologne founded in Bonn an academy which was intended to serve as a center of education in the Rhine Lander. In 1786 it was renamed a university. It was closed ten years later during the occupation of the Rhine Länder by French troops and reopened in 1818 after the Rhine Lander had been turned over to Prussia by King Friedrich Wilhelm III.

In the 19th century the University of Bonn was second in importance only to the University of Berlin. In 1835–36, Marx studied at the University of Bonn. Among the most important scholars who taught there were the historian B. Niebuhr, the philologist F. Diez, the literary historian, critic, and translator A. Schlegel, the naturalist H. Helmholtz, and the educator F. Paulsen.

In 1969–70 the University of Bonn comprised seven faculties: economics and law, philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences, medicine, agriculture, and two theological faculties—one Evangelical and one Catholic. The student body numbered more than 14,000 and the teaching staff, 769. The university library (founded in 1818) contained 950,000 volumes in 1970. [3–1658–31