Strasbourg, University of

Strasbourg, University of 

one of the oldest universities in France.

The University of Strasbourg was founded in 1621. After France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the university was closed and the Kaiser Wilhelm University was established in its place. The University of Strasbourg was restored in 1919. From 1939 to 1945 it was part of Clermont-Ferrand and served as a center of the French Resistance. In 1947 the university was awarded the Medal of the Resistance.

The University of Strasbourg comprises (1974) Louis Pasteur University (University of Strasbourg I), the University of Strasbourg II, and the University of Strasbourg III. Louis Pasteur University has faculties of medicine, exact and natural sciences, and earth sciences. There is a division of mathematics, as well as institutes of physics, geophysics, chemistry, physiology and biochemistry, and geology. Louis Pasteur University also has an observatory and two research schools.

The University of Strasbourg II has faculties of Catholic theology, Protestant theology, and letters and social sciences. The University of Strasbourg III has a faculty of law and political and economic sciences; attached to the university are a center for international patent rights and institutes of labor law and comparative economics, judicial research, and criminology and rehabilitation.

In 1972 the University of Strasbourg had a student enrollment of more than 25,000 and a teaching staff of 1,400 professors and instructors. The library has holdings of more than 3 million.