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Goethe University Frankfurt

Public research university founded by liberal citizens in 1914.

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Goethe University Frankfurt

Sven · CC BY-SA 4.0

Located in Frankfurt am Main, Goethe University Frankfurt functions as a publicly funded research institution.[1] The institution's establishment in 1914 was made possible by financial contributions from Frankfurt's affluent liberal community, earning it the designation of a citizens' university.[2] Approximately 48,000 individuals are currently enrolled as students, with their studies spread across four main campus locations.[3]

Key facts and history

The university's historical roots trace back to a City Council Library established in 1484 with a bequest from patrician Ludwig von Marburg.[4] The university was originally named Universität Frankfurt am Main, and in 1932 it was renamed in honor of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.[2] The university consists of 16 faculties.[5] A centennial celebration for the university took place during 2014.[6]

Birgitta Wolff assumed the role of the university's first female president in 2015, with Enrico Schleiff taking over that position in 2021.[6] A provenance research initiative, which began in 2020 and received financial support from the German Lost Art Foundation, led to the identification of these books.[7][8]

What the cited sources add

A 2025 project report states that Frankfurt's large Jewish population meant the city was more severely affected by Nazi expropriation, so the university library's share of looted property is higher than elsewhere.[8] The same report notes that after 1945, Frankfurt became a central location for Allied restitution efforts, with a collecting point later moved to the Offenbach Archival Depot.[8] Provenance researchers identified more than 5,000 volumes from the Baer antiquarian bookshop as Nazi-looted property in the initial project alone.[8] According to the same article, the books are neither valuable nor rare, but their return is a significant acknowledgment of injustice to Frankfurt's Jewish Community.[9]

According to a university news article, the set of returned books contained items that once belonged to Julius Blau, a well-known lawyer, and his son Ernst Blau, a librarian who perished at the Gurs concentration camp.[9][7] The Goethe Business School, which began operations in 2004, operates as a non-profit foundation under private law, with the university holding ownership.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Viertes Gesetz zur Änderung des Hessischen Hochschulgesetzes", Hessische Staatskanzlei, 8 October 2007 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "UniReport" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Goethe-Universität — University history", www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rudolf Jung, Frankfurter Hochschulpläne 1384–1868. In: Frankfurter Historische Forschungen. Heft 1. K. F. Koehler, Leipzig 1915. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Faculties" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Neue Uni-Präsidentin will kommunikativen Führungsstil", Faz.net; Zoske, "Neuer Uni-Präsident: Lieber ohne Amtskette", 17 December 2020; "Nobel prize Physics laureates"; "Goethe-Universität — Nobelpreisträger an der Goethe Universität", www.uni-frankfurt.de; "Goethe-Universität — Leibnizpreisträger an der Goethe-Universität", www.uni-frankfurt.de (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sauter, "University Library Transfers First Set of Nazi-Looted Books to Frankfurt’s Jewish Community", Aktuelles aus der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 2026-02-09; Dylan, "Frankfurt University returns Nazi-looted books to Jewish community for the first time", European Jewish Congress, 2026-02-10; "Project at University Library Frankfurt: more Nazi-looted books than expected Kulturgutverluste", kulturgutverluste.de, 2025-07-21 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "Project at University Library Frankfurt: more Nazi-looted books than expected Kulturgutverluste", kulturgutverluste.de, 2025-07-21. facts only, no text reused. kulturgutverluste.de
  9. Sauter, "University Library Transfers First Set of Nazi-Looted Books to Frankfurt’s Jewish Community", Aktuelles aus der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, 2026-02-09. facts only, no text reused. aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de
  10. Wikipedia, "Goethe University Frankfurt" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Breuer steps down from Deutsche Bank", Financial Times; Jaspers, "Goethe Business School schließt Partnerschaft mit Indian School of Business" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Goethe University Frankfurt (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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