Marburg, University of
Marburg, University of
(Philipps-Universitat Marburg), one of the oldest universities in the Federal Republic of Germany, the first Protestant university in Germany. Founded in Marburg in 1527 by the Hessian landgrave Philip the Generous. The university received imperial privileges in 1541.
The University of Marburg has (1972) faculties of theology, state and law, medicine, philosophy, and natural science; its library, founded in 1527, has 600,000 volumes and about 3,000 manuscripts. The University of Marburg’s research institute of the German language, founded in 1876, is the largest center for the study of the German language and its dialects; the institute publishes an atlas of the German language. In the 1972-73 academic year the university had about 10,000 students and about 200 professors.