University of Wrocław
Uniwersytet Wrocławski | ||
President Robert Olkiewicz | | |
Administrative staff | 3,569[1] | |
---|---|---|
Students | 23,297[1] | |
Location | , , | |
Campus | Urban | |
Colors | Blue | |
Website | uwr.edu.pl | |
The University of Wrocław (
The university was founded in 1945, replacing the previous German University of Breslau. Following the territorial changes of Poland's borders, academics primarily from the Jan Kazimierz University of Lwów restored the university building, which had been heavily damaged in the 1945 Battle of Breslau.
History
Leopoldina
The oldest mention of a university in Wrocław comes from the foundation deed signed on 20 July 1505 for the Generale litterarum Gymnasium in Wrocław by King Vladislaus II of Hungary (Polish: Władysław II Jagiellończyk) of the Polish Jagiellonian dynasty. However, the new academic institution requested by the town council was not built, because the King's deed was rejected by Pope Julius II for political reasons.[2] Also, the numerous wars and opposition from the University of Kraków might have played a role. The first successful founding deed known as the Aurea bulla fundationis Universitatis Wratislaviensis was signed two centuries later, on 1 October 1702, by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I of the House of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia.[2]
The predecessor facilities, which existed since 1638, were converted into Jesuit school, and finally, upon instigation of the Jesuits and with the support of the Silesian Oberamtsrat (Second Secretary) Johannes Adrian von Plencken, donated as a university in 1702 by Emperor Leopold I as a School of Philosophy and Catholic Theology with the designated name Leopoldina. On 15 November 1702, the university opened. Johannes Adrian von Plencken also became chancellor of the university. As a Catholic institute in Protestant Breslau, the new university was an important instrument of the Counter-Reformation in Silesia. After Silesia passed to Prussia, the university lost its ideological character, but remained a religious institution for the education of Catholic clergy in Prussia.
Silesian Friedrich Wilhelm University in Breslau
After the defeat of Prussia by
Connected with the university were three theological seminars, a philological seminar, a seminar for German Philology, another seminar for Romanic and English philology, an historical seminar, a mathematical-physical one, a legal state seminar, and a scientific seminar. From 1842, the university also had a chair of
The library in 1885 consisted of approximately 400,000 works, including about 2,400 incunabula, approximately 250 Aldines, and 2,840 manuscripts. These volumes came from the libraries of the former universities of Frankfurt and Breslau and from disestablished monasteries, and also included the oriental collections of the Bibliotheca Habichtiana and the academic Leseinstitut.
In addition, the university owned an observatory; a five-hectare botanical garden; a botanical museum and a zoological garden founded in 1862 by a joint-stock company; a natural history museum; zoological, chemical, and physical collections; the chemical laboratory; the physiological plant; a mineralogical institute; an anatomical institute; clinical laboratories; a gallery (mostly from churches, monasteries, etc.) full of old German works; the museum of Silesian antiquities; and the state archives of Silesia.
In the late 19th century, numerous internationally renowned and historically notable scholars lectured at the University of Breslau, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, Ferdinand Cohn, and Gustav Kirchhoff among them.
In 1817, Poles made up around 16% of the student body.
In January 2015, the university restored 262 PhD degrees stripped during the Nazi period from Jews and other scholars seen as hostile to the Nazis.[11]
University of Wrocław
After the Siege of Breslau, the Red Army took the city in May 1945. Breslau, now known as Wrocław, became part of the Republic of Poland. The first Polish team of academics arrived in Wrocław in late May 1945 and took custody of the university buildings, which were 70% destroyed.[12] Parts of the collection of the university library perished during the Soviet offensive in 1945,[13] burned by soldiers on 10 May 1945, four days after the German garrison surrendered the city[citation needed].
University rankings | |
---|---|
Global – Overall | |
CWTS World[14] | 710 |
QS World[15] | 801–1000 |
THE World[16] | 801–1000 |
USNWR Global[17] | 833 |
Regional – Overall | |
QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia[18] | 49 (2022) |
Very quickly, some buildings were repaired, and a cadre of professors was built up, many coming from prewar Polish
The University of Wrocław was refounded as a Polish state university by the decree of the State National Council issued on 24 August 1945. The first lecture was given on 15 November 1945, by Ludwik Hirszfeld. Between 1952 and 1989 the university was named Bolesław Bierut University of Wrocław (Polish: Uniwersytet Wrocławski im. Bolesława Bieruta) after Bolesław Bierut, President of the Republic of Poland (1947–52).
In 2015, nearly 80 years after the fact, the university restored academic degrees stripped from German Jews by the Nazis owing to German anti-Semitism. "Wroclaw University estimates that in total some 262 people suffered a similar fate."[21]
Faculties
There are 10 faculties that provide 44 areas of study, in which the language medium is mostly in Polish, with only some in English. The University of Wrocław provides Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral level programmes. The degree certificates awarded by UWr are recognised globally.
- Faculty of Biotechnology
- Faculty of Chemistry
- Faculty of Philology
- Faculty of Physics and Astronomy
- Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
- Faculty of Biological Sciences
- Faculty of History and Pedagogy
- Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics
Rectors
- Stanisław Kulczyński (1945–1951)
- Jan Mydlarski (1951–1953)
- Edward Marczewski (1953–1957)
- Kazimierz Szarski (1957–1959)
- Witold Świda (1959–1962)
- Alfred Jahn (1962–1968)
- Włodzimierz Berutowicz (1968–1971)
- Marian Orzechowski (1971–1975)
- Kazimierz Urbanik (1975–1981)
- Józef Łukaszewicz (1981–1982)
- Henryk Ratajczak (1982–1984)
- Jan Mozrzymas (1984–1987)
- Mieczysław Klimowicz (1987–1990)
- Wojciech Wrzesiński (1990–1995)
- Roman Duda (1995–1999)
- Romuald Gelles (1999–2002)
- Zdzisław Latajka (2002–2005)
- Leszek Pacholski (2005–2008)
- Marek Bojarski (2008–2016)
- Adam Jezierski (2016–2020)
- Przemysław Wiszewski (2020–2022)
- Robert Olkiewicz (since 2022)
Notable people
- Albert Wojciech Adamkiewicz
- Adolf Anderssen
- Adam Asnyk
- Ruth Baum
- Kamil Bortniczuk
- Robert Bunsen
- Florian Ceynowa
- Hans Cloos
- Stephan Cohn-Vossen
- Jan Dzierżon
- Norbert Elias
- August von Fallersleben
- Heinz von Foerster
- Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat
- Gustav Freytag
- August Froehlich
- Otto von Gierke
- Adolph Eduard Grube
- Fritz Haber
- Siegmund Hadda
- Clara Immerwahr
- Otto Jaekel
- Jan Kasprowicz
- Gustav Kirchhoff
- Bronisław Knaster
- Adolf Kober
- Wojciech Korfanty
- Waldemar Kozuschek
- Marek Krajewski
- Emil Krebs
- Otto Küstner
- Hans Lammers
- Ferdinand Lassalle
- Kurt Lischka
- Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
- Edward Marczewski
- Antoni Matuszkiewicz
- Gustav Meyer
- Julius Lothar Meyer
- Jan Mikusiński
- Jan Miodek
- Karol Modzelewski
- Jan Mycielski
- Jan Noskiewicz
- Barbara Piasecka Johnson
- Stanisław Potrzebowski
- Jan Evangelista Purkyně
- Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
- Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge
- Wojciech Samotij
- Joseph Schacht
- Rudolf Schnackenburg
- Karel Slavíček
- Władysław Ślebodziński
- Karl Slotta
- Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)
- Charles Proteus Steinmetz
- Hugo Steinhaus
- Otto Stern
- Paul Tillich
- Carl Wernicke
- Mieczysław Wolfke
- Seweryn Wysłouch
- Johannes Zukertort
Honorary Doctorates
See also
- Wrocław University of Technology
- List of early modern universities in Europe
- List of Jesuit sites
- Academic Festival Overture
Notes
- ^ a b "Informacje ogólne - Uniwersytet Wrocławski".
- ^ a b c Małgorzata Porada (July 27, 2009). "Od jezuickiej Leopoldiny do polskiego Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego (From Jesuit Leopoldina to Polish University of Wrocław)". O nas (About Us) (in Polish). Uniwersytet Wrocławski. Archived from the original on October 4, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
T. Kulak, M. Pater, W. Wrzesiński, Historia Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 1702-2002, Wrocław 2002
- ^ Mieczysław Pater, Historia Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego Do Roku 1918, Wrocław, 1997, p. 297
- ^ a b Norman Davies: Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, 2002, p. 245
- ^ Norman Davies: Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, 2002, p. 305-307
- ^ Norman Davies: Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, pages 110-115, 207-210
- ^ Norman Davies "Microcosm" page 337
- ^ Norman Davies "Microcosm" page 393
- ^ Norman Davies "Microcosm" page 394
- ^ Norman Davies Microcosm page 389, 390
- ^ "Poland University Restores 262 PhD's Stripped by Nazis". The Forward. January 8, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 83-223-1876-6.
- ISBN 978-1610690997.
- ^ CWTS Leiden Ranking 2019
- ^ QS World University Rankings 2020
- ^ World University Rankings 2018
- ^ Best Global Universities in Poland
- ^ "QS World University Rankings-Emerging Europe & Central Asia". Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ISBN 0-19-925340-4.
- ISBN 978-0691152912.
- ^ "Polish university to reinstate German Jews' titles stripped by Nazis". Telegraph.co.uk. 5 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12.
External links
Media related to Wrocław University at Wikimedia Commons