Göttingen is a small, historic university town located close to the geographical center - the “heart” - of Germany. Founded in the 10th century, it has an exceptionally rich academic tradition as one of Germany’s oldest university towns and has long attracted students and researchers from around the world.
The University of Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität) has been associated with many renowned scholars, including the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss and the physicist and writer Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. In the first half of the 20th century, Göttingen played an outsized role in the emergence of quantum physics, with scientists such as Max Born and Werner Heisenberg conducting groundbreaking work here. J. Robert Oppenheimer also came to Göttingen in 1926, completed his PhD under Max Born, and spent an intense and formative period in the city’s vibrant theoretical physics community. Many of these scientists met regularly in local pubs and restaurants in the historic centre of the city, and some of these places are still welcoming guests today.
Following the devastation and disruptions of the Nazi era, Göttingen again played an important role in the rebuilding of basic research in postwar Germany. The Max Planck Society, successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, was formally founded in Göttingen on 26 February 1948, marking the start of a new chapter in German science. Today, Göttingen is one of the prime academic locations in Germany; in addition to its university, it is home to major research institutes, including three Max Planck Institutes, the German Primate Center, and the German Aerospace Center, and research carried out in Göttingen has so far been recognized with 14 Nobel Prizes.
