University of Freiburg - History - Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg

Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg

The university had enough endowments and earnings to survive until the beginning of the regency of Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden in 1818. Finally in 1820 he saved the university with an annual contribution. Since then the university has been named Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) as an acknowledgement of gratitude by the university and the citizens of Freiburg.

In the 1880s the population of the student body and faculty started to grow quickly. The scientific reputation of Albert Ludwigs University attracted several researchers like economist Adolph Wagner, historians Georg von Below and Friedrich Meinecke, or jurists Karl von Amira and Paul Lenel.

The University of Freiburg, among others, served as a role model for the establishment of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, in 1875. Johns Hopkins was the first US university committed to research following Alexander von Humboldt's ideas of research as practiced at German universities at the time. Daniel Coit Gilman, founding president of Johns Hopkins, who had studied in Germany, visited Freiburg and other German universities in preparation for the founding of Johns Hopkins.

In 1900 Freiburg became the first German university to accept a female student.In the beginning of the 20th century several new university buildings were built in the centre of Freiburg, such as in 1911 the new main building. Just before World War I the university counted 3,000 students. After World War I the philosophers Edmund Husserl and (since 1928) Martin Heidegger taught at Albert Ludwigs University, as well as Edith Stein. On the field of social sciences, Walter Eucken developed the idea of ordoliberalism, which consequently is also known as the "Freiburg School".