The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, founded in 1631, was divided in the 1970s into three separate institutions with a total of approximately 48,500 students as of 2007. They are (with approximate specialisations in parentheses):
Contents |
Strasbourg I is a member of the LERU (League of European Research Universities).
The university emerged from a Lutheran humanist German Gymnasium , founded in 1538 by Johannes Sturm in the Free Imperial City of Strassburg. It was transformed to a university in 1631.
The German university still persisted even after the annexation of the City by King Louis XIV in 1681, but mainly turned into a French university during the French Revolution.
The university was refounded as the German Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in 1872, after the Franco-Prussian war and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany provoked a westwards exodus of francophone teachers. In 1918 Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, so a reverse exodus of germanophone teachers took place.
During World War II, when France was occupied, personnel and equipment of the University of Strasbourg was transferred to Clermont-Ferrand. In its place, the short-lived German Reichsuniversität Straßburg was created.
