Goettingen: Nobel Laureates, Student Duels, and Lower Saxony's Academic Jewel
Goettingen has a population around 122,000 and is defined by its university. The Georg-August-Universitaet, founded in 1737 by George II of Britain (who was also Elector of Hanover), has produced 47 Nobel Prize laureates, more than any other German university. Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born worked here. The Goettingen Seven, a group of professors including the Brothers Grimm, were expelled in 1837 for protesting the king's suspension of the constitution, an early stand for academic freedom that resonated across Germany.
The Gaenseliesel statue on the Marktplatz fountain is reportedly the most-kissed girl in the world: every doctoral graduate from the university climbs up to kiss her after their defence. Students make up roughly a quarter of the city's population. The old town is compact, walkable, and dominated by half-timbered buildings. Goettingen sits in southern Lower Saxony, near the former inner-German border; the Grenzlandmuseum Eichsfeld documents Cold War division. The Max Planck Society has five institutes here. Adult companionship follows Lower Saxony's regulatory approach in a city where academic life shapes virtually everything.
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Goettingen has a population around 122,000 and is defined by its university. The Georg-August-Universitaet, founded in 1737 by George II of Britain (who was also Elector of Hanover), has produced 47 Nobel Prize laureates, more than any other German university. Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born worked here. The Goettingen Seven, a group of professors including the Brothers Grimm, were expelled in 1837 for protesting the king's suspension of the constitution, an early stand for academic freedom that resonated across Germany.
The Gaenseliesel statue on the Marktplatz fountain is reportedly the most-kissed girl in the world: every doctoral graduate from the university climbs up to kiss her after their defence. Students make up roughly a quarter of the city's population. The old town is compact, walkable, and dominated by half-timbered buildings. Goettingen sits in southern Lower Saxony, near the former inner-German border; the Grenzlandmuseum Eichsfeld documents Cold War division. The Max Planck Society has five institutes here. Adult companionship follows Lower Saxony's regulatory approach in a city where academic life shapes virtually everything.
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