Göttingen University

Göttingen University was founded in 1737 as the university for Hanover by the Elector Georg August, who was also King George II of the United Kingdom. From him it derives the title Universitas Georgia Augusta. It quickly attained a reputation, especially in the faculty of law and in the study of history. Among noted professors in the 18th c. were A. von Haller and C. G. Heyne (appointed on foundation), J. D. Michaëlis, J. H. Gesner, and G. A. Bürger, and in the 19th c. the brothers Grimm. In 1772 some students of Göttingen founded the Göttinger Hainbund, which played a part in the new florescence of German literature. Heine was an alumnus of the university, but, as Die Harzreise indicates, he did not find it much to his taste. In 1837 it was in the political forefront through the dismissal by King Ernst August of seven protesting professors (see Göttinger Sieben).