History

When Duke Ludwig the Wealthy of Bavaria-Landshut founded Bavaria's first university with a papal concession in 1472, no one could imagine that over the next five hundred years the school would move twice and emerge as one of the largest universities in Germany, providing some of the country's strongest research. The university began with four faculties in Ingolstadt where it witnessed the flowering of German humanism and played a major role in the Counter-Reformation.  The move to Landshut came along with the move of the faculties toward the Enlightment. The switch to Munich, to the heart of the royal capital, brought an expansion of the faculties and a huge advance in the sciences. Today, LMU Munich competes among international universities and research institutions. It builds on its distinct identity and its core skills in research and instruction in order to successfully face the challenges of both academics and our changing world.