Munich (1826 - 1945)
One of the first acts of the new King Ludwig I was to bring the university to Munich in 1826. In 1840, it took up residence in today’s main building, designed by architect Friedrich von Gärtner. The students, however, were less than appreciative; they ultimately played a key role in forcing his abdication over of his mistress Lola Montez during the 1848 German Revolution.
The latter half of the nineteenth century was especially notable for the work of high-caliber scholars in all faculties, along with the on-going expansion of seminars, institutes, and medical facilities. In 1865, the sciences were bundled together for the first time in their own section, which became the Faculty of Sciences in 1937. In 1914, the College of Veterinary Medicine was integrated into LMU Munich as an independent faculty.
Coeducation
In 1900, the two female Scottish scientists Maria Ogilvie-Gordon and Agnes Kelly were the first women to receive doctorates from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Three years later, Bavaria was the second state in Germany (after Baden in 1900) that allowed the full admission of women to university studies. Of the 5,147 students enrolled at LMU Munich in Winter Semester 1905/6, 53 were women – by Winter Semester 1918/19, the number was up to 1,191 out of 8,625. And in 1918, Adele Hartmann at LMU Munich was the first woman in Germany to receive the post-graduate habilitation degree that qualified her for a professorship. By 1918, LMU Munich had awarded doctorates to 174 women. The first doctorate of law was awarded to a woman in 1927, followed by the first veterinary doctorate in 1928.
Flowering after World War I
The post-World War I years were known for prominent, internationally recognized scholars. Pillars of the Munich tradition in chemistry were the Nobel laureates Richard Willstätter and Heinrich Wieland, and on the heels of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen came Wilhelm Wien with another Nobel Prize in physics in 1920. For years, the institute around Arnold Sommerfeld was among the world’s largest centers for atomic physics. Sociologist Max Weber, who died in 1920, the cardiopulmonary surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch, and the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin also numbered among the influential minds of the interbellum era.
The Third Reich and the Weisse Rose
The National Socialist dictatorship and the war meant a great watershed for LMU Munich as well: Jewish and politically unacceptable professors were fired, and students found their academic careers disrupted. On May 10, 1933, the infamous book burning at Königsplatz, a nearby square, offered a glimpse of the terror of days to come. It was largely organized by students in the Deutscher Studentenbund.
In 1943, members of the resistance group Weisse Rose (White Rose) - Hans and Sophie Scholl, some friends, and Professor Kurt Huber – risked an attempt to revive the national conscience and the voice of reason in Germany. The seven students and their teacher, all of whom were executed, are commemorated by Geschwister-Scholl-Platz in front of the main building, Professor-Huber-Platz in front of the building for the Faculty of Law, and in the names of the streets in the student quarter in Freimann. In 1997, the memorial room Gedenkstätte Weisse Rose in the main building atrium was dedicated by German President Roman Herzog and since then has served to commemorate the resistance group. LMU Munich honors their memory and recognizes their courageous commitment as a fundamental part of its duty to society to provide young people with a comprehensive education that encompasses a critical awareness of values and history.
