Heinrich Heine University

The Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf (Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) is a university in Düsseldorf, Germany. It is named after the German poet and political thinker Heinrich Heine, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1797. Since 1965 it has been a fully-fledged university, consisting today of faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and natural sciences, and economics. Its current enrollment is slightly over 18,000 students. The rector is Prof. Dr. Dr. Alfons Labisch M.A. (Soz.).

History
In 1806, Joachim Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother-in-law, who had been put in charge of the Duchy of Berg, wanted to found a university in Düsseldorf. At the time, there existed only a few college-like institutions that had developed between the 16th and 18th centuries.

On 12 December, 1811, Napoleon issued a decree, calling for a university with five faculties to be chartered in the duchy. The French invasion of Russia, however, impeded its establishment.

In 1907, a medical academy was founded in Düsseldorf, and in 1923 it started training students. In 1962 the state of North Rhine-Westphalia took over responsibility for the academy from the city of Düsseldorf.

In 1965, the state government decided to transform the medical academy into a university. On 1 January, 1966 the university constituted itself with a faculty of medicine, and a combined faculty for natural sciences and philosophy. On 14 February of the same year, there was an opening ceremony. The buildings of the central campus, located in the south of Düsseldorf, were completed in the 1970s, a fact which is self-evident in the architectural style prevailing on campus. At this point the university was not yet named after Heinrich Heine due to controversies that carried on for decades. Heine was not considered an appropriate figurehead, first for pragmatic then for political reasons. Not until 20 December, 1988, did the university's senate decide to name the university after Düsseldorf's most famous son.

Honorary Degrees

 * Johannes Rau, former president of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * Paul Spiegel, former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany
 * Marcel Reich-Ranicki, literary critic

Partner Universities

 * University of Nantes (France)
 * University of Naples Federico II (Italy)
 * Peking University (China)
 * University of Alicante (Spain)
 * University of Reading (UK)
 * University of California, Davis (USA)
 * Pennsylvania State University (USA)
 * Charles University Prague (Czech Republic)
 * Keio University Tôkyô (Japan)

Numerous SOCRATES/ERASMUS-partnerships exist, too.



List of subjects

 * Medicine
 * Dental medicine
 * Laws
 * Philosophy
 * German language and literature
 * Latin and Ancient Greek
 * English language and literature
 * Romantic languages and literature (French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan)
 * History
 * Information Science
 * Middle age and Renaissance studies
 * Jewish studies
 * Cultural and Media studies
 * Sports
 * Journalism
 * Linguistics and Computer linguistics
 * Modern Japan
 * History of Arts
 * Social sciences and Politics
 * Mathematics
 * Physics
 * Chemistry
 * Geography
 * Biology
 * Computer sciences
 * Pharmacology
 * Psychology
 * Economics
 * Chemistry with Applications in Economy