Humboldt University
Humboldt University features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Berlin. Give it roughly ~30 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type university
- Suggested visit ~30 min
- Berlin Berlin guide
About Humboldt University
Founded in 1810 by Wilhelm von Humboldt, one of Germany's greatest universities educated Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and 29 Nobel laureates.
Humboldt University of Berlin, founded in 1810 by the Prussian educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt, is one of the most influential universities in history and the model for the modern research university worldwide. Humboldt's revolutionary concept, that teaching and research should be conducted together, not separately; that the university should produce free thinkers rather than civil servants, fundamentally changed higher education. The university's alumni and former professors include an extraordinary concentration of intellectual history: philosophers Hegel and Schopenhauer taught here; Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Heinrich Heine studied here; physicist Albert Einstein held a professorship; Otto von Bismarck studied law here; and the university has produced 29 Nobel laureates. The main building on Unter den Linden, built as a prince's palace in the 1740s, is open to visitors. Statues of Wilhelm and his brother Alexander von Humboldt stand in front.
Did you know? Heinrich Heine (in the 1820s), Karl Marx (1836-41), and Friedrich Engels all studied or attended lectures here, part of an extraordinary roll-call of radical thinkers who passed through the university.
How long is a visit to Humboldt University?
Set aside roughly ~30 min for Humboldt University. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Humboldt University worth your time?
Humboldt University is among the 43 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Berlin, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Berlin
Hear the story of Humboldt University
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