1379–1816

The University of Erfurt was founded in 1379^[3] in the Holy Roman Empire, in territory which is now modern day Germany. When the town of Erfurt became part of Prussia in 1816, the government closed the university after more than 400 years of operation.

Collegium Maius

1994–present

Erfurt was in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1949 to 1990. In December 1993, the State Government of Thuringia in reunified Germany, Landtag of Thuringia, voted to re-establish the university. The university was re-founded on 1 January 1994. Lectures began in the winter term of 1999/2000. Shortly afterwards, the Rector who had overseen the founding, Peter Glotz, a politician in the Social Democratic Party, left the university. The position was taken over by Wolfgang Bergsdorf.

In 2001, the Erfurt Teachers' Training College (Pädagogische Hochschule Erfurt), founded in 1953, became part of the university. On 1 January 2003, a fourth faculty was added to the university: the Roman Catholic Theological Faculty, which had belonged to Erfurt's Philosophical and Theological Centre (Philosophisch-Theologisches Studium Erfurt).

The University of Erfurt is a liberal arts university with reform and socio-cultural profile. The close integration of the Philosophical, Educational Research, Governmental Studies, the Catholic Theological Faculty, and the Max Weber Center, promotes interdisciplinary alongside innovative approaches to research and teaching through a mentoring program.

University of Erfurt's library

The University of Erfurt has no tuition fees and represents the first institution of higher education to receive the family-friendly certificate for employers.

Faculty of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

Academic priorities

• Religious studies
• Sociology
• Governance (Law and economics)
• Education

Regular summer schools

• International Summer Course for German Language, Literature and Culture
• Summer School "Muslims in the West"
• Summer Program in Communications Erfurt (SPICE)
• International Spring School

Current research groups

Currently following colleges and research teams are part of the Erfurt doctoral and postdoctoral program (EPPP):

• The research group Communication and Digital Media (COMDIGMED) is an interdisciplinary and international scale embedded and association of researchers. This project will combine to support the research activities of its members on the field of communication science, educational science, psychology and social science and networking of research and teaching help. COMDIGMED is co-creator of university education focus.
• In the Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavior (Cereb) scientists work together on economic and behavioral sciences, focusing on the theoretical modeling of human decision behavior, the design of social institutions and educational and career choices as long-term Selbststeuerungsprozesse. The university is involved in this specialization.
• The Graduate School "Religion in modernization processes" engages religion-related research projects from the religious, social, literary, media, and history of science, theology and philosophy. It engages young scientists with the problems in this area, and offers attractive conditions for their work to develop new understandings of religion in modernization processes.
• The research program of Max Weber Center is directed to the problems of religion, science and law as interpretation and control powers, interactions between cultures, social systems and mentalities in radical change, and action-bases of cultural and social sciences and their relation to normative, especially ethical issues.
• The DFG-Graduiertenkolleg "Human Dignity and Human Rights" employs young researchers at the Max Weber Center and the University of Jena with creation, development and application of a central value of Modernity: the human dignity, including consideration of less history of violence.
• The projects of the Research "Proficiency" deal with the theory-based coverage and promotion of linguistic competence. These are all language modalities (reading, listening, writing, speaking), both at the primary are taken as well in second language acquisition in the eye. The research group is actively involved in the design of the gravity profile the Education of the University of Erfurt.
• The Research Training Group of the Forum "Texte.Zeichen.Medien." her profile is not covered by the thematic orientation, but by the transphilologische and interdisciplinary nature of their access to their objects – texts, symbols and media.
• The DFG Research Training Group "Media historiographies" deals with the mutual relationship between history and media. The question of a "history of the media 'with the question of" media history "intertwined: how different media to determine the encoding of historical situations and processes? And how media and media techniques to bring out their own particular history?
• The Platform regions of the world & Interactions

University projects

In the summer semester of 2003, a project group was formed at the university to take part in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) in New York City in April 2004. The pilot project has become a regular, student-organized seminar at the university. The various groups received several awards for their participation at the conference in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Original foundation (1392–1816)

• Martin Luther, theologian
• Ulrich von Hutten, Lutheran supporter
• Johannes Gutenberg, printer (attendance debated)
• Christoph Martin Wieland, poet
• Konrad of Megenberg, historian^[5]
• Johannes de Indagine, Carthusian monk and theologian
• Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, physician and botanist

Re-establishment (since 1996)