Université de Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg (French: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is a university in France with over 52,000 students and almost 3,300 researchers.

The French university traces its history to the earlier German-language Universität Straßburg, which was founded in 1538, and was divided in the 1970s into three separate institutions: Louis Pasteur University, Marc Bloch University, and Robert Schuman University. On 1 January 2009, the fusion of these three universities reconstituted a united University of Strasbourg. With as many as 19 Nobel laureates, and two Fields Medal winners, the university is ranked among the best in the League of European Research Universities.

The university emerged from a Lutheran humanist German Gymnasium, founded in 1538 by Johannes Sturm in the Free Imperial City of Strassburg. It was transformed to a university in 1621 (German: Universität Straßburg) and elevated to the ranks of a royal university in 1631. Among its earliest university students was Johann Scheffler who studied medicine and later converted to Catholicism and became the mystic and poet Angelus Silesius.

The Lutheran German university still persisted even after the annexation of the city by King Louis XIV in 1681 (one famous student was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1770/71), but mainly turned into a French speaking university during the French Revolution.

The university was refounded as the German Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in 1872, after the Franco-Prussian war and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany provoked a westwards exodus of Francophone teachers. During the German Empire the university was greatly expanded and numerous new buildings were erected because the university was intended to be a showcase of German against French culture in Alsace. In 1918, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, so a reverse exodus of Germanophone teachers took place.

During the Second World War, when France was occupied, personnel and equipment of the University of Strasbourg were transferred to Clermont-Ferrand. In its place, the short-lived German Reichsuniversität Straßburg was created.

In 1971, the university was subdivided into three separate institutions:

Louis Pasteur University (Strasbourg I)

Marc Bloch University (Strasbourg II)

Robert Schuman University (Strasbourg III)

These were, however, reunited in 2009, and were able to be among the first twenty French universities to gain greater autonomy.