Enlightenment · Europe · Culture

1737

Gottingen University Founded

November 7, 1737

George II, elector of Hanover and king of Britain, founded a new university on the Leine. Unlike most German institutions of its day, it had no theological faculty's veto over other departments. Within a generation Gottingen would become the greatest center of Enlightenment scholarship in the German lands, attracting Gauss a century later.