The University of Hamburg was founded in 1919 by local citizens. The main campus is located in the central district of Rotherbaum, with affiliated institutes and research centres spread around the city-state. Important founding figures include Senator Werner von Melle and the merchant Edmund Siemers. Nobel Prize winners such as the physicists Otto Stern, Wolfgang Pauli and Isidor Rabi taught and researched at the University. Many other distinguished scholars, such as Ernst Cassirer, Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg, William Stern, Agathe Lasch, Magdalene Schoch, Emil Artin, Ralf Dahrendorf, and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, also worked there.

Today, it is the largest institution for research and education in the north of Germany. As one of the country’s largest universities, it offers a diverse range of degree programs and excellent research opportunities. The university boasts numerous interdisciplinary projects in a broad range of fields and a partner network of leading regional, national, and international higher education and research institutions.

Based on their principles they are a ‘University of Sustainability’; their researchers work intensively on sustainability and its social, economic and reflexive dimensions and perspectives. Examples of these themes are sustainable finance, corporate social responsibility, sustainable cities and mobility, managing grand challenges, welfare security, public goods, generational equity, resilience and also scientific research.

As part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments, the university has been granted clusters of excellence for four core research areas: Advanced Imaging of Matter (photon and nanosciences), Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CliCCS) (climate research), Understanding Written Artefacts (manuscript research) and Quantum Universe (mathematics, particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology).

An equally important core research area is Infection Research, in which researchers investigate the structure, dynamics, and mechanisms of infection processes to promote the development of new treatment methods and therapies.

The University of Hamburg is also home to several museums and collections, such as the Zoological Museum, the Herbarium Hamburgense, the Geological-Paleontological Museum, the Loki Schmidt Garden, and the Hamburg Observatory.

As a cosmopolitan institution devoted to outstanding academic achievement, The University of Hamburg seeks to:

• internationalise education and academia as part of the effort to create a more peaceful and humane world.
• cooperate with the city and the region.
• pursue interdisciplinary cooperation to promote academic potential.
• ensure the utmost quality in the exercise of professional duties.
• promote individual and institutional responsibility.
• provide greater access to education and academia.

Public universities in Germany are funded by the federal states and do not charge tuition fees. However, all enrolled students do have to pay a semester fee usually ranges between €150 and €350.

Scholarships are often funded by donors and foundations. There’s some further information here.

There are opportunities for donations and endowments, find out more here.