Justus Liebig-University Gießen

The University of Gießen was founded in 1607 as a Lutheran university in the city of Gießen in Hesse-Darmstadt because the all-Hessian Landesuniversität (the nearby University of Marburg (Philipps-Universität Marburg) in Marburg, Hesse-Kassel) had become Reformed (that is, Calvinist). The new university was called "Ludoviciana" after its founder Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and only renamed after World War II. Belonging to a very small and poor German state, Gießen was always a minor and poor German university, a "stepping-stone university" where professors had their very first chair but moved on as soon as they could (with the exception of the strong agricultural and veterinary fields). Its academic heyday was the mid-19th century.