Göttingen is a city of around 130,000 people situated in central Germany, on the Leine canal. Its partner towns are Cheltenham in England, Pau in France, Toru in Poland, and Wittenburg in Germany.

The history of Göttingen

Although the actual origins of Göttingen seem to have been lost in the mists of the past, as long ago as 953, a village called "Gutingi" was mentioned in an old document of Emperor Otto I. It was the place where emperors and kings held courts and imperial diets in the Castle Grona. However, there is little evidence from Gutingi in Göttingen today. It is guessed that the town sprang from a market settlement from the 11th century, which was very important as it was at the intersection of many trade routes.

Traditions

The most famous tradition from Göttingen is, of course, kissing the Goose Girl (the Gönseliesel). She is a brass statue of a girl herding geese, situated on the fountain in the Market Square outside the new town hall. Every new graduate of the University has to kiss her - hence making the Goose Girl the most kissed girl in the world.

Every year, the Handel Festival is held. It is a music festival, with internationally-famous orchestras and soloists.

The University

In 1734, the elector of Hannover (and later king of England) George II founded the "Georg August University", which had gained 700 pupils by the year 1777 and hence had become Germany's largest university. Today, it has 14 faculties and 30,000 students, and is one of the leading German institutes of higher education. It is also a centre of European academic and literacy activity - the library's collection contains more than 4 million volumes, including over 10,000 ancient and medieval manuscripts.

Many famous professors worked at the Georg August University, and quite a few students rose to fame too. 29 Nobel-Prize winners either studied or taght there. It was also regarded as the centre of atomic physics.

A large new university quarter has been built in the northern part of the city in recent years, because the old accomodation could no longer house all of the pupils.

The university offers courses in its world-renowned departments of mathematics and physics, as well as in agriculture, biology, chemistry, economics, education, forestry, geology, history and philology, law, medicine, and theology. Graduate degrees are awarded after a four-year course of study.

The Universities of Göttingen and Halle were the first European universities to offer broad academic freedom from their inception.

Also, sometime in the 1830s, there was a group of professors known as the "The Göttingen Seven". They were all fired, due to protesting about the removal of a democratic constitution from the area. Among them were the Grimm Brothers - Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm, leaders in the study of philology and folklore.

Places of interest

There are many places to walk - the green open spaces, the Botanical Gardens, under the trees which enclose the Old Town. If you feel a thirst for more knowledge, the city guides can take you on tours around the medieval parts of the town, for example:

• The dignified Old Town Hall¹
• The beautiful Gothic churches
• The half-timbered town mansions
• The (much more recent) buildings of the University
• The Stadthalle²
• The new University Quarter
• Cheltenham-House - one of the few signs that Cheltenham and Göttingen are twinned
• The New Town Hall³
• The Kunstmarkt - Art Fair - where there is a wonderful display of contemporary creative art.