Search the Community

Only a few years have passed since its establishment, and European University Viadrina has already achieved a remarkable reputation. This can be seen in the continually increasing numbers of students and the expanding interest on the part of scholars with well-known names to teach and do research at this university. Students and instructors find here an excellent technical framework for their work and an environment that promotes intellectual exchange and, as such, is both influenced and characterized by international contacts. The opportunity to study together with classmates from Poland as well as other nations of Europe and the rest of the world is a unique attraction: many regards it as a significant enrichment of both their academic and personal lives, as it leads to the development of close contacts, frequently deepening into friendships across European borders that are, in turn, often maintained in later life following the years at university. This human potential represents a great treasure, one that we wish to cultivate and preserve. It represents a pledge of high value for a continuation of our peaceful and prosperous coexistence in Europe. Viadrina will make every effort to promote and to expand this international character in the future as well. It is an essential primary thought, in fact, a principle of constituent significance for this university. In our daily work here, these efforts are not limited to the intensive support of instruction in foreign languages alone - they are extended to include the entire range of learning opportunities offered by the three faculties. The Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences and the Faculty of Law, and the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration direct themselves to fulfill this demand using their varied courses and research projects. Also, the close partnership with the Polish Adam Mickiewicz University in the city of Poznan, which finds evident expression in the cooperation embodied by the Collegium Polonicum in Slubice, is a pillar in the architecture of our internationality. European University Viadrina will continue its development on this complimentary basis, having as its aim the further improvement of conditions for education and research and wish to promote a greater coherence of our united Europe. In the future, this university is to open up new perspectives to take us above and beyond traditional borders. The word river has a special meaning for Viadrina. Firstly, this is due to the river on the banks of which the university lies. Just like neighboring Poland, the river is in our immediate area. This, in turn, has helped developed a close German-Polish connection. Because of this, Viadrina is transforming itself into a German-Polish, European university. Since its reestablishment in the year 1991, Viadrina has strictly adhered to its concept of bringing young people together from every corner of the world. This concept has proven to be successful: Viadrina has grown to become a lively, highly regarded member in the community of German and European universities. For more than three hundred years, from 1506 to 1811, Frankfurt (Oder) was the home of the first public university of Brandenburg's principality. Key figures in the creation of this first university were Prince-Elector Joachim I and his councilor Eitelwolf vom Stein and the Bishop of Lebus Dietrich von Bülow. The Universitas Francofurtensis enjoyed great repute as an institution of learning for persons who later played an essential part in shaping and staffing the civil service of this principality and the Prussian state. Jurists served as diplomats in affairs of state, theologians of Viadrina were among those who held positions in the church's upper echelons in the region of Mark Brandenburg, and Frankfurt professors of medicine acted as personal physicians to the Elector Princes. The list of outstanding achievements attributed to the Universitas Francofurtensis is a long one at which more than 55,000 young people studied till 1811. Four schools - of Law, Theology, Medicine, and Philosophy - taught the subject matter of their respective faculties. Simultaneously, rhetoric, history, astronomy, mathematics, and music, together with related fields, also flourished, gaining high recognition in their areas of study. This first Viadrina made significant contributions to science and scholarship progress in a total of 25 disciplines. A close look at the direction and focus of the old Viadrina on the Oder reveals that, due to its geographical location, the university became a meeting ground of East and West for scholars and students from both sides of the Oder. At any given time, large numbers of students from Lithuania, Poland as well as other central and eastern European countries were enrolled at the university in Frankfurt (Oder), which, for many aspiring young scholars from these countries in the east, often became a first academic base for their exploration of European scholarship. View full university