Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel

Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel is a large public research facility situated in Kiel, a coastal city in northern Germany. In addition to its role as the state university of Schleswig-Holstein, it is a major contributor to the cultural and intellectual life of Schleswig-Holstein region. Numerous research projects conducted in Kiel are of an interdisciplinary nature, and the university's campus includes historical buildings as well as modern laboratories which are purpose-built to accommodate scientific research, bringing together traditions of learning with contemporary approaches to innovation. 

The university was founded on October 5, 1665 by Christian Albrecht, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, at a time in history immediately following the Thirty Years War, with the intent of establishing a local centre of higher education for the purpose of training civil servants and clergy in service of the duchy. Through the centuries of its history, the university has weathered numerous geopolitical shifts including the Napoleonic Wars and the subsequent incorporation of Schleswig-Holstein into the Prussian empire. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the university became world-renowned as one of the leading centres of scientific research, however the university sustained almost total destruction during the Second World War. The following decades were characterised by an extensive programme of rebuilding and expansion to make the university modern.