The Göttingen University Speech

The Göttingen University Speech
Scholarship, Responsibility and Tradition

The occasion of the “Göttinger Universitätsrede”, the Göttingen University Speech, is one that is intended to bring students, lecturers, staff and alumni together at the University – across faculty boundaries. The “Göttingen University Speech – Scholarship and Responsibility” refers to the connection between knowledge and conscience that is inextricably bound up with the name of Göttingen University.

The “Göttinger Sieben” have become an internationally recognised symbol for the rebellion of conscience against political power. In 1838, the seven Göttingen professors, among them the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the physicist Wilhelm Weber, accused the reigning king of Hannover, Ernst August, of breaching prevailing law, and in a letter of protest they opposed the repealing of the Hanoverian Staatsgrundgesetz, the Basic Law of the state. mehr ...