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90-414: His main contribution involved germ plasm theory , at one time also known as Weismannism , according to which inheritance (in a multicellular animal) only takes place by means of the germ cells —the gametes such as egg cells and sperm cells. Other cells of the body— somatic cells —do not function as agents of heredity. The effect is one-way: germ cells produce somatic cells and are not affected by anything

180-408: A 3D printing group, an arts collective, and a Model United Nations team. They represented by an elected board of twelve student office holders. Alumni are a part of a subgroup within the greater University of Freiburg alumni association. The University of Freiburg has a variety of graduate education and research opportunities. In an evaluation of European graduate programs, Freiburg was ranked among

270-518: A claim regarding a cat that had lost its tail having numerous tail-less offspring). There were also claims of Jews born without foreskins. None of these claims, he said, were backed up by reliable evidence that the parent had in fact been mutilated, leaving the perfectly plausible possibility that the modified offspring were the result of a mutated gene. The purpose of his experiment was to lay the claims of inherited mutilation to rest. The results were consistent with Weismann's germ plasm theory. Weismann

360-624: A framework and didactic guidance for interdisciplinary higher education, the University of Freiburg has established two chairs at UCF: Epistemology and Theory of Science (Prof. Dr. Frieder Vogelmann, who is also the Dean of Studies) and Science and Technology Studies (Prof. Dr. Veronika Lipphardt). The College and the program are directed by Managing Director Paul Sterzel and the Academic Coordinator Thorsten Leiendecker. UCF

450-575: A gothic throne holding the gospel in his right hand with the temple curtain in the background. Christ offers the teachings of the gospel to the Jewish scholars who are crouched at his feet. To the left and right of Christ are structures resembling towers, most likely symbolic of the Temple of Jerusalem . Located to the right of Christ is the coat of arms of the Austrian duchies, a banner with five eagles. The shield on

540-475: A memorial dedicated to the victims of National Socialism among the students, staff, and faculty in 2003. In 2006, the University of Freiburg joined the League of European Research Universities (LERU) . One year later, the university was chosen as one of nine German Universities of Excellence. However, it did not receive the third line of funding in 2012. The seal of the University of Freiburg depicts Christ seated on

630-509: A new cluster called BrainLinks-Brain Tools, an interdisciplinary neurotechnology project. Citing insufficient evidence of integration of the FRIAS concept into the university's framework, the committee did not extend funding for the FRIAS and the institutional strategy line of funding, despite acknowledging the impressive research and advances achieved at FRIAS in the past years. The University of Freiburg

720-449: A tail or even with a shorter tail. He stated that "901 young were produced by five generations of artificially mutilated parents, and yet there was not a single example of a rudimentary tail or of any other abnormality in this organ." Weismann was aware of the limitations of this experiment, and made it clear that he embarked on the experiment precisely because, at the time, there were many claims of animals inheriting mutilations (he refers to

810-446: A theory of inheritance). His theory states that multicellular organisms consist of germ cells that contain and transmit heritable information, and somatic cells which carry out ordinary bodily functions. In the germ plasm theory, inheritance in a multicellular organism only takes place by means of the germ cells: the gametes , such as egg cells and sperm cells. Other cells of the body do not function as agents of heredity. The effect

900-527: A typical 19th century bourgeois education, receiving music lessons from the age of four, and drafting and painting lessons from Jakob Becker (1810–1872) at the Frankfurter Städelsche Institut from the age of 14. His piano teacher was a devoted butterfly collector and introduced him to the collecting of imagos and caterpillars. But studying natural sciences was out of the question due to the cost involved and limited job prospects. A friend of

990-534: Is a member of the European Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences and of EPICUR, a group of eight universities in six countries that explore a modern and internationally connected university experience Students are able to participate in a double degree program with the University College Maastricht . Students at UCF organize a number of interest groups, for instance a magazine publishing group,

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1080-596: Is also associated with this theory. He directed the Walter Eucken Institut , an economic think tank in Freiburg cooperating with the university. Arnold Bergstraesser, considered a founding father or German political science after World War II, was also a professor at the University of Freiburg. His research group later formed what is now the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute for sociocultural research at

1170-440: Is one of Germany's largest medical centers. It boasts 1,600 beds and handles 55,000 in-patients a year, with another 357,000 being treated as out-patients. It consists of 13 specialized clinics, five clinical institutes, and five centers (e.g. Center for Transplantation Medicine). The University Medical Center achieved many technical advances, such as the first implantation of an artificial heart Jarvik 2000 in 2002. Most recently,

1260-598: Is one-way: germ cells produce somatic cells, and more germ cells; the germ cells are not affected by anything the somatic cells learn or any ability the body acquires during its life. Genetic information cannot pass from soma to germ plasm and on to the next generation. This is referred to as the Weismann barrier . This idea, if true, rules out the inheritance of acquired characteristics as proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , like others before him, and accepted by Charles Darwin both in On

1350-656: Is recognized in several university ranking systems. In the QS World University Rankings 2024, it holds the 192nd position globally and the 9th position nationally. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 placed it 128th in the world and 11th in Germany. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2023 ranks it between 101st and 150th globally, and 5th nationally. In university rankings published in 2007 and 2008 by German magazines and periodicals ( Der Spiegel , Die Zeit , Focus , etc. )

1440-476: Is regarded as a reaction of the organism to external conditions, as a deviation of the inherited line of development, it follows that no evolution can occur without a change of the environment". (This is close to the modern use of the concept that changes in the environment can mediate selective pressures on a population, so leading to evolutionary change.) Weismann also used the classic Lamarckian metaphor of use and disuse of an organ. Weismann's first rejection of

1530-473: Is regarded as one of the 100 most important scientific discoveries of all times, and one of the 10 most important discoveries in cell biology . Meiosis was discovered and described for the first time in sea urchin eggs in 1876, by Oscar Hertwig . It was described again in 1883, at the level of chromosomes, by Van Beneden in Ascaris eggs. The significance of meiosis for reproduction and inheritance , however,

1620-514: Is strictly merit based, with the average score of final secondary-school examinations (German Abitur ) or A-levels playing an important role. Overall, in the fall of 2010, roughly 4,000 of around 26,000 applicants were admitted: this means that the university's acceptance rate that year was equal to 15.38%. The University of Freiburg offers a large variety of undergraduate, graduate , and postdoctoral degree programs at its 11 faculties in 150 fields of study. As common among German universities,

1710-465: Is the nematodes , in which the phenomenon of chromatin diminution was first described by Theodor Boveri in 1887. The idea was to some extent anticipated in an 1865 article by Francis Galton , published in Macmillan's Magazine , which set out a weak version of the concept. In 1889 Weismann wrote to acknowledge that "You have exposed in your paper an idea which is in one essential point nearly allied to

1800-409: Is the university's central facility for promoting and administering international, interdisciplinary teaching activities. It was established in 2012 and is situated in the historical buildings of the old university, the historical site of the artes liberales . UCF serves as a lab for innovative teaching approaches and instructional design at the University of Freiburg and works in close co-operation with

1890-567: Is transmitted only by germ cells in the gonads (ovaries and testes), not by somatic cells . The related idea that information cannot pass from somatic cells to the germ line, contrary to Lamarckism , is called the Weismann barrier . To some extent this theory anticipated the development of modern genetics . The term Keimplasma (germ plasm) was first used by the German biologist, August Weismann (1834–1914), and described in his 1892 book Das Keimplasma: eine Theorie der Vererbung (The Germ Plasm:

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1980-491: Is wrong in most cases. Cases such as Dolly , the cloned sheep, proved via somatic cell nuclear transfer that adult cells retain a complete set of information – as opposed to Weismann's increasingly determined gradual loss of genetic information – putting this aspect of Weismann's theory to rest as a general rule of metazoan development. However, genetic information is readily lost by somatic cells in some groups of animals through somatic genome processing . The best known example

2070-590: The Higgs boson in 2012. Today, about 430 professors, 3,695 academic employees, and 8,644 non-academic employees at the university are working for the Albert Ludwigs University, making it Freiburg's and the region's biggest employer. The university attracts many academics from abroad and was awarded excellent positions in the 2005 and 2009 Humboldt Ranking . The university is headed by a rector and divided into 11 faculties: University College Freiburg (UCF)

2160-539: The Institutsviertel ("institute quarter"). In the postwar years, the ideas of ordoliberalism, developed earlier by economists of the Freiburg School, such as Walter Eucken , Franz Böhm , Hans Grossmann-Doerth, and Leonhard Miksch, drove the creation of the German social market economy and its attendant Wirtschaftswunder . Nobel Prize winner and former professor at the University of Freiburg, Friedrich Hayek ,

2250-630: The Jugendstil Kollegiengebäude I , built in 1911 by Hermann Billing, and the gothic revival old university library. The current University Library is also located in the historical center; it is a monumental building erected in the 1970s, and was to be renovated and redesigned beginning in September 2008. It is one of the largest in Germany and placed fourth in an October 2007, German national ranking of university libraries. The University Church , located across from Kollegiengebäude II ,

2340-629: The Nature Publishing Index – 2012 Global Top 100 , the University of Freiburg was the highest-ranked German university and ranked 66th worldwide and 18th in Europe. A recent study, "Benchmarking China and Germany: An Analysis of Patent Portfolios of Universities and Research Organizations", was published in May 2013 and sought to evaluate leading universities and research institutions in Germany and China in regards to their patent applications. The study placed

2430-632: The Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft . The University of Freiburg, with its plans for future innovative teaching concepts, was selected as one of 10 winners from a field of over 100 higher education institutions. In 2012, in the third round of the Excellence Initiative, the university was able to successfully extend funding for the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine, as well as bioss , while also gaining funding for

2520-589: The Studentenwerk . Additionally, further dormitories in Freiburg are operated by other institutions, such as the Catholic Archdiocese . Due to the affordable rent and limited spots, rooms in the various dormitories are very popular. Many students find private living arrangements, such as Wohngemeinschaften (shared apartments). However, the popularity of Freiburg for prospective students can make finding an apartment or room quite time-consuming, especially before

2610-412: The gametes (or stem cells that make them) is the only source of change for natural selection to work on. Weismann became one of the first biologists to deny Lamarckism entirely. Weismann's ideas preceded the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel 's work, and though Weismann was cagey about accepting Mendelism, younger workers soon made the connection. Weismann is much admired today. Ernst Mayr judged him to be

2700-403: The inheritance of acquired traits was in a lecture in 1883, titled "On inheritance" ("Über die Vererbung"). Again, as in his treatise on creation vs. evolution, he attempts to explain individual examples with either theory. For instance, the existence of non-reproductive castes of ants, such as workers and soldiers, cannot be explained by inheritance of acquired characters. Germ plasm theory , on

2790-590: The war between Austria, France and Italy in 1859, he became Chief Medical Officer in the military, and on a leave from duty he walked through Northern Italy and the County of Tyrol . After a sabbatical in Paris, he worked with Rudolf Leuckart at the University of Gießen . From 1863, he was privatdozent in comparative anatomy and zoology; from 1866 extraordinary professor; and from 1873 to 1912 full professor, first holder of

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2880-610: The "county university" (German Landesuniversität ) for his territory until it was handed over to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1490. The university soon attracted many students, such as the humanists Geiler von Kaysersberg , Johann Reuchlin , and Jakob Wimpfeling . When Ulrich Zasius was teaching law (until 1536), Freiburg became a centre of humanist jurisprudence. From 1529 to 1535, Erasmus of Rotterdam after having left Basel, lived and taught in Freiburg , however, never at

2970-481: The "uniONLINE" team which is responsible for the magazine. Because of the nearby French and Swiss borders and the adjacent Black Forest , where the university owns a retreat on Schauinsland Mountain, fine opportunities exist for leisure and outdoor activities. Students come from Central and Eastern Europe for language studies, the majority demographic category is females in age range 18–25 (58%). The university provides student housing in its various dormitories, run by

3060-501: The Church's protests. The Church finally lost its predominant influence on the university when the Jesuits were suppressed following a decree signed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. Consequently, Johann Georg Jacobi (brother of the more famous philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ) in 1784 was the first Protestant professor teaching at the university in Freiburg. When Freiburg became a part of

3150-446: The EU or non-EU citizenship of students. Additionally, since autumn 2017, non-EU students are charged 1500 EUR tuition fee per semester. Numerous student clubs and organizations are active, among them a campus news station, uniCROSS which is a cross-media platform run by students. It consists of the "uniFM" team, which brings the news as a radio format, the "uniTV" team, producing videos and

3240-687: The Faculty of Engineering regularly competes with distinction in international tournaments. The University of Freiburg team has also repeatedly scored highly at the International Genetically Engineered Machine undergraduate synthetic biology competition held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The team was supported by numerous university institutions, among them the recently established bioss cluster of excellence. The University of Freiburg also participates in

3330-589: The German-speaking world in the late Middle Ages , like the University of Tübingen and the University of Basel ( Switzerland ). Established by papal privilege ( papal bull ), the university in Freiburg actually was – like all or most universities in the Middle Ages – a corporation of the church body and therefore belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy. The bishop of Basel consequently

3420-485: The Jesuit church (nowadays the "University Church" or Universitätskirche ). In 1679, Freiburg temporarily became French territory, along with the southern parts of the upper Rhine . French King Louis XIV disliked the Austrian system and gave the Jesuits a free hand to operate the university. On 6 November 1684, a bilingual educational program was initiated. From 1686 to 1698, the faculty fled to Konstanz . After Freiburg

3510-648: The National Model United Nations held annually in New York City. The genetically engineered golden rice was developed by the University of Freiburg ( Peter Beyer ) and the ETH Zurich ( Ingo Potrykus ) from 1992 to 2000. It was considered a breakthrough in biotechnology at the time of publication and now can help to provide vitamin A to people lacking access to it in their diets. When previous rector Jäger retired in 2008, law professor Andreas Voßkuhle

3600-498: The Origin of Species and as part of his pangenesis theory of inheritance. However, a careful reading of Weismann's work over the span of his entire career shows that he had more nuanced views. He insisted, like Darwin, that a variable environment was necessary to cause variation in the hereditary material. Because genetic information cannot pass from soma to germ plasm, these external conditions, he believed, caused different effects on

3690-594: The Professional Civil Service . He also informed the Gestapo of the pacifist leanings of a distinguished Faculty member, Hermann Staudinger . The Nazi geneticist Eugen Fischer promoted racist views while a member of the university, ideas which were used to support the notorious Nuremberg laws passed by the Nazis. After World War II , the university was reopened. New buildings for natural sciences were erected in

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3780-474: The University of Freiburg as alumni, faculty or researchers, and 15 academics have been honored with the highest German research prize, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize , while working at the university. Originally Albrechts University, the university started with four faculties (theology, philosophy, medicine, and law). Its establishment belongs to the second wave of university foundings in

3870-434: The University of Freiburg as the third-most innovative university in Germany in terms of total patent applications. Teams of the University of Freiburg frequently participate in academic competitions with considerable success. The moot court team of the Faculty of Law has been the most successful team in the history of the competition Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot . The humanoid robot team of

3960-470: The University of Freiburg has established itself as one of Germany's top universities. The faculties for law, medicine, economics, history, English studies, German studies, biology, dentistry, and pharmacology achieve especially high scores. In regards to the natural sciences, the University of Freiburg ranked sixth in Europe and second in Germany in a ranking from 2003 of the European Commission of

4050-467: The University of Freiburg purchased a large historic villa in the district of Herdern, which will house part of the literature and linguistics, as well as history departments of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies . In 2015, the University of Freiburg opened its new library , housed in a modern building with a large glass and chrome facade. The library features a section for quiet work and

4140-495: The academic year consists of summer and winter terms (semesters). The winter term runs from 1 October to 31 March, while the summer term runs from 1 April to 30 September. However, lectures and classes usually do not run for the full duration of these periods and allow for breaks in spring and fall. As a German university, tuition is mostly free. The University of Freiburg currently has a semester fee of 180 EUR for all undergraduate and most graduate and doctoral programs, regardless of

4230-472: The beginning of the 20th century, several new university buildings were built in the centre of Freiburg, such as the new main building in 1911. The university counted 3,000 students just before World War I . After World War I, the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger (since 1928) taught at Albert Ludwigs University, as well as Edith Stein . In the field of social sciences, Walter Eucken developed

4320-626: The chair in zoology and director of the zoological institute at Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Breisgau . He retired in 1912. His earlier work was largely concerned with purely zoological investigations, one of his earliest works dealing with the development of the Diptera . Microscopical work, however, became impossible to him owing to impaired eyesight, and he turned his attention to wider problems of biological inquiry. In 1867 he married Mary Dorothea Gruber. Their son, Julius Weismann (1879–1950),

4410-607: The faculties and the Rectorate's departments for Instructional Development and International Relations. It is accredited by the University of Freiburg, which draws its authority from the Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency. The four-year, English-taught Bachelor program in Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is UCF's major offering, the first of its kind in Germany. It emphasizes a broad interdisciplinary education, while at

4500-685: The family, chemist Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882), recommended studying medicine. A foundation from the inheritance of Weismann's mother allowed him to take up studies in Göttingen . Following his graduation in 1856, he wrote his dissertation on the synthesis of hippuric acid in the human body. Immediately after university, Weismann took on a post as assistant at the Städtische Klinik (city clinic) in Rostock . Weismann successfully submitted two manuscripts, one about hippuric acid in herbivores, and one about

4590-497: The germ cells are unaffected by somatic cells or their environment is however proving not to be absolute. Chemical modification of the nucleotide bases that constitute the genetic code such as methylation of cytosines as well as modifications of the histones around which DNA is organized into higher-order structures are influenced by the metabolic and physiologic state of the organism and in some cases can be heritable. Such changes are called epigenetic because they do not alter

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4680-556: The idea of ordoliberalism , which subsequently is known as the " Freiburg School ". During the time of the Nazi dictatorship , the university went through the process of "political alignment" ( Gleichschaltung ) like the rest of the German universities. Under the rector Martin Heidegger , all Jewish faculty members were forced to leave the university in accordance with the Law for the Restoration of

4770-509: The lifetime of an organism, which information is lost after each generation. The concept as he proposed it was referred to as Weismannism in his day, for example in the book An examination of Weismannism by George Romanes This idea was illuminated and explained by the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel 's work in the early years of the 20th century (see Mendelian inheritance ). The idea that germline cells contain information that passes to each generation unaffected by experience and independent of

4860-544: The main idea contained in my theory of the continuity of germ-plasm". The idea of the Weismann barrier, namely that changes acquired during an organism's life cannot affect its offspring, is still broadly accepted. This has been extended into molecular terms as the central dogma of molecular biology , which asserts that information written in the form of proteins cannot be fed back into genetically transmissible information encoded in nucleic acids . The Weismannian notion that

4950-494: The most important evolutionary thinker between Darwin and the evolutionary synthesis around 1930–1940, and "one of the great biologists of all time". Weismann was born a son of high school teacher Johann (Jean) Konrad Weismann (1804–1880), a graduate of ancient languages and theology, and his wife Elise (1803–1850), née Lübbren, the daughter of the county councillor and mayor of Stade , on 17 January 1834 in Frankfurt am Main . He had

5040-504: The newly established Grand Duchy of Baden (in German " Großherzogtum Baden ") in 1805 (after Napoleon occupied the area of the formerly Further Austria ), a crisis began for the university in Freiburg. Indeed, there were considerations by Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden and Karl, Grand Duke of Baden to close down the university in Freiburg while both of them thought that the Grand Duchy could not afford to run two universities at

5130-634: The northwest of the city center, close to the University Medical Center. The campus is home to the Institut für Mikrosystemtechnik ( Department of Microsystems Engineering) and the Department of Computer Science. With the addition of the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Freiburg became the first classical university to combine traditional disciplines with microsystems technologies. The University Medical Center ( Universitätsklinikum Freiburg )

5220-534: The nucleotide sequence. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially German: Uni Freiburg ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (German: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg ), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau , Baden-Württemberg , Germany . The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as

5310-456: The opposite side symbolizes the coat of arms used by the Habsburgs in conjunction with their territories. The coat of arms of the city of Freiburg is located at the bottom of the seal, displaying St George's Cross . The Latin inscription on the seal reads Sigillum universitatis studii friburgensis brisgaudie . The seal was slightly modified in 1913, but has otherwise been in continuous use since it

5400-825: The other hand, does so effortlessly. Weismann used this theory to explain Lamark's original examples for "use and disuse", such as the tendency to have degenerate wings and stronger feet in domesticated waterfowl. Weismann worked on the embryology of sea urchin eggs, and in the course of this observed different kinds of cell division, namely equatorial division and reductional division, terms he coined ( Äquatorialteilung and Reduktionsteilung respectively). His germ plasm theory states that multicellular organisms consist of germ cells containing heritable information, and somatic cells that carry out ordinary bodily functions. The germ cells are influenced neither by environmental influences nor by learning or morphological changes that happen during

5490-418: The permanent collection as well as space for group work, where collaboration is encouraged. The building also includes a student cafe and an outdoor plaza with modern sculpture. The university has a combined undergraduate and graduate student population of around 21,600. About 16% of these students are foreigners, from about 120 countries. Admission largely depends on the faculty and program applied for and

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5580-513: The position of rector with the start of the winter term 2008/2009. The University of Freiburg offers educational audio and video contents on the iTunes U software platform since January 2008. The University of Freiburg Institute of Physics is actively involved with research at the Large Hadron Collider and has contributed significantly to the ATLAS experiment , resulting in the discovery of

5670-520: The reconstruction of the institutes began. Today, the quarter houses the physics buildings, the tall main chemistry building, visible from afar, the famous Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry at the Hermann-Staudinger-Haus, various other science buildings, and the renowned preclinical institutes of the Faculty of Medicine . The engineering campus is located next to the small Freiburg airfield to

5760-424: The result of acts of creation. After this work, Weismann accepted evolution as a fact on a par with the fundamental assumptions of astronomy (e.g. Heliocentrism ). Weismann's position towards the mechanism of inheritance and its role for evolution changed during his life. Three periods can be distinguished. Weismann's work on the demarcation between germ-line and soma can scarcely be appreciated without considering

5850-485: The salt content of the Baltic Sea , and won two prizes. The paper about the salt content dissuaded him from becoming a chemist, since he felt himself lacking in apothecarial accuracy. After a study visit to see Vienna's museums and clinics, he visited Italy (1859) and Paris (1860). He returned to Frankfurt as personal physician to the banished Archduke Stephen of Austria at Schaumburg Castle from 1861 to 1863. During

5940-522: The same time (the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg had existed since 1386). The university had enough endowments and earnings to survive until the beginning of the regency of Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden in 1818. Finally in 1820, he saved the university with an annual contribution. Since then, the university has been named Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg ( Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg ) as an acknowledgement of gratitude by

6030-447: The same time providing for individualized academic concentrations on a high academic level. Students have to complete 240 ECTS credits and are able to major in life sciences , environmental and sustainability sciences , culture and history and governance . Electives can be taken at UCF, in the greater University of Freiburg, during studies abroad or in the form of internships and self-directed practical projects. In order to provide

6120-957: The second university in Austrian-Habsburg territory after the University of Vienna . Today, Freiburg is the fifth-oldest university in Germany , with a long tradition of teaching the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences and technology and enjoys a high academic reputation both nationally and internationally. The university is made up of 11 faculties and attracts students from across Germany as well as from over 120 other countries. Foreign students constitute about 18.2% of total student numbers. The University of Freiburg has been associated with figures such as Hannah Arendt , Rudolf Carnap , David Daube , Johann Eck , Hans-Georg Gadamer , Friedrich Hayek , Martin Heidegger , Edmund Husserl , Herbert Marcuse , Friedrich Meinecke , Edith Stein , Paul Uhlenhuth , Max Weber and Ernst Zermelo . As of October 2020, 22 Nobel laureates are affiliated with

6210-483: The soma and the germ plasm. Thus, the historian of science Rasmus G. Winther states, Weismann was not a Weismannian, as he, like Darwin, did believe in the inheritance of acquired characteristics, which later came to be known as Lamarckian. The part of Weismann's theory which proved most vulnerable was his notion that the germ plasm (effectively, genes ) was successively reduced during division of somatic cells. As modern genetics developed, it became clear that this idea

6300-460: The somatic (body) cells, came to be referred to as the Weismann barrier , and is frequently quoted as putting a final end to the theory of Lamarck and the inheritance of acquired characteristics. What Lamarck claimed was the inheritance of characteristics acquired through effort, or will. Weismann conducted the experiment of removing the tails of 68 white mice, repeatedly over 5 generations, and reporting that no mice were born in consequence without

6390-402: The somatic cells learn or therefore any ability an individual acquires during its life. Genetic information cannot pass from soma to germ plasm and on to the next generation. Biologists refer to this concept as the Weismann barrier . This idea, if true, rules out the inheritance of acquired characteristics as proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . However, a careful reading of Weismann's work over

6480-420: The span of his entire career shows that he had more nuanced views, insisting, like Darwin, that a variable environment was necessary to cause variation in the hereditary material. The idea of the Weismann barrier is central to the modern synthesis of the early 20th century, though scholars do not express it today in the same terms. In Weismann's opinion the largely random process of mutation, which must occur in

6570-529: The start of the academic terms. The university has its own career center , singled out as one of the best in Germany by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft . The university scored well with its submissions to the German Universities Excellence Initiative . The university received funding in all three categories. In the first category, funding for a new graduate school, the Spemann Graduate School of Biology and Medicine,

6660-461: The terms nucleoplasm and cytoplasm . He said "new cell nuclei can only arise from the division of other cell nuclei". Van Beneden discovered how chromosomes combined at meiosis , during the production of gametes , and discovered and named chromatin . Walther Flemming, the founder of cytogenetics , named mitosis , and pronounced "omnis nucleus e nucleo" (which means the same as Strasburger's dictum). The discovery of mitosis, meiosis and chromosomes

6750-468: The universities according to their overall impact on scientific research. The Centre for Higher Education Development, a German higher education think tank , periodically publishes comprehensive rankings of European Master's and PhD programs. In 2016, Freiburg garnered five spots in the top Excellence Group among seven subject fields examined. In a recent survey by the Nature Publishing Group ,

6840-498: The university and the citizens of Freiburg. In the 1880s, the population of the student body and faculty started to grow quickly. The scientific reputation of Albert Ludwigs University attracted several researchers such as economist Adolph Wagner , historians Georg von Below and Friedrich Meinecke , and jurists Karl von Amira and Paul Lenel . In 1900, Freiburg became the first German university to accept female students. Before there had been no women at German universities . In

6930-412: The university. In the late 20th century, the university was part of a mass education campaign and expanded rapidly. The student body grew to 10,000 by the 1960s, and doubled to 20,000 students by 1980. In the 1970s, the faculty structure was changed to 14 departments, with the Faculty of Engineering becoming the 15th faculty in 1994. In 2002, the number of faculties was reduced to 11. The university opened

7020-652: The university. From around 1559 on, the university was housed at the Altes Collegium ("Old College"), today called the "new town-hall". The importance of the university decreased during the time of the Counter-Reformation . To counter reformatory tendencies, the administration of two faculties was handed over to the Roman Catholic order of the Jesuits in 1620. From 1682 on, the Jesuits built their college, as well as

7110-481: The work of (mostly) German biologists during the second half of the 19th century. This was the time that the mechanisms of cell division began to be understood. Eduard Strasburger , Walther Flemming , Heinrich von Waldeyer and the Belgian Edouard Van Beneden laid the basis for the cytology and cytogenetics of the 20th century. Strasburger, the outstanding botanical physiologist of that century, coined

7200-406: The work of Mendel had been rediscovered Weismann started out believing, like many other 19th century scientists, among them Charles Darwin , that the observed variability of individuals of one species is due to the inheritance of sports (Darwin's term). He believed, as written in 1876, that transmutation of species is directly due to the influence of environment. He also wrote, "if every variation

7290-452: The world. To that end, the university founded the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). Being selected for the third category ranks Freiburg as one of nine "excellence universities" in Germany. The university is to receive over EUR 130 million in additional funds over five years (from 2007) from this third category of funding. In 2009, the university was also successful in a nationwide competition for excellence in teaching, held by

7380-506: Was a composer. At the beginning of Weismann's preoccupation with evolutionary theory was his grappling with Christian creationism as a possible alternative. In his work Über die Berechtigung der Darwin'schen Theorie ( On the justification of the Darwinian theory ) he compared creationism and evolutionary theory, and concluded that many biological facts can be seamlessly accommodated within evolutionary theory, but remain puzzling if considered

7470-443: Was adopted in 1462. Having grown with the city since the 15th century, the university's buildings are deeply intertwined with the city. The three large campuses are the university center next to the historical city center, the institutes quarter, and the engineering campus, but other buildings can be found scattered throughout Freiburg. The university complex in the historical center of Freiburg contains such picturesque buildings as

7560-493: Was built in 1683 by the Jesuit order . The church and the Jesuit college were handed over to the university after the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773. The church was destroyed in the 27 November 1944, bombing raid on Freiburg, and reconstructed in 1956. The "institute quarter" ( Institutsviertel ) is home to the science faculties. This campus was destroyed almost completely in the Freiburg bombing raid in 1944. After World War II,

7650-541: Was chosen as his successor. However, shortly after the start of his term, the Social Democratic Party of Germany nominated Voßkuhle as vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany . Voßkuhle accepted the nomination, was confirmed, and took his seat on the court in May 2008. In July 2008, then vice-rector Hans-Jochen Schiewer was elected as successor to Voßkuhle. Schiewer has assumed

7740-671: Was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1906. He was awarded the Linnean Society of London 's Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1908. He was elected an International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1913. Germ plasm theory Germ plasm ( German : Keimplasma ) is a biological concept developed in the 19th century by the German biologist August Weismann . It states that heritable information

7830-402: Was first described in 1890 by Weismann, who noted that two cell divisions were necessary to transform one diploid cell into four haploid cells if the number of chromosomes had to be maintained. Thus the work of the earlier cytologists laid the ground for Weismann, who turned his mind to the consequences for evolution, which was an aspect the cytologists had not addressed. All this took place before

7920-458: Was granted; in the second, funding was granted for the excellence cluster Centre for Biological Signalling Studies ( bioss ); and in the third category, Institutional Strategy Line of Funding, open only to institutions with submissions qualified in the first two categories, the university is receiving funding for "Windows for Research", which aims to promote a high level of interdisciplinarity between research fields and attract scientists from all over

8010-592: Was its provost or chancellor ( Kanzler ), the bishop of Constance was its patron, and the real founder of the university was the sovereign, Archduke Albert VI of Austria , being the brother of Frederick III , Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . At its founding, the university was named after Albert VI of Austria . He provided the university with land and endowments , as well as its own jurisdiction . Also he declared Albrechts University as

8100-428: Was re-conquered and appointed as capital of Further Austria , a new time began for the university by the reforms of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria . The requirements for admission were changed for all faculties in 1767 (before that time only Roman Catholics were allowed to study) and Natural Sciences were added as well as Public Administration . Also in 1767, the university became a governmental institution despite

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