Abstract

The first university in the Holy Roman Empire was founded in Prague in 1348. The University of Vienna followed in 1365 and the University of Heidelberg, the first university in what is now Germany, was founded in 1386. (Universities in England and Italy, for example in Bologna, Oxford and Cambridge, had already existed since the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries). As this map shows, the number of universities founded in German lands in Central Europe grew steadily from the 14th century onward. Before 1800, almost 50 universities were founded in the German-speaking countries.

Foundation of Universities in Central Europe

Source

Source: Cartography (WCAG-compliant) by Gabriel Moss, 2022, in collaboration with Jason Coy and Jared Poley. Based on: Thomas Brady, German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400-1650 (Cambridge, 2009), pp 424-5.