The University of Mannheim (German: Universität Mannheim), abbreviated UMA, is a public research university in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1967, the university has its origins in the Palatine Academy of Sciences, which was established by Elector Carl Theodor at Mannheim Palace in 1763, as well as the Handelshochschule (Commercial College Mannheim), which was founded in 1907.
Today, the University of Mannheim is regarded as one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in Germany and Continental Europe, particularly in the fields of economics, social sciences, law, and political science.
The university’s main campus is located within Mannheim Palace, one of the largest Baroque palaces in Europe, which now houses both administrative offices and academic departments. The university offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in business administration, economics, law, social sciences, humanities, mathematics, computer science and information systems. In the academic year 2020/2021 the university had 11,640 full-time students, 1600 academic staff, with 194 professors, and a total income of around €121 million. It is organized into five schools and two graduate colleges.
Numerous former students and faculty members have held prominent positions in the German and international economic and institutional landscape. Notable alumni and affiliates include Isabel Schnabel, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank; Jens Weidmann, former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank; Clemens Fuest and Hans-Werner Sinn, current and former presidents of the ifo Institute; and Wolfgang Franz, chairman of the German Council of Economic Experts.
History The University of Mannheim has no clear foundation date. Its history can be traced back to the establishment of one of its predecessor institutions – the Kurpfälzische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Palatine Academy of Sciences) in Mannheim Palace, founded by Elector Carl Theodor in 1763. A further predecessor was the Municipal Commercial College Mannheim (1907–1933) which was reopened in 1946 as the State College for Economics Mannheim and renamed as to the University of Mannheim in 1967.
20th century
Municipal Commercial College Mannheim (1907–1933)
In 1907, the Städtische Handelshochschule Mannheim (Municipal Commercial College) was founded on the initiative of Mannheim's senior mayor Otto Beck (1846–1908) and the economics professor Eberhard Gothein (1853–1923) as a college for future merchants. It conducted teaching and research in business administration, economics, pedagogy, psychology, law, languages and the humanities. From the beginning, women had a strong standing at the Handelshochschule. In 1908, it was the first college of higher education in Germany to employ a female professor and one quarter of all students were female.
Under the Nazi regime (1933-1945) In 1933, the Handelshochschule was merged into the University of Heidelberg by the Nazi municipal administration. Otto Selz, a German philosopher and psychologist with a Jewish background, who had been a professor at the Handelshochschule since 1923 and its rector in 1929/30, was discharged on 6 April 1933. This followed the Badischen Judenerlass administered by NSDAP politician Robert Heinrich Wagner, a decree designed to ban Jewish academics from German universities. In 1943, Selz was executed in Auschwitz concentration camp; with only 3 of the 14 Jewish docents at Mannheim's Handelshochschule surviving the Holocaust. With the transfer of all institutes, inventory and staff to Heidelberg University the merging process was completed, the "Jews released" and the Handelshochschule closed.
State College for Economics Mannheim (1946–1967) From December 1940 until the end of World War II, Mannheim was heavily bombed and saw more than 150 air raids. The largest raid on Mannheim took place on 5–6 September 1943 when a major part of the city was destroyed. In 1944, the Mannheim Palace was almost entirely destroyed, leaving only one room undamaged out of over 500 and with only external walls surviving. By May 1945, only around 30 percent of the building stock in the city remained.
In 1946, the Handelshochschule was reopened under its new name Staatliche Wirtschaftshochschule Mannheim (State College for Economics) with a student body of 586 students in the first year. In 1955, the Wirtschafshochschule moved into the rebuilt East Wing of Mannheim Palace. In the same year, the seal, which is still in use today, was created. It depicts the Mannheim Palace on top and the square-based outlay of Mannheim's downtown below; surrounded by the latin phrase "In Omnibus Veritas". This is a shortened version of the university's official motto, based on a line in the constitution of Carl Theodor's Palatine Academy of Sciences: In Omnibus Veritas Suprema Lex Esto, translated as "Truth in everything should be the supreme law".
University of Mannheim (1967) In 1963, the Wirtschaftshochschule extended its faculties to a total of three – Business Administration and Social Sciences, Philosophy-Philological Sciences and Law. It subsequently gained the status of university on 4 July 1967. The University of Mannheim started out with around 3,000 registered students. During the growth phase of the university in the 1960s and 1970s the number of students and faculties increased. In 1969, the University of Mannheim expanded its faculty number to eight by adding the faculties of Economics, Geography and Political Sciences and by splitting the faculties of Business Administration and Social Sciences as well as Philosophy-Philological Sciences.
21st century The emphasis of the University of Mannheim has remained on business and economics, although teaching has been broadened to further disciplines. In 2000, its Business School received accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
In 2008, the rectorate passed a reform to strengthen the core disciplines of the University of Mannheim, that is the economic and social sciences. This transformation, which started in 2002 with the closure of certain departments and the fusion of formerly independent faculties, did not go without protests. In September 2006, around 1,000 students and professors demonstrated against the plans. Two years later, a compromise was found and the reform passed the Senate as well as the University Council without votes against. In the wake of the vote, the number of schools decreased to five.
In 2005, the Mannheim Business School (MBS) was founded. It offers MBA programmes for executive education. In 2018, it was ranked #1 in Germany in the international MBA Rankings by Businessweek, Financial Times, Forbes and The Economist. According to these rankings, the MBS also belongs to the Top 20 business schools in Europe and Top 60 in the world.
From 2007 until 2017, the University of Mannheim was funded by the "Excellence Initiative" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Research Foundation. Under this initiative, the University of Mannheim established the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (GESS) which offers Ph.D. programmes with a focus on empirical and quantitative methods and their interdisciplinary application in the economic and social sciences.
Campus
The University of Mannheim is located in the city center of Mannheim. It consists of Campus East, reaching from Mannheim Palace to Mannheim Main Station, and Campus West, consisting of the squares A5 and B6 which are in walking distance to the palace. Around 800 meters southwest of the university lies the Rhine River. Between 1955 and 1973, Mannheim Palace became the core of the UMA's campus. Today, it is home to the university's Business School, Law School, parts of the School of Humanities and the University Library.
In 2000, the UMA initiated the Renaissance des Barockschlosses (Renaissance of the Baroque Palace), a campaign aimed at raising funds for renovating and extending the main campus. With the €53 million raised, the university renovated 24 lecture halls, the palace facade and built a new library inside the palace. In 2007, a palace museum was opened in the central part of the building displaying the reconstructed historical halls and rooms of Elector Carl Theodor, who resided there from 1742 until 1777. In 2017, the university opened a new research and teaching building on square B6 and the Study and Conference Center of the Mannheim Business School behind the palace's West Wing.
Contemporary campus landmarks include the Mannheim Jesuit Church, the Mannheim Observatory, the original Antikensammlung (Collection of Antiquities) within the Mannheim Palace, the Anna Hoelzel Memorial, the Mannheim Palace Church, the Centre for European Economic Research, the Palais Bretzenheim, the Landgericht Mannheim (district court) and the Mannheim Schneckenhof.
Organisation and administration
Schools and Graduate Colleges The University of Mannheim is organized into five schools (Fakultäten): Business School (1963) School of Law and Economics (1963) School of Social Sciences (1963) School of Humanities (1963) School of Business Informatics and Mathematics (1967) And two Graduate Colleges: Mannheim Business School (2005) Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences (2007)
Governance +Rectors since the university's foundationYears Rector1966–1967Knut Borchardt1967–1968Rudolf Wildenmann1968–1969Rainer Gruenter1969–1970 Hans-Martin Pawlowski1970–1973 Gerhard Zeitel1973–1976 Eduard Gaugler1976–1979Rudolf Wildenmann1979–1982 Heinz König1982–1985 Gerd Roellecke1985–1988 Heinrich Chantraine1988–1994 Otto H. Jacobs1994–2001 Peter Frankenberg2001–2012 Hans-Wolfgang Arndt2012–2018 Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden2018–2024 Thomas Puhl2024– Thomas Fetzer The University of Mannheim is administered by the Rectorate, which comprises the Rector (President), three Pro-Rectors (Vice Presidents) and the Chancellor, who is also head of the central administration. The main task of the rectorate as executive body is to implement the strategic aims concluded by the University Council (Universitätsrat). Since October 2024 the UMA is headed by rector Thomas Fetzer.
The Senate is the "legislative branch" of the university. The rector and the members of the rectorate are senators ex officio, as are the deans of the faculties. Another 18 senators are elected for four-year terms, within the following quotas: nine university professors, three academic staff, three delegates of the student body, and three employees of the university administration. The University Council is the advisory board to the aforementioned entities.
The Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss of the University of Mannheim (AStA) is the student government of the university. It is elected by the Student Parliament (StuPa) which in turn is elected by the entire student body. Elections are held each year. The AStA's task is representing the interests of the UMA students.
Academic profile
The UMA offers undergraduate and graduate programs as well as Ph.D. degrees within business administration, economics, law, social sciences, humanities, mathematics, computer science and information systems. Many of the study programs combine non-economic subjects such as literature and cultural studies, law, mathematics and informatics with business studies and economics.
As of 2016, Mannheim was the only German university with an international academic calendar, which means that the academic year is divided into a fall and a spring term.
Since 2012, universities in the State of Baden-Württemberg do not charge any tuition fees. Excluded from this rule are non-EU citizens who since 2017 have had to pay a tuition fee of 1,500 Euro per semester according to state law.
The University of Mannheim has a scholarship system of its own consisting of various types of scholarships serving different needs.