BERLIN, FREE UNIVERSITY OF

German Freie Universitt Berlin, autonomous, state-financed German university. It was founded in West Berlin in 1948, after Berlin was divided, by a group of professors and students who broke away from East Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelm (now Humboldt) University (founded 180910) to seek academic freedom. The Free University was restructured in 1970 and again in 1974. Its governing board includes the government, faculty, and student representatives. History The early period Origins The name Berlin appears for the first time in recorded history in 1244, seven years after that of its sister town, Klln, with which it later merged. Both were founded near the beginning of the 13th century. In 1987 both East and West Berlin celebrated the city's 750th anniversary. Whatever the date of foundation, it is certain that the two towns were established for geographic and mercantile reasons, as they commanded a natural east-west trade route over the Spree River. The way for their founding was opened by a Germanic resurgence in the area, which had been abandoned to the Slavs by the original Germanic tribes as they had migrated westward. The Slavs were subdued by Albert I the Bear, a Saxon who crossed the Elbe River from the west. His successors took the title margrave of the mark (border territory) of Brandenburg. Berlin still retains as its symbol a defiant black bear standing on its hind legs. The settlements of Spandau and Kpenick, now metropolitan districts, preceded the establishment of Berlin-Klln; fortified settlements at both sites date to the 8th century. The Ascanians, followers of Albert I the Bear, established their fortress in 1160 at Spandau in the north where the Spree flows into the Havel River; by 1232 the fortress had earned the privileges of a town. Berlin-Klln emerged between Spandau to the northwest and Kpenick to the southeast. By 1250 Berlin-Klln dominated the mark of Brandenburg east to the Oder River, where a fort had been built in 1214, and in the 14th century it became the centre of the city league of the mark of Brandenburg (founded in 1308) and joined the Hanseatic League of northern German towns. The Hohenzollerns In 1411 the mark of Brandenburg came under the governorship of the Nrnberg feudal baron Frederick VI. This began Berlin's association with the Hohenzollerns, who from the end of the 15th century as electoral princes of Brandenburg established Berlin-Klln as their capital and permanent residence. The Thirty Years' War of 161848 laid a heavy financial burden on the city, and the population was reduced from 12,000 to 7,500. When Frederick William the Great Elector assumed power in 1640, he embarked on a building program, which included fortifications that enabled him to expel Swedish invaders. His rule also marked the beginning of the development of canals, which by 1669 provided a direct link between Breslau (now Wroclaw, Pol.) in the east and Hamburg and the open sea in the west. His successor, Frederick III, crowned Prussian king (as Frederick I) in 1701 in Knigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), made Berlin the royal residence city. In 1709 the framework of Greater Berlin was laid when Berlin-Klln and the newer towns of Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt, and Friedrichstadt were put under a single magistrate. The population grew from 12,000 in 1670 to 61,000 in 1712, including 6,000 French Huguenot refugees. During the first half of the 18th century, Berlin expanded in all directions. Frederick II the Great adorned the city with new buildings and promoted its economic and infrastructural development. The Napoleonic occupation of 180608 caused a serious setback to its development. Part of the administrative, economic, and cultural reconstruction was the foundation, in 1810, of the Frederick William University by the scholar and minister of education Wilhelm von Humboldt. (The university was renamed Humboldt University in 1949.) But colleges and academies had already existed in Berlin since the mid-17th century. Berlin early attracted outstanding thinkers, including the philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Karl Marx. The city had its first popular uprising in 1830 when tailors' apprentices took to the streets over working conditions. The Revolution of 1848 led to a bloody clash between soldiers and citizenry. By this time the city's population had risen to 415,000, from about 100,000 a century before. With the opening of the Berlin-Potsdam line in 1838, Berlin became the centre of an expanding rail network. The period of the Industrial Revolution was also that of Otto von Bismarck, who as prime minister of Prussia united Germany in 1871. At this time the population of Berlin, the capital of the German Empire, was 826,000. The population continued to grow rapidly (1880: 1,300,000; 1925: 4,000,000). From the 18th to the late 20th century, French, Jewish, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Austrian, and Turkish immigrants contributed to the population mix of the metropolitan area.