91 Annual Meeting - IALM

555 years of Alma Mater Friburgensis 1457—2012
On 21 September 1457, Albrecht VI, Archduke of (Anterior) Austria and brother of Emperor
Frederick III, issued the deed of foundation for a Studium Generale in Freiburg thus establishing
the second university on Habsburg territory after the University of Vienna. Matthäus Hummel,
doctor of church law and
medicine, was elected first
rector in the Freiburg Cathedral
and quoted in his inauguration
speech the famous bible word
“Sapientia aedificavit sibi
domum” – wisdom has built its
house.
In 1818, after difficult times, the
new ruler, Ludwig I, Grand
Duke of Baden, ensured the
continued existence of the
University of Freiburg, which changed its name to Alberto-Ludoviciana as an acknowledgement
of its gratitude. It has been home to eminent personalities, especially in the 19th and
20th century, among them 8 Nobel Prize winners, famous philosophers such as Edmund Husserl
and Martin Heidegger, but also many renowned physicians, e.g. Adolf Kußmaul, Alfred
Hegar and Ludwig Aschoff.
The building of the Freiburg Institute of Legal Medicine turns 50 1962—2012
Lectures on “Medicina forensis”
have been documented in Freiburg
since 1755. In 1907, Adolf Schüle
was appointed the first regular
extraordinary professor of Legal
Medicine. The first institute provisionally
opened in 1943, but was
completely destroyed when Freiburg
was bombed on 27 November
1944.
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