1702
LEOPOLDINA UNIVERSITY
Thanks to the efforts made by the Jesuits, a two-faculty Leopoldina University is established in Wrocław. On 21 October Emperor Leopold I Habsburg issues in Vien the foundation document commonly known as the Golden Bull (Aurea bulla fundationis Universitatis Wratislaviensis), and on 15 November – on the founder’s name day – the new University inaugurates its activity.
1811
UNIVERSITAS LITTERARUM VRATISLAVIENSIS
As the result of merging the Catholic Leopoldina of Wrocław and the Protestant Viadrina of Frankfurt (Oder), a state university is created. The new higher school provides education for youth of different nationalities and denominations at five faculties: of Catholic theology, Protestant theology, law, medicine, and philosophy. In 1893/1894 academic year a Pole, Slavic linguist Professor Władysław Nehring, becomes the rector of this German university.
1911
SILESIAN FRIEDRICH WILHELM UNIVERSITY IN WROCŁAW
World-famous scientists and future Nobel Prize laureates are working with the University, women are starting to appear among students and teachers. The end of the inter-war period is the beginning of the crisis of the German university.
1945
UNIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN WROCŁAW
The surrender of the Festung Breslau ends the history of German higher schools in these lands. The Scientific and Cultural Group, with the professors of Lviviane universities at its core, arrives to Wrocław in May. On 24 August the Government of National Unity decides to transform former German universities in Wrocław into Polish state academic schools. From now on, the University and the University of Technology in Wrocław function as one higher school for several years.
1951
WROCŁAW – UNIVERSITY CITY
Wrocław becomes a university city with several higher schools, created mainly as the result of the secession of individual faculties from the University. The Medical Academy, later known as the Medical University, becomes independent as the first of them in 1949. The present-day Academy of Physical Education also had its roots there. The Higher Agricultural School, created on the foundation of two University faculties and later transformed into the University of Environmental and Life Sciences, begins its activity in 1950. In 1951/1952 academic year, when the Wrocław University of Technology becomes an autonomous higher school, the University and the University of Technology part their ways.
1989
UNIVERSITY OF WROCŁAW
The beginning of the new period in Polish history is also the new beginning for the University of Wrocław, which drops the name of the patron imposed by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic. The period of restoring the University’s autonomy begins. The school grows, more and more students attend each year, and the lines of research and education multiply.
