Marx and Engels were here (as students) and so were the Brothers Grimm and Albert Einstein (as professors): Humboldt Universität – Berlin’s oldest university – opened in 1810 in a grand palace previously occupied by Frederick the Great's brother Heinrich. Statues of the uni’s founder, philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt, and his explorer brother Alexander flank the main entrance.
The university had produced 29 Nobel laureates by the 1950s, including Max Planck (physics, 1918) and Albert Einstein (physics, 1921). The most recent prize went to Werner Forssmann for medicine in 1956. These days, some 35,000 students strive to follow this illustrious legacy.
