Göttingen

Göttingen, town in central Germany on the Leine Canal, near the Leine River in Lower Saxony. Goods manufactured here include optical and precision instruments, textiles, paper products, chemicals, printed materials, and processed food. The city is also a noted centre of higher education. It is the seat of the Georg-August-Universität at Göttingen, founded in 1737 by the elector of Hanover (later George II of England). Faculties at the university have included 30 winners of Nobel Prizes, such as chemist Otto Hahn, and physicists Max Born, James Franck, Werner Heisenberg, and Max von Laue. Otto von Bismarck, Heinrich Heine, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were students at Georg-August-Universität. Several research institutes of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science are in the city.

Points of interest in Göttingen include the Gothic city hall (14th-15th century); several churches dating from the 14th to the 16th century (St Maria, St Jakobi, St Albanus); many half-timbered houses; and the municipal museum, which houses a fine collection of religious art. The Gänselieselbrunnen, a bronze fountain of a little girl with a goose, is another city landmark. Mentioned in 953, Göttingen was chartered in about 1210 and was for a long time a member of the Hanseatic League. The city grew under Prussian rule in the 19th century. Population 122,200 (2005 estimate).