The university emerged from the
Jean Sturm Gymnasium, a
gymnasium of
Lutheran and
humanist inspiration, founded in 1538 by
Johannes Sturm in the
Free Imperial City of Straßburg. It became a university in 1621 () and a royal university in 1631. Among its earliest university students was Johann Scheffler (1624-1677), who studied medicine and later converted to Catholicism and became the mystic and poet
Angelus Silesius. The Lutheran German university continued its activities after the annexation of the city by the French King
Louis XIV in 1681 (one famous student was
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1770/71), but mainly turned into a collection of French-speaking academies following the
French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. After the
Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 and the annexation of
Alsace-Lorraine to Germany provoked a westwards exodus of Francophone teachers, German nationalists in the Second Reich re-founded the university as the in 1872. During the
German Empire the university greatly expanded and numerous new buildings were erected: the university was intended to be a showcase of German against French culture in Alsace. In 1918, Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, so a reverse exodus of Germanophone teachers took place. During the
Second World War the Axis powers occupied France from 1940 to 1945; personnel and equipment of the University of Strasbourg largely migrated to
Clermont-Ferrand in 1939. Nazi Germany re-annexed Alsace in June 1940 and founded the short-lived German
Reichsuniversität Straßburg in November 1941. From 1945 the French university resumed activity in Strasbourg. In 1971, the
French Ministry of National Education implemented the and subdivided the university into three separate institutions: •
Louis Pasteur University (Strasbourg I) •
Marc Bloch University (Strasbourg II) •
Robert Schuman University (Strasbourg III) Following a national reform of higher education, these universities re-merged on 1 January 2009, and the new institution became one of the first French universities to benefit from greater autonomy. To strengthen this merger and secure funding for a more unified campus, the three predecessor institutions successfully applied for the national "Plan Campus" initiative, being selected in May 2008 to receive state capital of 375 million euros supplemented by local government contributions. Officially launched in February 2009 by Minister
Valérie Pécresse and President Alain Beretz, this reorganization focused on the historic Esplanade campus and included the 2010 inauguration of the "Nouveau Patio," a central administrative hub consolidating services previously scattered across the city. Simultaneously, the university's foundation launched France's first major private fundraising campaign on 1 October 2010, under the patronage of
Jean-Claude Juncker and
Henri Lachmann, successfully securing millions in pledges from companies like
AXA and
Soprema to bolster research and interdisciplinary projects. Further development followed the 2009 "Investissements d'Avenir" program, which saw the creation of a University Hospital Institute (
IHU) funded by 67.5 million euros in public grants and 80 million euros from private partners. In July 2011, Strasbourg became one of the first three French universities to be labeled an "Initiative of Excellence" (Idex), receiving a 750-million-euro endowment to support its "UNISTRA: Beyond Borders" project in collaboration with partners like
CNRS and
Inserm. This period was mirrored by international academic recognition, as the university celebrated three Nobel Prizes within five years—
Jules Hoffmann (Medicine, 2011),
Martin Karplus (Chemistry, 2013), and
Jean-Pierre Sauvage (Chemistry, 2016)—bringing its total number of active Nobel laureates to four, alongside
Jean-Marie Lehn. == Campuses ==