The Free University is one of three public universities in Berlin, with nearly 31,500 students hitting the books in numerous buildings spread across Dahlem. It was founded in 1948 in reaction to the growing restrictions on academic freedoms imposed on students and faculty at the Humboldt University, then in the Soviet-occupied sector.
Lectures started in the spring of 1949 and were initially held in empty villas throughout Dahlem. In the 1960s the university played a leading role in Germany's student movement, which sparked major nationwide academic and political reforms.
