Göttingen - Universitäts Apotheke

The origins of Göttingen lay in a village called "Gutingi", first mentioned in a document by Otto I in 953. It is presumed that Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, founded the town northwest of this village, between 1150 and 1200. Its inhabitants obeyed welfish ownership and ruling rights, and the first Göttingen burghers are mentioned then, indicating that Göttingen was already organized as a true city. It was not, however, a Free Imperial City ("Reichsstadt"), but subject to the Welf dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The city was initially protected by ramparts, at the end of the 13th century by walls on top of the ramparts. Permission to erect the wall was granted in 1362 by Duke Ernst of Brunswick-Göttingen, and construction ultimately took 200 years.Around 1350, Göttingen joined the Hanseatic League. Göttingen only became a paying member in 1426, and in 1572 it left the Hanseatic League.

The Reformation initially seemed to bypass Göttingen. Even when the Peasants' War raged through Germany in 1524/25, things remained quiet in Göttingen. It was not until 1529, twelve years after Luther posted his theses, that the Reformation began in Göttingen.

Göttingen suffered greatly during the Thirty Years' War, which led to the city's economic and political decline. The number of inhabitants, which was still 6000 in 1400, fell to less than 3000 around 1680. The principality of Brunswick-Calenberg, to which Göttingen had belonged since 1634, was made an electorate by Emperor Leopold I in 1692 under Duke Ernst August. From 1714, the Electors of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Electoral Hanover) were also kings of Great Britain. Ernst August's son, Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover, was to ascend the British throne as George I.

Until then, the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg had not had its own university. A university was founded in Göttingen to train the theologians, lawyers and doctors needed in the country. During the reign of George II August of Great Britain, who gave the university its name, teaching at the George August University was opened in 1734.