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The Free International University (FIU), was a support organization founded by the German artist Joseph Beuys together with Klaus Staeck (1st chairman), Georg Meistermann (2nd chairman) and Willi Bongard (secretary), based on principles laid down in a manifesto written by Joseph Beuys and Heinrich Böll. It was founded as a "organizational place of research, work, and communication" to ponder the future of society. As a free University it was intended to supplement the state educational system while at the same time campaigning for legal equality with that system.
The FIU was founded on 27 April 1973 in the Düsseldorf studio of Joseph Beuys.
The Free International University was revisited and taken further by various people and groups, including the author Rainer Rappmann under the FIU-Verlag and the F.I.U.s in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, and Munich, which were begun by students of Beuys. They also include the organization Mehr Demokratie e.V. and the Omnibus for direct Democracy.