Founded 1941 | Headquarters Alsace, France | |
 | ||
Similar Reichsuniversität Posen, Marc Bloch University, University of Strasbourg, Robert Schuman University, University of Königsberg | ||
The Reichsuniversität Straßburg (RUS) was founded 1941 by the National Socialists in Alsace, annexed to Nazi Germany, while the regular University of Strasbourg had moved to Clermont-Ferrand since 1940. The purpose was to create a continuity to the German character of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität - as the University of Strasbourg was named from 1872 to 1918. In 1941, it was to the fore of German invaders to propagate the „pure German knowledge“ of national socialistic character in the annexed Alsace-Lorraine. When the Allies arrived in Alsace in 1944, the Reichsuniversität was first transferred to Tübingen and then dissolved.
Among the most famous professors serving at the RUS were Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Rudolf Fleischmann, Walter Noddack as well as Nazi physician and war criminal August Hirt. It is at its Institut d'Anatomie Normale that he conducted his notorious experiences of "racial anatomy" and planned the Jewish skeleton collection.