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During a formal evening event held at the B’nai B’rith Frankfurt Schönstädt Lodge in Frankfurt’s Westend district at the end of May, 41 books were returned that had been confiscated during the Nazi era and later identified as Nazi-looted property through provenance research conducted at Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library. 

The MakeLab at Goethe University, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and was awarded the Hessian University Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the “student initiative” category in 2024, is planning a three-day, interactive gathering in August centered on open workshops, makerspaces, and collaborative work.

The program Focus aims at high qualified early career researchers of Goethe University up to 6 years after finishing their PhD, who have an innovative research idea and are currently preparing their own independent grant proposal. 

At the end of May, doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers from the Rhine-Main Universities came together for a boat tour on Frankfurt’s Main River as part of the RMU Social Welcoming Events. Despite their different academic backgrounds, many participants found themselves discussing remarkably similar questions and challenges.

The university-wide student survey conducted in 2023 shows that self-assessments and knowledge checks play an important role in supporting students throughout the learning process. In particular, ungraded quizzes and practice exams help students evaluate their own level of understanding and make learning progress more visible.

Joshua Groß, Frankfurt’s new poetry professor, on his writing practice, the languages of change, and his influences in contemporary German-language literature.

On the fifth floor of Goethe University’s IG Farben Building, an international group of scholars explores the human layers beneath history

Team from Vienna and Frankfurt finds formula for a curious phenomenon

On April 21, 2026, the Goethe University hosted the kickoff event for the new workshop series “Rethinking Education and Training.” With nearly 50 registrations, the event for training staff received an enthusiastic response. 

With approximately 3,000 manuscripts, including some 600 medieval manuscripts and numerous early modern manuscripts, the Frankfurt University Library’s collection is one of the largest of its kind in Germany. Now, an extraordinary object has come into focus.

For decades, the collection of the Psychiatric Clinic at Frankfurt University Hospital contained medical specimens with human tissue. Little attention was paid to these “human remains,” which remained hidden and largely forgotten – or perhaps deliberately repressed. Over the course of a three-year research project, Dr. Moritz Verdenhalven investigated the origins of the collection. Supported by Goethe University’s management and Frankfurt University Hospital, he set out to reconstruct the history behind the specimens and the people from whom they came. In a recent lecture, Verdenhalven offered insights into both his research process and his findings.

Last week, Germany’s Federal Council approved the Retirement Plan Reform Act, overhauling the previously state-subsidized Riester pension scheme. Prof. Raimond Maurer from Goethe University Frankfurt’s Faculty of Economics and Business was a member of the federal government’s focus group on private retirement provisions, which developed many of the reform proposals. Maurer welcomed the government’s decision to follow the experts’ recommendations and expressed hope that this approach will continue in future reform efforts.