Which German University Has the Most Nobel Prize Winners?

Key Takeaways

• Humboldt University of Berlin ranks first among German universities for Nobel Prize winners. Its wins stopped after 1945, when the university came under Soviet control and lost its academic freedom.
• German universities won far fewer Nobel Prizes after 1945. A 1933 Nazi law had already forced many of Germany’s top scientists out of their university jobs.
• Three of the five Nobel Prize winners at German universities since 2000 also worked at a Max Planck institute. Many Max Planck researchers teach at universities, which lets the same scientist count toward both.
• Max Planck institutes overtook German universities as Germany’s main source of Nobel Prize winners after 1945. Max Planck researchers can choose their own topics and team, while university professors must also fit teaching into their week.

German Universities With the Most Nobel Prize Winners

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Humboldt University of Berlin Has the Most Nobel Prize Winners in Germany

Humboldt University of Berlin ranks first among German universities for Nobel Prize winners. Nine scientists were working at Humboldt University when they won the prize.

Universities often publish bigger Nobel Prize totals that also count former students and staff. Heidelberg University, for example, counts 56 Nobel laureates with any connection to the university or the city of Heidelberg.

However, most of Humboldt University’s lead comes from the past. Eight of its 9 Nobel Prizes came before 1945, when it was still called Berlin University.

Berlin University’s 8 Nobel Prizes before 1945 partly reflect scientists it shared with the Kaiser Wilhelm institutes. These institutes were the older form of today’s Max Planck institutes. Three of the 8 winners worked at both.

Adolf Butenandt’s 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Berlin University’s last for 87 years. Part of the reason is that the university ended up in the Soviet-controlled part of Berlin after World War II. Under Soviet control, it lost the right to govern itself and had to follow Communist ideas.

Without academic freedom, Berlin University struggled to keep top researchers. Many highly trained people left East Germany for the West before the Berlin Wall went up in 1961.

After German reunification in 1990, Humboldt University had to rebuild its staff. Peter Hegemann ended the university’s 87-year wait for a Nobel Prize in 2026, when he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

German Universities Won Most of Their Nobel Prizes Before 1945

Humboldt University was not alone. German universities won 32 of their 49 Nobel Prizes before 1945, but only 17 in the following 81 years. This decline is linked in part to a 1933 Nazi law that forced many civil servants, including academics, out of their jobs.

The 1933 Nazi law targeted two groups:

• People with at least one Jewish grandparent
• Political opponents of the Nazi Party

Physicists dismissed under the 1933 Nazi law made up 15% of physicists at German universities. Yet their work received 64% of the citations in German physics. In other words, Germany lost the physicists whose research other scientists relied on most.

Top scientists left two of Germany’s leading Nobel Prize universities in 1933:

• Erwin Schrödinger left Berlin University because he refused to stay in Nazi Germany.
• James Franck resigned from the University of Göttingen to protest the Nazi regime.
• Max Born was forced out of the University of Göttingen and moved to the UK.

Many top scientists who left Germany in 1933 never came back. Their later Nobel Prizes went to universities abroad. Max Born, for example, won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics at the University of Edinburgh.

After losing Franck and Born, the University of Göttingen never returned to its earlier Nobel Prize success. The university won all 5 of its Nobel Prizes between 1908 and 1928 and has not won one since.

German Universities Have Won Fewer Nobel Prizes Than Max Planck Institutes Since 1945

Since 1945, Max Planck institutes have produced 22 Nobel Prize winners, while all German universities combined won 17. These institutes are run by the Max Planck Society.

Göttingen shows the move from universities to Max Planck institutes clearly. The city still produced 3 Nobel Prize winners after 1945, but all 3 worked at its Max Planck institutes rather than the university.

The Max Planck Society’s Nobel Prize success is linked to how it treats top researchers. It gives them three things:

• An institute built around their work
• Freedom to choose their own research topics
• Freedom to hire their own team

By contrast, university professors have less time for research because they must also teach. In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, university professors must teach 9 hours a week during the semester.

Of the five Nobel Prize winners at German universities since 2000, three also worked at a Max Planck institute.

• Theodor Hänsch: LMU Munich (Physics, 2005)
• Svante Pääbo: Leipzig University (Physiology or Medicine, 2022)
• Ferenc Krausz: LMU Munich (Physics, 2023)

Hänsch, Pääbo, and Krausz held both jobs because many Max Planck researchers also teach at universities.

However, the other 2 Nobel Prize winners since 2000 worked at a university alone. Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with no Max Planck or foreign post. They are the first Nobel Prize winners since 1994 whose only listed workplace was a German university.

A university’s Nobel Prize count reflects its history as much as its research today. In Germany, war, Nazi rule, Soviet control, and the growth of Max Planck institutes all helped shape which universities rank highest for Nobel Prize winners.