The renowned Humboldt Foundation created a ranking of German universities and institutes
that attract the greatest number of international research talents.
Between 2007 and 2011, over 6,082 scientists came to conduct
research in Germany. 75% of them worked at universities while the
rest was drawn to other research organizations.
In the university category, Freie Universität Berlin,
Humboldt-Universität Berlin and Universität München score the top 3
ranks. Each of them attracted over 260 researchers of which over 40
were award winning scientists.
Max Planck Society leading
For non-university research organizations, the
Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin fares
best (68 scientists) followed by the Max Planck Institute of
Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam (50) and the Max Planck
Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz (42). This underlines the
outstanding reputation of institutes that are part of the renowned
Max Planck Society.
The ranking also points out in which disciplines certain
universities are deemed to be the crème de la crème. For Humanities
and Social Sciences again Freie Universität Berlin tops of the
ranking (184). For Life Sciences Universität Göttingen (34) leads
in absolute numbers while Freie Universität Berlin (30) wins
weighted by the size of its faculty. In Natural Sciences
Universität München (110) leads in absolute and Universität
Regensburg (50) in relative terms. Finally, the discipline
Engineering Sciences is especially popular at the Technische
Universität Darmstadt (49).