Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe.
Its motto is: ‘Forschen, Lehren, Heilen, Helfen’, which translates as ‘Research, Teaching, Healing, Helping.’
Dating back to 1710, the hospital was originally built in response to a plague epidemic in Eastern Prussia. By 1727 it had become a military hospital and educational training centre, and renamed Charité.
Following its destruction during World War II, the building had to be rebuilt, and between 1946-1989, it served as a medical institute of the German Democratic Republic.
By 2003, as a result of merges with other medical institutes in Germany, the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin became one of the main medical centres in Europe.
More than half of German Nobel prize-winners in medicine and physiology originated from the Charité, including physician and microbiologist Robert Koch, and the immunologist Paul Ehrlich.
In 2010, the university celebrated its 300-year anniversary and today, it is wholly-owned by the Federal State of Berlin, has a turnover of €1.5 billion per annum and is one of the largest employers in the city, home to 3,700 doctors.
Charité has four campuses across Berlin: Campus Benjamin Franklin, Campus Charité Mitte, Campus Virchow-Klinikum and Campus Berlin Buch, which between them take up 540,000 square meters of land.
It has a student body of 7,000 – 1,200 of whom are from overseas – and is made up of approximately 100 departments and institutes, which are organised into 17 CharitéCentres.
Students of Charité are encouraged to join student councils and committees in order to contribute towards the development of their teaching and learning.
Since 2011, Charité has been bestowing grants to selected students.
