Ludwig
Maximilian
University
Founded in Ingolstadt in 1472, moved to Munich by Ludwig I in 1826. Friedrich von Gärtner placed the monumental main building on Ludwigstraße in 1840. Today, with around 53,000 students, it is Germany's largest university — and consistently in the global top 40.
A classical axis, a living university
Founded in Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke Ludwig the Rich, moved to Landshut in 1800 and finally relocated to Ludwigstraße in 1826 by King Ludwig I — becoming Munich's first "real" university. Friedrich von Gärtner erected the monumental main building in Italian Renaissance style in 1835–1840, opposite the priests' seminary (today the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts).
Today, with around 53,000 students, LMU is Germany's largest university. Ranked 33rd worldwide in the 2024 Times Higher Education Ranking; in Germany consistently first or second (alternating with TU München, just a few hundred metres away in the Museum Quarter). 18 Nobel Prize winners, including Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Werner Heisenberg and Theodor Hänsch.
White Rose and bronze pavement marker
On 18 February 1943 Hans and Sophie Scholl distributed leaflets of the student resistance group White Rose in the light court of the main building. Denounced by the university porter, they were arrested and executed four days later. Today a pavement marker with a leaflet facsimile in front of the main building commemorates their act — one of Munich's most emotional memorial sites.
More in the
University Quarter.
The other buildings of the area — galleries, museums, classicism, industrial history.