Science
Germany's two best universities stand side by side — number 1 and number 2 in the national ranking, both in the world's top 40. Plus Europe's leading start-up biotope. The Maxvorstadt is Germany's densest science and innovation location.
Germany's number 1 and number 2 — door to door
The Maxvorstadt hosts the two best universities in Germany: the Technical University of Munich (TUM) ranks as number 1 in Germany, number 1 in Europe and 26th worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2025. The Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) follows as number 2 in Germany at 38th worldwide. No other German district and no other European city quarter combines top 1 and top 2 of a national university ranking on a single square kilometre.
The concentration is globally unusual. Cambridge has no sister university next door, Stanford has no TUM, ETH Zurich has no LMU on its doorstep. Maxvorstadt students walk past the LMU in the morning to a TUM lecture or vice versa — both main buildings lie around 600 m apart as the crow flies: LMU at Geschwister-Scholl-Platz / Ludwigstraße, TUM at Arcisstraße 21. Between them: Königsplatz, the Pinakotheken, the bohème cafés.
LMU
Ludwig Maximilian University
Founded 1472 · in Munich since 1826
No. 2 in Germany · World rank 38 (THE 2025)
The Ludwig Maximilian University was founded in 1472 in Ingolstadt, moved to Landshut in 1800 and came to Munich in 1826 — at the behest of Ludwig I., who wished to crown his new grand boulevard with intellectual splendour. The main building on the Ludwigstraße — built from 1835 by Friedrich von Gärtner — is one of the monumental pieces of the Klenze–Gärtner heritage.
Around 50,000 people study at LMU today; it is one of the 5 German Universities of Excellence. In the Times Higher Education World Ranking 2025 it is Germany's number 2 and 38th worldwide — directly behind its neighbour TUM. With 18 Nobel laureates associated with the LMU (including Wilhelm Röntgen, Werner Heisenberg, Theodor Hänsch) it is, in scientific history, one of the most important universities in Europe. Focus areas: medicine, life sciences, physics, humanities and social sciences, law, business.
The LMU is also remembered for the White Rose: the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl were arrested here in 1943 for distributing leaflets in the inner courtyard. The square in front of the main building has carried their name ever since; in the inner courtyard, brass plates mark the place where they let the leaflets fall.
TUM
Technical University of Munich
Founded 1868 · main seat Arcisstr. 21
No. 1 in Germany · No. 1 in Europe · World rank 26 (THE 2025)
The Technical University of Munich, founded in 1868 as a Polytechnic School, is today Germany's number 1 and Europe's number 1. In the Times Higher Education Ranking 2025 it stands at 26th place worldwide — four places above last year — and thus above every other German and European university. In the QS Ranking 2025 it is also the best German institution at 28th worldwide.
Some 52,000 students, 18 Nobel laureates in the broader TUM environment, a spectrum of research priorities from quantum computing through robotics and aerospace to medical engineering and pharma. The TUM is one of the first German universities to have consistently implemented the "Entrepreneurial University" model: teaching, leading-edge research and transfer to industry as equal pillars — see next chapter.
The main seat at Arcisstraße 21, directly on Königsplatz, is one of the formative Maxvorstadt buildings of the 19th century. The Vorhoelzer Forum on the roof of the main building offers one of the finest views over Munich (formerly a student and staff café; since 2024 only accessible internally).
Europe's largest
start-up biotope
sits right here.
UnternehmerTUM:
Europe's Number 1
The Financial Times ranks UnternehmerTUM — the TUM's innovation and start-up centre co-founded in 2002 by BMW major shareholder Susanne Klatten — as number 1 of 125 European start-up hubs for the second year running in the "Europe's Leading Start-Up Hubs" league table. Ahead of Hexa (Brussels) and SETsquared (UK).
103 spin-outs
in a single year
In 2024 alone, TUM researchers, students and alumni founded 103 start-ups — a new record. UnternehmerTUM and the TUM Venture Labs supported more than 1,100 founding teams in 2024. They raised over 2 billion euros in venture capital. Already 21 unicorns have emerged from the TUM environment — including Celonis, Personio, Lilium and Isar Aerospace.
TUM Venture Labs — twelve verticals, one ambition
The TUM Venture Labs bundle the founding activity into twelve thematic verticals — from Quantum Technologies through Healthcare, Robotics, AI/Software, Aerospace, Mobility, Sustainability to Food/Agro. Each lab combines top-tier research with direct infrastructure (clean rooms, bio-labs, prototyping workshops), industry partners and venture capital. This is the German answer to the Stanford / Y Combinator model — only embedded in a state-funded full-spectrum university.
In concrete terms: anyone in the Maxvorstadt today who wants to take a research idea into founding has access to labs on the TUM campus in Garching, coworking in the Maxvorstadt, pitch trainings at Munich Urban Colab, an investor network through UnternehmerTUM Ventures, and several state funding tracks (Bavarian development bank, EXIST, High-Tech Gründerfonds). The result is measurable: 1,100+ teams, 103 spin-outs, 2 billion in VC — per year. Per year.
This density is unrivalled across Germany and in Europe only comparable to Cambridge or London — but neither has a similarly concentrated city quarter. The Maxvorstadt is therefore not only Munich's knowledge district but also its founder district.
And then there are
five more
institutions.
- / 01Academy of Fine Arts
- / 02Hochschule für Musik und Theater
- / 03Munich School of Philosophy
- / 04Bavarian School of Public Policy
- / 05University of Television and Film
Together with LMU and TUM, these five further institutions bring around 100,000 students and staff into the Maxvorstadt every day — the 67.4 % single-person household share and the share of 20- to 30-year-olds are no coincidence.
I want to makeCrown Prince Ludwig · before 1825
Munich a city
that brings honour
to Germany.
The universities and their buildings on the Ludwigstraße are his legacy — and 200 years later they keep the promise with world top-40 places.
Straight to the sources
For deeper reading: the official sites, rankings and the TUM founding ecosystem.