Göttingen (10th century Gutingi), a town in the former kingdom of Hanover, lies 538 feet above sea-level in the Leine's wide valley, encircled by gentle hills—the highest, the Hainberg (1246 feet). By rail it is 67 miles S. of Hanover, and 36 NE. of Cassel. The ramps, long since outgrown, and now planted with lindens, form a charming promenade; but architecturally Göttingen has nothing much to boast of—a quaint rathhaus, a statue of William IV., and a few antique buildings, one of which, the Jacobikirche, has a steeple 320 feet high. The celebrated university (Georgia Augusta) was founded 1734–37 by Baron Münchhausen, under the auspices of George II., Elector of Hanover and king of England, and now has 120 professors of various grades, and more than 1000 students of philosophy, theology, medicine, and jurisprudence. Connected with it are the library of 500,000 volumes and 5000 MSS., the art museum, the splendid botanic garden (laid out by Haller), the observatory, the laboratory, the lying-in hospital, &c., as also the Royal Society (1750) which publishes the well-known Transactions and the Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen. Longfellow, Motley, Ticknor, Bancroft, and several other illustrious Americans studied at Göttingen, whose native alumni include many of Germany's most famous sons. The 'Göttinger Dichterbund' was a small poet band (Voss, the two Stolbergs, Klopstock, Bürger, &c.) who, in the 'Storm and Stress' days of 1770–78 did much for the revival of national feeling; by the 'Göttinger Sieben' are meant the seven professors (Albrecht, Dahlmann, Ewald, Gervinus, the two Grimms, and Weber) who for their liberal tendencies were in 1837 expelled by King Ernest Augustus. The book-trade is of more importance than the manufactures—woollens, sugar, chemicals, &c. Pop. (1875) 17,057; (1885) 21,598, of whom 1714 were Catholics, and 536 Jews. Raised to a town in 1210, and a considerable member of the Hanse in the 14th century, Göttingen suffered much during the Thirty Years' War, when it was taken by Tilly in 1626, and recaptured by the
Swedes in 1632. See works by Frensdorff (1878) and Hasselblatt (1881).