Freie Universität Berlin is located in the south-western part of Berlin. It was founded in December 1948 in response to increasing political repression at the traditional Berlin university on Unter den Linden, then in the Soviet sector of the divided city. It is a statutory body under public law under the Berlin Higher Education Act. Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, is a joint medical school of Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
The university has 11 departments and four central institutes. Its facts page records 34,400 students in winter semester 2024/2025, 3,300 doctoral students, 390 professors and 4,730 full-time employees, with government funding of 410 million euros in 2024. President Günter M. Ziegler has been in office since 2018 and was re-elected on 28 January 2026 for a four-year term beginning on 6 July 2026.