The University of Konstanz () is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's southernmost university and is situated on the shore of Lake Constance just four kilometres from the Swiss border. It has been successful in all three funding lines of the Excellence Initiative, and is therefore one of Germany's elite "Universities of Excellence", a group of prestigious universities often considered the German Ivy League. The university is ranked in top 100 worldwide in the field of social policy and administration in the 2020 QS World University Rankings, and ranked 51 in Political Science according to the 2020 ShanghaiRanking. The U.S. Department of Energy also refers to the University of Konstanz as a "small Harvard". Moreover, the University of Konstanz cooperates with a large number of renowned institutions, such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, University of Zurich., and the Balsillie School of International Affairs. In addition to having approximately 11,500 students from around 100 countries, the university maintains over 220 partnerships with European universities as well as numerous international exchange programmes, thereby facilitating global networking. Students may choose from more than 100 degree programmes. Its library is open 24 hours a day and has more than two million books. History Origins A university was briefly located in Konstanz during the 17th and 18th century. As a branch of the University of Freiburg, it was located in the Lanzenhof (today a building housing the administration of justice at the Untere Laube street) and existed from 1686 to 1698 as well as from 1713 to 1715. The University of Konstanz was founded in 1966 as a reform university. In its early years it was located in various building in the inner city until 1972, when the campus was established on the Giessberg. The university logo was designed by Otl Aicher in 1980, one of the most well-known graphic designers of the 20th century. Instead of creating institutes, the university was designed with (smaller than usual) departments and working groups, with a focus on developing teaching through research. In order to more easily transcend the boundaries between academic subjects and infrastructure, the Anglo-Saxon concept of the campus university was adapted, through which the administration and service providers such as the canteen and library