After World War II, Stanislaw Karol Kubicki studied medicine at the old University of Berlin, at that time called Universität Unter den Linden, which was increasingly coming under ideological pressure from the Communist leadership in the eastern sector of the divided city of Berlin. After three critical students who were editors of the student magazine Colloquium were forced out of the university for political reasons, Kubicki along with fellow students and lecturers, called for the founding of a free university in the western sectors of the city. Their goal was to study and conduct research without political influence. On December 4, 1948, with support from the American Allies and Berlin politicians, Freie Universität Berlin was founded – during the Berlin Blockade.

Stanislaw Karol Kubicki was the son of the writer, philosopher, translator, and Expressionist painter Stanislaw Kubicki, who was murdered by the National Socialist Gestapo in 1943. As the first student to enroll in 1948, he continued studying medicine at Freie Universität. Kubicki was a member of the founding AStA (student council). After graduating and earning a doctorate, Stanislaw Karol Kubicki became a professor of neurology. He acquired a reputation for his research on sleep, and from 1974 to 1991, he headed the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at the Charlottenburg University Hospital of Freie Universität.

The president of Freie Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Günter M. Ziegler, emphasized, “Freie Universität Berlin has lost a very special founding father. Professor Karol Kubicki was not only one of the early pioneers and a committed supporter of our university – he embodied the university. As Student Number 1, he was the face of Freie Universität – and its ambassador for his entire lifetime. After he retired, he continued to follow the developments at the university very closely. He never tired of telling subsequent generations about the unique founding history of our university, and always with humor and from the heart. He was very proud of ‘his’ university – and we are very proud of our Student Number 1. The university has lost one of its staunchest supporters, and we will never forget Karol Kubicki.”

Video with an excerpt of an interview with
Prof. Dr. Stanislaw Karol Kubicki for download:

• View the video zur here.
• Download the video: https://box.fu-berlin.de/s/dLFKr4MHSWc5PCD
• Media may use the video free with the following copyright:
  Freie Universität Berlin, 2019
  Interviewer: Dr. Almut Leh, Cinematographer: Daniel Göde, Coordination: Dr. Doris Tausendfreund

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