Munich is the largest and capital city of the German state Bavaria. It has an estimated population of about 1.5 million inhabitants; making Munich the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg. The educational system in Munich is also run by the German state and is compulsory for children to attend school up to the age of 18; and offers many public and private schools for children. The school system and is divided into four levels: Kindergarten Education is for children aged from three to 6, Elementary Education (Grundschule) is from Grade 1 to Grade 4, After Elementary School, children can go onto one of the three types of schools, Hauptschule, Realschule or Gymnasium, depending on their academic ability, academic achievement, self-confidence, the ability to work independently, and student’s family wishes; These Secondary education are form Grades 5 to 9 or 10 and is compulsory up to the age of 18, and Higher Education.
The city also offers scientific research institutions including The Max Planck Society which is an independent non-profit German research organisation. Munich has many universities including The Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), also known as University of Munich, and The Technische Universität München (TUM); the University of Munich was established in 1472 making it the oldest university in the German state. The Ministries of Education and Research of the Federation and the German states (Länder) awarded these two of the first three German universities the title ‘Elite University’. The Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) and the Technische Universität München (TUM) and the Technical University of Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) are considered Elite Universities thus have grater chances for research funds.
Munich is well known for the amount of Nobel Prize laureates starting with Nobel Prize laureates from 1901 including Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen to 2005 with Theodor Hänsch.