Is it reasonable to leave a PhD if your supervisor leaves the university? I am a first year PhD student in Physics in a very important university in Germany. I started five months ago and unfortunately my first advisor is moving to a company. The university is important, but I actually chose to be there mainly to be supervised by her. She is well known in this field.

The topic is not my favourite one, but it is interesting and I've been working hard since the first day that I started.

However, I don't know why, the second supervisor is not considering me as a PhD student. In fact, we haven't had any meeting yet. On the other hand, I have a good working relationship with the third one.

At this point I don't know what I can do. I'm frustrated and sad since now I would like to make a different choice. Since it's my first year, I'm considering to move to another university even if less prestigious of this one. I'm here alone and I would have the possibility to be with my boyfriend.

By living this situation, maybe, I don't have the possibility to have a clear reasoning, so I need your help and advice in order to make the best choice possible. I'm considering to:


Complete this year and move to another university next year in order to: (1) work on a more interesting topic, and (2) have the possibility to stay with my boyfriend.
Remain here with few moral and supervised by professors that I didn't choose.


EDIT. I'm following the precious advice below to make a more general question. I remain of the idea that I'll consider only the two options above. Anyway, for me, and other PhD students in this situation, it'll be very useful to know other similar stories. With regard to this, I'd like to understand if it's reasonable to leave a PhD when your supervisor leaves the university. In particular, when you decided to apply for a particular university only to have the possibility to be supervised by a great professor, well known in his/her field. Unfortunately, differently from other stories where a supervisor moves to another university, in this case she leaves the university to move to a company. From other threads I understand that it's fundamental to maintain a good relationship with your ex-supervisor, since when you're already a PhD student and you decide to move, a reference letter from your ex-supervisor is critical since a transfer has to be highly justified.
Finally, I love this field and for me a PhD is the right pathway to follow, but at the same time I'm scared because I don't know if a PhD transfer is easy to achieve.

2nd EDIT. Maybe the bold sentences are too personal and a good answer cannot be given. So, I'd like to update the question in: Is it reasonable to leave a PhD and apply for another university if your supervisor leaves? In particular I'm trying to understand if the fact that you leave the PhD in a university can badly influence the application in the new university.
First thing: There is no such thing as "PhD transfer". (At least in Germany.)

I don't know your university, but is the cases I know, you do not start any official PhD in the first year, but only later. Usually, you make an agreements with some advisor about the PhD thesis, working contracts and so on, and sometimes you enroll as a PhD student, but in most cases there is no official file at the university (but this may change in the near future…). At some point (where I am, usually in the last year) you fill in some form with which you start the official process of graduating (Eröffnung des Promotionsverfahrens or something similar).

So, if you haven't started the "Promotionsvorhaben" formally, you can quit and start new at any point.

More practically: You should discuss your options with your advisor. She is the right person for this. She may have suggestions how to proceed, e.g. she knows people who would like to take you as a student, she has a direct line to these people and will get a response quickly. She may help you to judge the possibilities that you have at the university where you are and she may also know you, your strength, and your preferences already.

Finally, I find the notion of "important university" a bit odd. There are some universities in Germany with a bit more overall prestige but there also also many not-so-well-known universities which are top at specific fields. So, the university name does not mean too much.