Download the booklet - Global Production Engineering - TU Berlin

TechnischeUniversität BerlinThe establishment of the Building Academyin 1799 is generally regarded as the true birthof the Technische Universität Berlin. TheMining Academy, founded in 1770, and theVocational Academy, founded in 1821, werealso important predecessors of the presentdayTU Berlin. The Building and VocationalAcademies were combined in 1879 to formthe Royal Technical College of Berlin. In 1899it became the first technical college in theGerman Empire to be granted the right toaward doctorates to engineers. In 1916 theMining Academy was incorporated. One yearlater, professors with budgeted posts at theTechnical College were given the status offull university professors. In 1922 the variousdivisions became faculties.The darkest chapter in the history of theuniversity began in 1933. The Berlin TechnicalCollege had become a center of Nazi activity,especially – but not exclusively – amongthe student body. In April 1946, with thesupport of the British military government inBerlin, the university re-opened its doors. Aconscious decision was made not to simplyre-open the Technical College, but to open anew university under a new name, the TechnischeUniversität Berlin. The result was thecreation of Germany’s first “technical university.”In an attempt to redefine the educationalgoals of the university, all students wererequired to include courses in the humanitiesas part of their studies, the intention being tobroaden students’ horizons.Today, the university offers a broad range ofcourses in the humanities and social sciences.The incorporation of the Berlin PedagogicCollege has strengthened the role of theteaching profession at TU Berlin. As an enginefor reform and invention reform legislation inthe late 1960’s, TU Berlin brought fundamentalchanges to the internal organization ofthe university. The outdated structures of thetraditional German university system wereswept aside, and university members were givena greater role in shaping university policy.Twenty-one departments were established.A president replaced the traditional dean ashead of a unified administration. Universitycommittees were made responsible foracademic self-government. After a number ofother changes, the number of departmentsfell to 15. In April 2001 these were againreorganized into seven faculties in order toexploit synergies and further develop TUBerlin’s profile.19