Type Public Administrative staff 8,070 (2012) Total enrollment 33,933 (2015) | Established 1946
1770/1799/1879 Address 10623 Berlin, Germany Phone +49 30 3140 | |
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Motto in English We have the ideas for the future Endowment State: €295.7M (2014)
External: €174M (2013) President Christian Thomsen (since 2014) Motto Wir haben die Ideen für die Zukunft (Germany, We have the ideas for the future) Founded 9 April 1946, Berlin, Germany Affiliations Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Notable alumni Fritz Haber, Wernher von Braun, Wolfgang Paul, Konrad Zuse, Carl Bosch Similar Humboldt University of Berlin, Free University of Berlin, Technical University of Munich, HTW Berlin ‑ University of Applie, RWTH Aachen University Profiles | ||
The Technische Universität Berlin, known as TU Berlin and unofficially as the Technical University of Berlin, is a research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1879 and became one of the most prestigious education institutions in Europe. It has one of the highest proportions of international students in Germany, almost 20% were enrolled in 2016.
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The TU Berlin is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the largest and most notable German institutes of technology and of the Top Industrial Managers for Europe network, which allows for student exchanges between leading engineering schools. It belongs to the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research. The TU Berlin is home of two innovation centers designated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
The university is known for its highly ranked engineering programmes, especially in mechanical engineering and engineering management. The university alumni and professor list include US National Academies members, two National Medal of Science laureates and ten Nobel Prize winners.
History
On 1 April 1879, the Königlich Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg ("TH Charlottenburg") was formed in the governmental merger of the Berlin Building Academy (Bauakademie) and the Royal Trade Academy (Königliche Gewerbeakademie), two independent Prussian founding colleges established in 1799 and 1821 respectively.
The TH Charlottenburg (Royal Technical Higher School of Charlottenburg) was named after the borough of its location in Charlottenburg just outside Berlin. In 1899, the TH Charlottenburg became the first polytechnic in Germany awarding doctorates, as a standard degree for the graduates, in addition to diplomas, thanks to professor Alois Riedler and Adolf Slaby, chairman of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) and the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE).
In 1916 the long-standing Bergakademie Berlin, the Prussian mining academy created by the geologist Carl Abraham Gerhard in 1770 at the behest of King Frederick the Great, was assimilated into the TH Charlottenburg. Beforehand, the mining college had been, however, for several decades under the auspices of the Frederick William University (now Humboldt University of Berlin), before it was spun out again in 1860.
After Charlottenburg's absorption into Greater Berlin in 1920 and Germany being turned into Weimar Republic, the TH Charlottenburg was renamed "Technische Hochschule of Berlin" ("TH Berlin"). In 1927, the Department of Geodesy of the Agricultural College of Berlin was incorporated into the TH Berlin. During the 1930s, the redevelopment and expansion of the campus along the "East-West axis" were part of the Nazi plans of a Welthauptstadt Germania, including a new faculty of defense technology under General Karl Becker, built as a part of the greater academic town (Hochschulstadt) in the adjacent west-wise Grunewald forest. The shell construction remained unfinished after the outbreak of World War II and after Becker's suicide in 1940, it is today covered by the large-scale Teufelsberg dumping.
The north section of the main building of the university was destroyed during a bombing raid in November 1943. Due to the street fighting at the end of the Second World War, the operations at the TH Berlin were suspended as of April, 20th 1945. Planning for the re-opening of the school began on June, 2nd 1945, once the acting rectorship led by Gustav Ludwig Hertz and Max Volmer was appointed. As both Hertz and Volmer remained in exile in the Soviet Union for some time to come, the college was not re-inaugurated until April, 9th 1946, now bearing the name of "Technische Universität Berlin".
Since 2009 the TU Berlin houses two Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) designated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Campus
The TU Berlin covers 604,000 m², distributed over various locations in Berlin. The main campus is located in the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The seven schools of the university have some 33,933 students enrolled in 90 subjects (October, 2015).
El Gouna campus: Technische Universität Berlin has established a satellite campus in Egypt to act as a scientific and academic field office. The nonprofit public-private partnership (PPP) aims to offer services provided by Technische Universität Berlin at the campus in El Gouna on the Red Sea.
The university also has a franchise of its Global Production Engineering (GPE) course - a paid-for service to obtain an MSc from TU Berlin for oversee students that find it difficult to obtain the degree otherwise - called Global Production Engineering and Management (GPEM) at the Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in Ho Chi Minh City.
Organization
Since 4 April 2005, the TU Berlin has consisted of the following faculties and institutes:
Faculty and staff
Eight-thousand four hundred fifty five people work at the university: 338 professors, 2,598 postgraduate researchers, and 2,131 personnel work in administration, the workshops, the library and the central facilities. In addition there are 2,651 student assistants and 126 trainees (2015).
International student mobility is applicable through ERASMUS programme or through Top Industrial Managers for Europe (TIME) network.
Library
The new common main library of Technische Universität Berlin and of the Berlin University of the Arts was opened in 2004 and holds about 2.9 million volumes (2007). The library building was sponsored partially (estimated 10% of the building costs) by Volkswagen and is named officially "University Library of the TU Berlin and UdK (in the Volkswagen building)". A source of confusion to many, the letters above the main entrance only state "Volkswagen Bibliothek" (German for "Volkswagen Library") – without any mentioning of the universities.
Some of the former 17 libraries of Technische Universität Berlin and of the nearby University of the Arts were merged into the new library, but several departments still retain libraries of their own. In particular, the school of 'Economics and Management' maintains a library with 340,000 volumes in the university's main building (Die Bibliothek – Wirtschaft & Management/″The Library″ – Economics and Management) and the 'Department of Mathematics' maintains a library with 60,000 volumes in the Mathematics building (Mathematische Fachbibliothek/"Mathematics Library").
Notable alumni and professors
(Including those of the Academies mentioned under History)
Rankings
In the 2017 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, globally the TU Berlin ranks 82nd overall (7th in Germany), 40th in the field of Engineering & Technology (3rd in Germany) and 36th in Computer science discipline (4th in Germany), making it one of the top 100 universities worldwide in all three measures.
As of 2016, TU Berlin is ranked 164th overall and 35th in the field of Engineering & Technology according to the British QS World University Rankings. It is one of Germany's highest ranked universities in statistics and operations research and in Mathematics according to QS.