Technische Universität Berlin

The eventful history of the Technische Universität Berlin extends all the way back to the time of King Friedrich II. Originally founded in 1770, the School of Mining was integrated into the “Königlich Technische Hochschule zu Berlin” (TH) in 1916. The TH was established in 1879, when it merged with the School of Architecture, founded in 1799, and the Academy of Trade, founded in 1821. Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Christian W. Beuth, the “father of engineering”, are some of the most well-known representatives of these two institutions.
The TU Berlin sees itself in the tradition of the TH, a university that earned a fine reputation by conducting technical research in Berlin and thereby contributing to the city’s emergence as one of Europe’s largest industrial metropolitan areas.
A number of Nobel Prize winning scientists studied and taught at the TH Berlin well into the 1930s. The university’s reopening in 1946 was purposely conceived as a new beginning, so as to make a clear break with the National Socialist past. This fresh start was also to be expressed in its new name: as Germany’s first technical university it was named simply “Technische Universität”. Its educational mission was reallocated as well with an emphasis on “universal education”. By including the Humanities in its compendium of subjects, the TU Berlin became the first technical university in Germany to present a humanistic element in its scholastic profile. The aim was to breach the gap between technological research and social responsibility. The challenge of gaining insight into interaction between society and technology remains an important issue even today.