TU Dresden
TU Dresden, also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony, and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 29,000 students as of 2024.
The name Technische Universität Dresden has only been used since 1961; the history of the university, however, goes back nearly 200 years to 1828. This makes it one of the oldest colleges of technology in Germany, and one of the country's oldest universities, which in German today refers to institutes of higher education that cover the entire curriculum. The university is a member of TU9, a consortium of the nine leading German Institutes of Technology. The university is one of eleven German universities which succeeded in the Excellence Initiative in 2012, thus getting the title of a "University of Excellence". The TU Dresden succeeded in all three rounds of the German Universities Excellence Initiative.
History
In 1828, with emerging industrialization, the Saxon Technical School was founded to educate skilled workers in technological subjects such as mechanics, mechanical engineering and ship construction. In 1871, the year the German Empire was founded, the institute was renamed the Royal Saxon Polytechnic Institute. At that time, subjects not connected with technology, such as history and languages, were introduced. By the end of the 19th century the institute had developed into a university covering all disciplines. The school was named Technische Hochschule since 1919, it was given its present name, Technische Universität Dresden in 1961.Nazi Regime
Professor Alfred Baeumler declared his Nazi views in 1932 and moved to Berlin in 1933.The Nazi German Student Union organised a book burning at the Bismarck Column in Dresden's Räcknitzhöhe in 1933.
Professors Victor Klemperer, Gustav Kafka, Richard Seyfert, Hans Gehrig were expelled or forced to resign. Professor Harry Dember, as well as professors Richard von Mises and Paul Tillich, who formerly taught at the school, had to emigrate.
GDR
Students of the university were tried in two 1959 political trials.The third reform of universities took place in 1968.
The university integrated the Dresden College of Engineering in 1986.
After reunification
Upon German reunification in 1990, the university had already integrated the College of Forestry, formerly the Royal Saxony Academy of Forestry, in the nearby small town of Tharandt. This was followed by the integration of the Friedrich List College of Transport the faculty of transport science, and the "Carl-Gustav Carus" Medical Academy, the medical faculty. Some faculties were newly founded: the faculties of Information Technology, Law, Education and Economics.In 2009 TU Dresden, all Dresden institutes of the Fraunhofer Society, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community and the Max Planck Society and Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, soon incorporated into the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, published a joint letter of intent with the name DRESDEN-Konzept – Dresden Research and Education Synergies for the Development of Excellence and Novelty, which points out worldwide elite aspirations, which was recognized as the first time that all four big postgraduate elite institutions declared campus co-operation with a university.
Campus
TU Dresden is a campus university in most aspects. Some of its buildings are over a hundred years old. The architecture of these buildings is mostly influenced by the art nouveau style or the Bauhaus school. In recent years, these historic buildings have been complemented by modern buildings.The main campus, as well as the medical faculty and that of computer science, are all within the boundaries of the city of Dresden. The main campus is located south of the city center, mostly in the area bordered by Nöthnitzer Straße, Fritz-Förster-Platz and Münchner Platz; the medical faculty can be found in the Johannstadt district. The faculty of forestry, formerly the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry, resides in a forest area in the nearby town of Tharandt.
Organization
TU Dresden has 17 faculties, structured into 5 schools. Most faculties are located on the main campus south of the city center, except for the Faculty of Medicine, which has its own campus near the Elbe river East of the city center, and the Department of Forestry in Tharandt.Science
The School of Science comprises five faculties: Biology, Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and Psychology. The faculties are all located on the main campus. In 2006, a new research building for the biology department opened. In October 2006, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft decided to fund a new graduate school, the Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering and a so-called cluster of excellence From Cells to Tissues to Therapies.Engineering
The School of Engineering Sciences encompasses the faculties of Computer Engineering, Computer Sciences, and Mechanical Sciences and Engineering.The school is the second largest in the university and is at the heart of the so-called Silicon Saxony in Dresden.
Humanities and Social Sciences
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences comprises the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, the Faculty of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural StudiesCivil and Environmental Engineering
The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is the largest in the TU Dresden, encompassing the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape, the Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, the Friedrich List Faculty of Transportation and Traffic Science, and the Faculty of Business and Economics.Medicine
- The Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine has its own campus east of the city center near the Elbe river. The faculty has a partnership with Partners Harvard Medical International.
Research Centers
- Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden – former Cluster of Excellence
- – former Cluster of Excellence
- Dendro-Institute Tharandt at the TU Dresden
- The European Institute for Postgraduate Education at TU Dresden
- The European Institute of Transport
- The Hannah Arendt Center for Research on Totalitarianism
- Center for Media Culture
- Center for Research on Mechanics of Structures and Materials
- School of International Studies
Research
Biotechnology and medical technology
The university has established a strong partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in molecular bioengineering. As part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft has decided to fund the Cluster of Excellence "From Cells to Tissues to Therapies: Engineering the Cellular Basis of Regeneration", as well as a new graduate school, the "Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering" with about 300 PhD students.The CRTD together with the Biotechnology Center and the Center for Molecular Bioengineering are part of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering as central scientific unit of the TU Dresden.
The Biotechnology Center is a unique interdisciplinary center focusing on research and teaching in molecular bioengineering. It hosts top international research groups dedicated to genomics, proteomics, biophysics, cellular machines, tissue engineering, and bioinformatics. The research at the CRTD and BIOTEC is complemented by that of the B CUBE which aims to learn from nature and translate the new knowledge into technological applications.
Magnetism and material sciences
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft funds research in the area of electromagnetic flow influence in metallurgy, artificial crystal formation and electrochemistry. Other research is done on the Meissner effect and artificial fibers.Micro and nanotechnology
is the biggest cluster of the microelectronics industries in Europe. TU Dresden is incorporated in this network with three departments of the faculties of Electrical Engineering and Sciences. Together with the Fraunhofer Center for Nano-electronic technologies, it represents one of the leading universities in the field of nanotechnology. There is also a research cooperation with some semiconductor fields of TU Freiberg. In May 2012 the Helmholtz-Kolleg NANONET was founded.Transport
The university has a partnership with the Fraunhofer-Institut for Transport and Infrastructure systems to research on IT-systems for public transport in Dresden.Business and Economics
In partnership with TU Dresden, the Ifo Institute of Economic Research is researching the economic development in Eastern Germany.The university belongs to a consortium of European Universities offering the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral Programme IT4BI-DC for Business Intelligence.
Other research areas
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft supports the university in many areas and TU Dresden cooperates closely with renowned research institutes such as Fraunhofer Society, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community and Max Planck Society.Neuromorphic computing facility
TU Dresden received a grant of eight million euro from the EU's Human Brain Project to build the second generation spinnaker computer called spincloud.
Rankings
TU Dresden is recognized in several university ranking systems. According to the QS World University Rankings for 2024, the university is ranked 246th globally and 16th nationally. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2024 places the institution at 161st globally and 16th within the nation. In the ARWU World Rankings for 2023, the university's position is in the 201–300 range globally, and between 10th and 19th place nationally.According to the 2019 QS Engineering and Technology Ranking the university ranked 113th worldwide and 5th in Germany. According to the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings the university ranked 90th worldwide in engineering & technology. Moreover, According to Reuters, the university was ranked 79th in the list of 'Most Innovative Universities Ranking 2019'.
The Eduniversal Business Schools ranking ranks the university's Faculty of Business and Economics with 3 out of 5 palmes of excellence. According to the university ranking 2016 of the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche the university ranked 7th in Germany in computer science and mechanical engineering and 6th in Germany in business informatics and engineering management. The university did not take first place in any of the ranked subjects: Business Administration, Business informatics, Engineering management, Natural Sciences, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Economics.