On 10 October 1877,
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, elevated the
Polytechnische Schule to
Technische Hochschule zu Darmstadt and thereby raised the status of this educational institution to that of a university so that the
Abitur (a school leaving certificate from German
Gymnasium schools qualifying for university admission or matriculation) became a requirement for admissions. In 1899, the
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt was granted the right to award doctorates.
Early beginnings The university's history is varied: its early phases began with the
Höhere Gewerbeschule (Higher Trade School), which was founded in 1836 and received its own building near the 'Altes Pädagog' on Kapellplatz in 1844, followed by the
Technische Schule (Technical School) in 1864 and the
Großherzoglich Hessische Polytechnische Schule (Grand Ducal Hessian Polytechnic) in 1868. At that time, heated discussions were continually held in political circles on the issue as to whether such a poor state as the
Grand Duchy of Hessen could afford a technically oriented higher educational institution, or even a polytechnic. After the foundation of
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in 1877, student numbers kept on being so low that in the years from 1881 to 1882 there were long debates in public about closing down the university. In this difficult situation, the local government and the university made the courageous decision to set up the first chair of
electrical engineering worldwide. Thus the Faculty of Electrical Engineering came into being as the sixth faculty of the
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, which was a novelty in academia, because until then no other university had had such a faculty. This forward-looking higher education policy paved the way for Darmstadt to take up a leading position in the rapidly developing field of electrical engineering, which in turn led to a continuously rising number of students, so that the closure of the university never was demanded again.
First steps as a university In 1895, new buildings were opened in Hochschulstrasse: the
Altes Hauptgebäude (the 'Old Main Building' of the university) and an institute building directly opposite. During the two decades before the
World War I, all disciplines of the university underwent diversification and expansion. New disciplines such as paper making and cellulose chemistry were introduced, and as early as 1913 a chair of
aeronautics and flight mechanics was set up. Meanwhile, the political climate had become stormier, and a growing political polarization exploded in Darmstadt over the question of foreign students. The
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt had an extraordinarily large number of foreign students. In 1906, for instance, as many as three-quarters of the electrical engineering students were from abroad, mainly from states of eastern Europe.
During World War II . Note the
effaced swastika under the eagle. Like other academic institutions in Germany, TU Darmstadt suffered an exodus of scholars following the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933. Most notably,
Gerhard Herzberg, the 1971 Nobel laureate in chemistry, was dismissed from TU Darmstadt in 1934 because his wife was Jewish and emigrated with his family to Canada. On the night of 11/12 September 1944, eighty per cent of the city, including many of the university's buildings, were destroyed during a
bomb attack. For a short period in 1945, parts of the TH Darmstadt may have been closed by decree of the
Allies before it was reopened in 1946. The electrical engineering department remained continuously functional, doing work under contract with the U.S. Army to build components of the V-2 guidance system. "But we have to be careful how we word this production order because we don't want the Russians to know that we are cranking up the V-2 system." In spite of the difficult post-war situation, university staff and students alike managed to settle down to university work in the severely damaged buildings, which had to be used as a makeshift solution. The speech delivered by James R. Newman, Director of American Military Government of Hessen, however, made no mention of such a commitment, while stating that: "An interchange of these [past experience], together with ideas and methods of education along engineering lines, will aid greatly, not only in the reconstruction of battle torn countries, but also in the bringing about of a universal understanding and mutual respect, and the charity which have prevented the understanding, the tolerance, the respect, and the charity so necessary for the peace, happiness, and contentment that is the dream of every human being on this earth." The post-war period of reconstruction was largely based on a major development programme in the 1960s, by means of which universities and the state reacted to the continuously rising numbers of students. Since almost no land was available in the city centre for new construction projects, the decision was taken in 1963 to use the 'Lichtwiese' (a former airfield on the outskirts of the city) as a site for building extensions to the
Technische Hochschule. Thus in the late 1960s and in the early 1970s numerous buildings, including a new student cafeteria, were erected there and ultimately became the university's second campus. In the mid 1970s, there was another rapid rise in student numbers. Staff development, however, lagged far behind, resulting in inevitable restrictions on admission imposed either by the central government or by the university. Regardless of the staff's heavy workload, the TH Darmstadt managed to set the course for the future, as evidenced by the School of Information Science, established in 1974, the
Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Technikforschung (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies on Technology), founded in 1987, and the Department of Materials Science, established in 1989. This department has been housed in a new building on the Lichtwiese since 1996. and had been offering a correspondingly wide range of subjects. For these reasons, and also with the objective of sharpening public awareness of the university's status at home and abroad,
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt was renamed
Technische Universität Darmstadt (which is also its official English name albeit often called
Darmstadt University of Technology) on 1 October 1997. This name change was partly prompted by misunderstandings that had occurred in English-speaking countries, where
Technische Hochschule had often been mistakenly transliterated as 'Technical High School', providing a totally misleading connotation. The Technische Universität Darmstadt is the only German university that has legally committed itself to guarantee their students good studying conditions. The TU Darmstadt law in its current state has legal force up to 31 December 2020. In the same year the university introduced the world's first course of study in electrical engineering. The TH Darmstadt set up the first chair for scientific policy in 1951. The first chair holder was
Eugen Kogon. He is considered one of the founders of
political science in Germany. The TH Darmstadt shaped the subject of corporate governance in Germany. In 1973, the university established the first chair for management control system in Germany. The first chair holder was Péter Horváth, founder of
Horváth & Partners. In Germany, the beginnings of
computer science go back to the Institute for Practical Mathematics of the TH Darmstadt, which the mathematician
Alwin Walther built in early 1928. In 1956, the first programming lectures and internships in Germany were offered at the TH Darmstadt. In 1996, the first chair in Germany for renewable energies was set up at TH Darmstadt and staffed with . In 2004, it became the first German university to be declared as an autonomous university. == Academic profile ==