Students 38,000
LocationMunich, Germany
Campus Urban
Colors Blue
AffiliationsGUEI, PEGASUS, CESAER, Eurotech, TIME
Websitewww.tum.de
The Technical university of Munich (TUM) is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching and Freising-Weihenstephan. It is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the largest and most notable German institutes of technology.
History
1868 University founded by King Ludwig II.[3]
1877 Awarded the designation Königlich Bayerische Technische Hochschule München.
1901 Granted the right to award doctorates.
1902 Approval of the election of the Principal by the teaching staff.
1930 Integration of the College of Agriculture and Brewing in Weihenstephan.
1949–1954: Reconstruction of the main building of the Technische Universität by Robert Vorhoelzer after WWII. Construction of a new administrational building and library.
1957 Given the status of a ‘public legal body’.
1958 Research Reactor Munich (FRM), Garching officially assigned to the TH München.
1967 Establishment of a faculty of medicine
1970 Renamed to ‘Technische Universität München’.
2000 Establishment of Weihenstephan Science Centre for Life & Food Sciences, Land Use and Environment (WZW) belonging to the TUM.
2002 The German Institute of Science and Technology founded in Singapore.
2004 Official opening of Forschungsreaktor München II, a leading neutron source, on March 2.
2005 TUM Institute for Advanced Study founded
2006 TUM one of three successful universities in Germany's excellence initiative
2009 TUM School of Education established
2012 TUM again one of now 11 successful universities in Germany's excellence initiative
From an agricultural state to an industrial state
In its capacity as an academic stronghold of technology and science, the Technische Universität München (TUM) has played a vital role in Bavaria's transition from an agricultural state to an industrial state and Hi-Tech centre. Even to the present day, it is still the only state university dedicated to technology. Numerous excellent TUM professors have secured their place in the history of technology, many important scientists, architects, engineers and entrepreneurs studied there. Such names as Karl Max von Bauernfeind, Rudolf Diesel, Claude Dornier, Walther von Dyck, Hans Fischer (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1930), Ernst Otto Fischer (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1973), August Föppl, Robert Huber (Nobel prize for Chemistry 1988), Carl von Linde, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz, Walther Meissner, Rudolf Mössbauer (1961 Nobel prize for Physics), Willy Messerschmitt (aircraft designer), Wilhelm Nusselt, Hans Piloty, Friedrich von Thiersch, Franz von Soxhlet are closely connected with the TUM.
The prerequisites for an academic training in engineering were created at the start of the 19th century when the advancement of technology on the basis of exact sciences commenced. There were also calls for a 'university for all technical studies' in Bavaria. The 'polytechnic schools' set up in Augsburg, Munich and Nuremberg, which bridged the gap between middle schools and higher education colleges in their capacity as 'lyceums' (or high schools), were the first approach. For further qualification purposes, a 'technical college' was set up in 1833 as part of the Faculty of State Finance (Staatswirtschaftlichen Fakultät) of the Ludwig Maximilian University, which had been transferred from Landshut to Munich seven years previously. The experiment failed. Instead, an advanced 'engineering course' was established at the Polytechnic School Munich in 1840, which was the forerunner of what was later to become the 'Technical university of Munich.