History of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering in Hannover has a long tradition dating back to the 1930s. At the beginning of the subject was the renowned technologist Karl Karmarsch.

Today's Leibniz University in Hanover was founded on 2 May 1831 as the Higher Industrial School. The renowned Viennese technologist Karl Karmarsch was its first director, who started teaching at that time with 64 students on the second floor of Bornemann's Brauhaus at Marktstraße 60. Hanoverian mechanical engineering owes its existence both as a field of study and as a faculty to him.

Karmarsch was a pioneer with foresight, who even back then focused on interdisciplinarity and networking. His students - women were not yet admitted - could put together their own timetable. Even today, Karmarsch's efforts to train engineers who think independently and holistically are still regarded as a guiding principle for teaching in mechanical engineering.

With the beginning of railway expansion and industrial development, the need for qualified technicians increased rapidly from 1842 onwards, which led to the creation of the profession of engineer. In 1847, the Höhere Gewerbeschule was renamed Polytechnische Hochschule, and in 1879 it was given the name Königliche Technische Hochschule. Mechanical engineering was one of four departments, with four professors, two private lecturers and two assistants teaching in 1881. The number of students had risen to over 600.

In the 1890s, industry and technology expanded rapidly, and the Royal Technical College had to respond to the changes by adapting, expanding and specialising its teaching. Laboratories were set up to experimentally test the conditions of industrial practice. As early as 1884, a technological laboratory for the investigation of fibrous materials was established, followed in 1896 by the completion of a mechanical engineering laboratory. In 1899 the technical colleges were put on an equal footing with the universities, and from then on the academic degree of diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) and the academic title of doctor (Dr.-Ing.) could be awarded in Hannover.

Around the turn of the century, the steadily growing diversity in the content of mechanical engineering subjects required several professors and a greater division of subjects. In 1903, four fields of study were introduced in which students could specialise at an early stage: Mechanical Engineer, Transport Mechanical Engineer, Laboratory Engineer and Administrative Engineer. In 1908 Prussia, of which Hanover was a part, granted women the right to study. One of the first female students and at the same time a successful pioneer for women in mechanical engineering was Ilse ter Meer.

Ilse ter Meer (1899-1996) studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Hanover from 1919 to 1922 and graduated from the Technical University of Munich in 1924. When Ilse ter Meer entered the study hall at that time, she saw herself as the only woman among 1000 students, at least half of whom were against women studying. In 1925 Ilse ter Meer became the first female member of the Association of German Engineers (VDI). In 1930 she organised the first meeting of German women engineers at the World Conference in Berlin. Until she was over 90 years old, she still read publications on electrical engineering and electronics and kept up to date with the latest technical developments.

During the First World War, teaching was only maintained in the most important subjects, as many teachers were at war or had to work for the war industry. After the end of the war, there was a great rush in the subject of mechanical engineering - in the winter semester of 1920/21, 1203 students were enrolled for the subject (in comparison: in 1913, there were only 271 students). In 1922, a reorganisation of the Technische Hochschule took place and mechanical engineering was combined with electrical engineering in the Faculty of Mechanical (and Electrical) Engineering. In 1933, 18 lecturers and 38 assistants were employed in the mechanical engineering faculty, in addition to non-full-time student assistants. The number of students was 620.

The severe destruction of Hanover during the Second World War also affected the university. Research and teaching resumed in 1946 under difficult conditions. There was a lack of both teaching staff and premises. For example, the Institute for Materials Science and the Institute for Machine Tools were only 25 percent usable. The reconstruction of the university was carried out through donations, especially from benefactors of the Förderverein, and through the reconstruction work of the students. Reconstruction work became a duty for every student. Before students were allowed to begin their studies, they first had to complete 600, later even 1,000 hours of reconstruction work. After the reconstruction was completed at the end of the 1950s, however, there was still a shortage of space.

The demand for technical products after the Second World War increased rapidly, and the great growth rate and boom in the economy necessitated a considerable expansion and deepening of studies. The range of courses was enlarged and differentiated. Research was expanded to the same extent. The number of posts rose from twelve at the end of the 1950s to 29 at the beginning of the 1980s.

In 1955, the first student-run hall community was founded. It was called Düse (Nozzle) and offered students the opportunity to study together outside of the Institute's office hours. At that time, it was located in the old barracks building in Appelstraße.

The success of the nozzle and the strong demand from students prompted Professor Walter Otto Klüsener, then head of the Institute for Piston Machines, to lobby for a drawing room building for students of design subjects. Students in the higher semesters should be able to draw and construct at their own places.

In 1961, concrete planning for the building began, and four years later it was ready for occupancy with 392 workstations. Still today, the Otto-Klüsener-Haus, named after its initiator in 1969, houses four hall communities and also the management of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

In 1968, the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 61 "Flow Problems in Energy Conversion" marked the beginning of a successful series of Collaborative Research Centres in mechanical engineering. The initiator and head of SFB 61 was Professor Karl Bammert from the Institute of Fluid Machinery. In addition to the Institute of Fluid Machinery, the mechanical engineering departments of mechanics, thermodynamics, process engineering, thermal engineering and nuclear engineering were also involved in SFB 61.

Between 1968 and 1999, numerous restructuring of the departments and faculties took place and the Technische Hochschule was renamed Technische Universität. In 1978, the Technical University was given the name University of Hannover.

In 1969, the mechanical engineering institute building in Appelstraße was occupied. However, the 1970s were still marked by a severe lack of space. The institutes had to come to terms with provisional arrangements, and so research was carried out in the basement rooms of the listed Marstall building or in the horse stables in Appelstraße, among other places. In addition to these unfavourable teaching, learning and research conditions, the mechanical engineering institutes were scattered in different parts of the city, which did not facilitate professional cooperation.

In order to promote the rapid transfer of new scientific findings into practice, the affiliated institute Laser Zentrum Hannover e. V. was founded in 1986 and the Institute for Integrated Production gGmbH (IPH) in 1989. In the mid-1990s, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was increasingly affected by the austerity measures imposed by the Ministry of Science and Culture and as a result had to cope with severe cuts in its staffing. Despite compensatory measures through structural adjustments in the organisational structure, individual institutes were closed. In 1998 the Institute of Automotive Engineering and in 1999 the Institute of Rail Vehicles had to cease operations.

In addition to the closures, however, there were also new perspectives. In 1997, the so-called Underwater Technical Centre of the University of Hanover (UWTH) started operations at the Garbsen site. As a sub-division of the Institute of Materials Science, it is part of the mechanical engineering department. Among other things, the UWTH researches cutting, welding and handling techniques for underwater use. Furthermore, in 1999 the vision of the Hanover Production Technology Centre (PZH) in Garbsen, for which initial ideas had already been developed in the 1980s under Professor Hans Kurt Tönshoff, became concrete.

Furthermore, important cooperations have been established since 1995, for example, new interdisciplinary degree programmes (mechatronics, industrial engineering) offered jointly with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Faculty of Economics. In research, cooperation within the university was intensified and at the same time cooperation with partners, other universities and non-university institutions was deepened. In the course of the Bologna reform since 1999, Mechanical Engineering established corresponding Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes. For the degree of Diplom, which has been awarded since 1874, this reform means a slow retirement from the university system. In mechanical engineering, the diploma was finally phased out on 30 September 2018.

The Mechatronics Centre Hannover (MZH) was officially opened in April 2000. At that time, five institutes were united in the MZH, conducting basic research on drive systems, magnetic guides and mechatronic system sciences. In 2009, the MZH was transformed into an interdisciplinary Leibniz Research Centre, whose sponsors are the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Current research projects are in medical and production engineering.

The restructuring that began in the 20th century has continued in the new millennium. In 2000 the so-called Innovation Pact was concluded and at the beginning of 2001 the University of Hannover was transformed into a state enterprise. In 2002, the Lower Saxony Higher Education Act (NHG) was passed, which set the course for more competition and autonomy for the universities. University rankings became increasingly important. Lower Saxony was a pioneer among the federal states with regard to the evaluation of research and teaching. In current CHE rankings, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering occupies top positions in research.

In April 2004, the Production Technology Centre Hannover (PZH) was opened in Garbsen, which today houses eight institutes of mechanical engineering. The high-quality and modern equipment of the PZH offers ideal conditions for conducting cutting-edge research of international standing. As an open centre, the PZH is also designed for cooperation with partners from industry.

In 2005, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was renamed the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. At the end of the same year, the federal government launched its Excellence Initiative. State resources for universities were limited. In order to be able to continue high-quality, practice-oriented teaching and research, the acquisition of third-party funding and cooperation partners from industry and business became increasingly important. Today, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is the faculty with the third highest level of funding at the University of Hannover, which was renamed Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University in 2006 after the polymath.

In October 2013, computer scientist Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jessica Burgner-Kahrs from the MZH founded the Emmy Noether Young Investigators Group CROSS. CROSS stands for Continuum Robots for Surgical Systems. The scientists in the CROSS project are researching a special category of continuum robots: the Concentric Tube Continuum Robots (CTCR). These are articulated continuum robots that are very agile and flexible, similar to an elephant's trunk. Unlike the elephant's trunk, however, these robots are less than 2.5 millimetres in size, making them suitable for medical applications such as microsurgery or minimally invasive brain surgery. From 2015 to 2019, the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group CROSS existed as the Chair for Continuum Robotics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

Opposite the PZH in Garbsen, which opened in 2004, construction work officially began on 4 December 2015 on the new Mechanical Engineering Campus (CMG), which will bring together the entire potential of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in one place from 2019. For around 4,500 students and scientists, the Mechanical Engineering Campus will open up new opportunities for cooperation in research and teaching. Short distances and direct communication facilitate the transfer of ideas and information.

The PZH is conceptually integrated into the overall complex, which features seven new buildings: three institute buildings, a research building for dynamics and energy conversion (DEW), a lecture hall building, a refectory, a seminar and communication building with workrooms (SEKOM) for students and a technology building. Around 20,750 square metres of main floor space have been newly realised. With its modern facilities and close links to industry, the Mechanical Engineering Campus offers ideal conditions for new perspectives.