Founded in 1868 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who had an affinity for technology, the Technische Hochschule München (THM) was to provide the "igniting spark of science" to industry and business.
Today, our university is one of the best in Europe. In its more than 150 years of existence, it has produced important Nobel Prize winners, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Many of these personalities shaped the character of TUM, its graduates, and the history of natural and technical sciences and medicine.
TUM Archiv
Future civil engineers on an excursion after an exercise in triangulation, a technique for measuring land using the trigonometric method, 1950.
Image gallery
A journey through 150 years
A lot has changed in over 150 years of history. How did students live and work all those years ago? What did the campus look like? What was research like? Take a brief journey through time at TUM - then and now.
TUM Archiv
Future civil engineers on an excursion after an exercise in triangulation, a technique for measuring land using the trigonometric method, 1950.
A.Eckert, A. Heddergott / TUM
A group of budding civil engineers with a teaching assistant (right) in 2010.
TUM Archiv
Surveying engineer Dr. Karl Max von Bauernfeind (1818 - 1894), founding director of the THM (beginning in 1868).
Astrid Eckert / TUM
Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Hofmann, current President of TUM (since 2019), photographed in 2021.
Architekturmuseum der TUM (Bayerland, Norbert Amann, 61. Jahrgang 1959)
Architecture students during a practical course at the Department of Physics. Georg Brenninger (1909 - 1988) talks to his students about the models they designed, year not given.
Astrid Eckert / TUM
Standing in front of their models at the TUM Technical Center, two architecture students committed to sustainable building and sustainability in architecture (2021).
TUM Architekturmuseum
Astrid Eckert / TUM
The main entrance to TUM at Arcisstraße 21 (2017).
TUM Archiv
The reading room of the THM university library in 1956.
Albert Scharger / TUM
Modern reading room of the TUM University Library on the main campus in Munich, Arcisstraße 21, more than 50 years later (2010).
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München / Bildarchiv
Bomb damage between Luisenstraße and Arcisstraße, between the old northern cemetery and Theresienstraße (lengthwise in front) with THM buildings, behind it a completely destroyed area that was built on by the university after 1945 as the "Nordgelände" (aerial photograph by the US Army).
Bavaria Luftbild Verlags GmbH, Fotograf Mario Siegemund / TUM
Aerial view of the main TUM campus in Munich city center in 2013.
TUM Archiv
The destroyed main building after the Second World War around 1945.
Uli Benz / TUM
The main building in the year of the university's 150th anniversary, 2018.
Bayerland, 61. Jahrgang / 1959, Norbert Amann
Input station of the Program-Controlled Electronic Computing Machine Munich (PERM). It was the first digital, parallel computing machine to be manufactured and put into operation in the Federal Republic of Germany. The joint project of mathematicians and electrical engineers was conducted between 1952 and 1956 and formed the basis of today's Leibniz Supercomputing Center.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM
Then, as now, the results of the calculations are stored on magnetic tapes: The Data Science Storage at the Leibniz Supercomputing Center of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (opened in 2019) has capacity for 200 petabytes of scientific data calculated on the current supercomputer SuperMUC-NG – or for 30 million hours of streaming video.
TUM Archiv
Large dining hall of the canteen, ca. 1959. The canteen on the corner of Gabelsbergerstraße and Arcisstraße was built between 1956 and 1957 by Franz Hart (1910-1996), Professor of Structural Engineering and Building Materials Science at the THM.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM
The large dining hall of the canteen in Arcisstrasse in 2018.
Stadtarchiv Garching
Construction of the Munich Research Reactor (FRM) near Garching, which went into operation in 1957. Due to its shape, it was also known as the "atomic egg" and was intended to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy as a neutron source. It also marked the beginning of the development of the new Garching research campus in 1958/59.
TUM ProLehre Medienproduktion
Aerial view of the Garching research campus in 2021. In addition to the TUM research buildings in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, and entrepreneurship, the area is also home to non-university institutions such as the Fraunhofer and Max Planck Institutes and numerous companies.
TUM Archiv
A student works at his desk in the 1930s for his mechanical engineering studies at the "Technische Hochschule München".
Uli Benz / TUM
A student prepares for her courses in her student room in the "Apian-Studenten-Apartment-Haus" (Student residence) in Unterföhring, 2013.
TUM Archiv
Student room in Munich in the 1930s.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM
Student in the student residence at Biederstein, 2008.
TUM Archiv
Geodesy exercise on the ruins in front of the “Alte Pinakothek,” in the background the largely preserved southern part of the main building, 1950.
Uli Benz / TUM
Two students working on a theodolite measuring device at the Chair of Cartography in 2013. A theodolite is an angle-measuring instrument used in geodesy to measure horizontal directions and zenith or vertical angles.
TUM Archiv
The team of the "Spieldose,” a puppet theater founded by architecture students at TUM in 1955, in their performance space in Munich's Künstlerhaus, 1960s.
Markus Busjan / Spieldose
Figures from the "Spieldose - Mechanisches Theater München" program almost 60 years later in 2015. The scene is from: "Der Watzmann ruft," an alpine drama performed in the "Spieldose" in the Kultikids-Keller in the Werksviertel in Munich—main characters (from left to right): three farmhands, the farmer, and the women.
Klinikum rechts der Isar (TUM)
Old operating room in the Klinikum rechts der Isar in 1893. Ownership of the once municipal hospital was transferred to TUM in 1967.
Klinikum rechts der Isar (TUM)
A modern operating room at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich, where doctors operate on an aneurysm using robotic controls (2022).
Klinikum rechts der Isar (TUM)
Siemens Universal Planigraph in the X-ray institute of the Klinikum rechts der Isar in 1957.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM
Dark-field X-ray machine at the Klinikum rechts der Isar, 2020.
Klinikum rechts der Isar (TUM)
Aerial view of the hospital grounds of the Klinikum rechts der Isar in 1964.
Bavaria Luftbild Verlags GmbH
Aerial view of the hospital campus in 2017. Numerous new buildings have been added, including the "Neuro-Kopf-Zentrum" (block of four buildings, top left) and the TranslaTUM (triangular building, bottom right), as well as the lecture hall building (front center, red wall).
TUM Archiv
Laboratory in Weihenstephan at the Institute for Fermentation Technology (year unknown).
Uli Benz / TUM
In a laboratory at TUM‘s School of Life Sciences in Weihenstephan research is being conducted on Lotus japonicus plants, which are used as a model plant for root symbioses with bacteria and fungi, 2019.
TUM Archiv
Employees of the Chair of Ornamental Horticulture, 1970. The THM offered studies in horticultural sciences beginning in 1947.
Astrid Eckert / TUM
A professor (left) takes soil samples with her students and doctoral students in agricultural sciences in the Freising forest area, 2019.
TUM Archiv
Anna Helene Koch (1881 - 1920, née Boyksen), the first electrical engineering student at the THM, in front of the spectral apparatus in the physics practical course around 1908.
Astrid Eckert / TUM
An electrical engineering and information technology student works in a laboratory on the inner city campus at the Chair of Security in Information Technology, 2021.
TUM Archiv
TUM students celebrating carnival in the 1960s.
Andreas Heddergott / TUM
TUM students celebrate the start of the new winter semester in 2022.
Chronicle
TUM Archiv
Surveying engineer Dr. Karl Max von Bauernfeind (1818 - 1894), founding director of the THM (beginning in 1868).
With the aim of professionalizing technical and scientific education, King Ludwig II founded the “New Polytechnic School” in Munich in 1868. It later became the Technische Hochschule München. The first director was the surveying engineer Karl Max von Bauernfeind. The new building on Arcisstrasse, designed by architect Gottfried v. Neureuther, was also occupied in the same year that the school was founded.
Photograph of the main wing of the Munich Polytechnic School, built by Gottfried von Neureuther, (ca. 1874)
TUM in figures
1868 (WS 1869/70)
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TUM Archive
The TUM Archive collects, preserves, and provides access to records and objects documenting the history of our university. Researchers from around the world can use these resources for their work.
The Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, or economics is considered the most prestigious award in the world. To date, 19 TUM researchers and alumni have received this award (date: 2024).
Women were permitted to study at the THM beginning in 1905. Agnes Mackensen was the first female student to enroll, followed by Anna Boyksen in 1906 as the first female engineering student. In 1946, Liesel Beckmann was appointed the first female professor. Many others followed, and they contributed significantly to our success, our reputation, and our research achievements.
Some 36% of our students and 24% of our professors are female. The commitment to equal opportunity and the promotion of talented women continues to be an essential mission of our university.
I am a really tough character by nature, and I don't let difficulties or setbacks get me down.
Prof. Dr. Luise Krempl-Lamprecht
TUM's first female professor in the natural sciences (medicine, 1973 - 1989)
Equal opportunity
The Staff Unit Diversity & Inclusion and the Gender Equality Office are committed to all women's issues and concerns. They offer a variety of programs to support and promote women.
This individual coaching is aimed at female researchers and science managers. They can work with professional coaches to draw up their individual career plan.
The years of the National Socialist regime were characterized at the “Technische Hochschule München” (THM) by the suppression of Jewish students and scientists, dismissals, and the elimination of university autonomy. The THM was extensively involved in armaments research as part of German rearmament and during the Second World War.
In 2018, in a joint initiative with TUM, the NS Documentation Center presented the exhibition "Die THM im Nationalsozialismus" (The THM under National Socialism), which shed light on the role of the Technical University of Munich (TUM since 1970) during the Nazi era based on an extensive reappraisal and research project. Today, TUM remains committed to education and transparency regarding its history. In May 2023, it established a commission of experts to draw up recommendations for how to deal with former members of the university convicted of Nazi crimes, as well as with the buildings and rooms that bear their names.
Consistent reappraisal of the history of National Socialism
Implementing the results of the expert commission
The commission has submitted a report with concrete recommendations for action, which are being implemented by the university. The investigations included the use of names of people with Nazi convictions in university buildings and rooms, as well as the awarding of honorary titles to people with Nazi convictions. TUM is committed to continued research on and reappraisal of its history during the Nazi era.
Technical universities were a constitutive part of the system whose goals they helped pursue, and that is a fact we have to face.
Prof. Winfried Nerdinger
Founding Director of the NS Documentation Center and TUM Emeritus of Excellence
TUM Archiv
"We have to face up to history."
A research project by TUM and the NS Documentation Center
A team of scientists conducted in-depth research into TUM's Nazi past and presented the research results to the public in an exhibition in 2018 to mark the university’s 150th anniversary. The architectural historian Prof. Winfried Nerdinger, Emeritus of Excellence of TUM and founding director of the Munich Documentation Center for National Socialism, was head of the project and is still committed to coming to terms with this period at our university.
The book "Die THM im NS" provides detailed information and a wealth of historical images about the role of the Technical University of Munich in the period 1933-1945 and its links to the Nazi regime. It also documents the stories of university members who were dismissed and persecuted by the National Socialists. The book was published in 2018 as a print edition and is now freely available as a PDF.
A new place of remembrance for members of the former Technical University of Munich (THM) who were dismissed and persecuted by the Nazi regime is being created at TUM. The biographies of 17 victims are documented on large-format panels on the second floor of the building at the corner of Arcisstrasse and Gabelsbergerstrasse. The establishment of this central memorial site is an initiative of the TUM Senior Excellence Faculty in cooperation with the TUM Center for Culture and Arts. The exhibition was opened on 9 July 2024.
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"TUMinside" video of the opening event
Persecuted by the Nazis
In addition to the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, and the founding director of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, Winfried Nerdinger, numerous students also took part in the ceremonial opening of the memorial site. The stories and fates of the victims, the memory of them, and the role of THM in National Socialism are still important topics for them today. Watch a new episode of “TUMinside” produced by TUM Center for Study and Teaching about this special occasion.
