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The History of the Department
The Munich Polytechnic School’s new building inaugurated in 1868 and designed by Gotttried Neureuther, one of school’s founding professors;
engraving from 1869.
‘The organic provisions for the new Polytechnic School in
Munich have been granted approval by His Majesty the
King, and the relevant royal ordinance will be published
in the government gazette today.’ These were the words
used by the Allgemeine Zeitung in Augsburg, one of
Germany’s leading newspapers, when it announced the
establishment of the Technical University of Munich (TUM)
as a Polytechnic School on 24 April 1868. This was also
the date on which the history of today’s Department of
Mechanical Engineering began.
The Allgemeine Zeitung continued: The school ‘comprises
one general department and four technical schools: for
engineers, architects, mechanics and chemical engineers.
These five departments will teach both mathematical
and natural sciences as well as the arts of drawing,
construction and engineering, mechanical and chemical
technology in their full scope.’ Literature, cultural history,
aesthetics, law, geography, history etc. were ‘taught within
the boundaries matching the audience’.
The school was given university status from the begin-
ning. During its first year, a total of 24 professors and 21
lecturers taught approximately 350 students. The different
positions of the academic instructors were distinguished
as follows: ‘The professors at the Polytechnic School are
public servants. They are divided into full professors (with
the rank of collegial councillor) and associate professors
(with the rank of collegiate assessor)’. Moreover: ‘[T]hese
senior teachers will share teaching with an appropriate
number of assistant teachers as well as readers.’ There
were explicit rules for students with regard to both
behaviour and teaching: ‘[T]he audience is subject to
the institute’s disciplinary code’ and ‘each student must
be occupied at the school at least three hours per day.’
Students’ admission was also regulated: ‘The Polytechnic
School only admits students who have reached the age
of seventeen and who have completed a technical middle
school (equivalent to a Realgymnasium).’ The latter was a
secondary school with a focus on sciences.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering has its origins
in the mechanics school,
Department IV, Mechanical-Tech-
nical Department
. At the time of its founding, theoretical
mechanics was still part of mathematical physics at the
General Department, and Technical Mechanics was part of
the Engineering Department. This department dealt with
geodesy, civil engineering and the field of infrastructure.
To guarantee the school’s success it issued the following
statement in 1868: ‘Indeed, only capable teachers and
directors are able to breathe life into it (the Polytechnic
School).’