History of the University

Fachhochschule Köln (Cologne University of Applied Sciences) was founded on 1 August 1971 by uniting the following predecessor institutions:

Engineering schools, colleges of further education, crafts schools in Cologne
- State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering Cologne I
- State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering Cologne II
- State Engineering School for Construction Cologne
- Kölner Werkschulen (Cologne Crafts Schools)
- College of Further Education for Social Work Cologne
- College of Further Education for Business Cologne
- College of Further Education for Translators and Interpreters Cologne
- German Insurance Academy Cologne
- State College of Further Education for Photography Cologne

The following faculties were created:
1. Architecture
2. General Processing Technology
3. Construction Engineering
4. Electrical Energy Technology
5. Vehicle Engineering
6. Construction Technology
7. Art and Design
8. Agricultural Machine Engineering
9. Information Technology
10. Photography
11. Production Technology
12. Social Work
13. Social Pedagogy
14. Languages
15. Supply Technology
16. Business I
17. Business II (Insurance Sector)

The State engineering School for Mechanical Engineering in Gummersbach was first allocated to Siegen Comprehensive University and only became part of Cologne University of Applied Sciences on 1 June 1983 as "Centre III" with the faculties of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Informatics.

These courses are still part of the university's teaching programme today, however we have continuously added to the variety of our course offerings.
Originally the university was planned and built for a "1980 target student figure" of 7,800, but it soon grew from 5349 to temporarily up to 22,000 students. With its 18,000 students today, it is still Germany's largest university of its kind.

From crafts, building and trade schools to engineering schools and Kölner Werkschulen

Following in the footsteps of the first private crafts, building and trade schools in Cologne, the Royal Provincial Trade School, founded in 1833, was officially renamed Trade College of the City of Cologne on 15 December 1879, becoming a technical college with a mechanical engineering, construction engineering and an arts and crafts faculty , first located at Kolumbakirchhof.

In 1886 this purely municipal college already moved into the building at Salierring 32, where, in 1888, it was divided into a mechanical engineering faculty, a technical school and a senior crafts school, generously supported by the Association of German Engineers (VDI) and industrialists. Only on 1 April 1895 did the state start contributing major funds towards the costs.

In 1901 the arts and crafts faculty was relocated to the Alexian Monastery in Mauritiussteinweg and became an Arts and Crafts School. The two remaining faculties became the Royal United Schools of Mechanical Engineering and a Construction School.

While the Arts and Crafts School remained in the hands of the city until 1971, the two other schools became independent state colleges in 1903.

On 24 October 1904 the Mechanical Engineering School received a new building on a 7,700 sqm site at Ubierring 48, which had been built for 1,856,000 reichsmarks. A drawing of the building from 1934 and the 1911 rules of the school are still among the preserved records of the former head of the Technology College of the Cologne Society for Technological Further Education, which Prof. Dr. Otto Kirch donated to the university.

After 1918 the "Royal Schools" became the "United State Colleges for Machine and Mining Equipment Engineering" of Cologne.

Like the Construction School, which remained at Salierring, it became an Engineering School in 1938.

In April 1924 the Arts and Crafts School moved into the Red House (it was painted red) at Ubierring 40, which was only officially inaugurated "in the following carnival season by a big fancy dress ball which attracted all artists and art lovers of Cologne, and which - like a bird of paradise - is still an annual sensation in Cologne today" (Eulogy for the 75th Anniversary of Kölner Werkschulen from 1954).

An "administrative office" was created to partly finance the costs of the school, accepting orders for the school's workshops against consideration.

The school was given the name Kölner Werkschulen, which it lost under the Nazi regime, when - under imposed political conformity - it strayed very far from its original philosophy (Kunsthandwerkerschule der Hansestadt Köln, Kölner Meisterschule).

An air raid destroyed more than 70% of the building on 2 March 1945.
Having suffered devastating damages in the war, the building at Ubierring 48 with the faculties of structural and civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, gas and water, heating and ventilation was re-opened on 15 May

Courses started again at Kölner Werkschulen with a celebration on 4 November 1946.
The students contributed greatly to the reconstruction and refurbishing of the buildings.
Heavily destroyed on 31 May 1942, the building at Salierring was no longer usable.

On 5 March 1950 the faculties of structural and civil engineering moved into a "completely new and purpose-designed school building" provided by the city of Cologne as an independent engineering school in Turmstraße in Cologne-Nippes, and again in 1967 to a new building in Deutz - Kalker - Str. 116 in Cologne-Deutz, the current "old building" of Centre I of Cologne University of Applied Sciences. In 1971 it was transformed into the faculty of construction engineering and - after integration of the courses of Kölner Werkschulen - the faculty of architecture.

The building in Ubierring 48 was rebuilt by late 1953, but expanded immediately after the purchase of a new site and housed the State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering, which was split into Schools I and II in 1960. Today it is at Mainzer Str.5 as Centre II of the university. The engineering courses - after the relocation of plant and processing technology and vehicle engineering to the building in Claudiusstraße 1 - have been located in the Engineering Sciences Centre Ingenieurwissenschaftliches Zentrum in Cologne-Deutz since 1977.
This, the largest, centre comprises the mentioned "old building" and the "new building" which was inaugurated - initially without a canteen - after a construction period of only 36 months on 3 October 1977. Now it not only boasts a canteen but there are also three halls of residence on the site and - inaugurated in 2001 - a new building for the university library.

The building at Ubierring 40 was reconstructed by 1955 and also expanded and is part of Centre II of the university. Kölner Werkschulen were made part of the faculty of Art and Design of Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1971. After the closure of the Free Art course from 1988 to 1992, the existing Graphic Design course was replaced by the "Cologne Model". Today's design faculty is - just like its predecessor - an internationally acclaimed training institution.

Charity School of the City of Cologne

On 1 April 1914 the city founded the School for Public Charity Workers, which was renamed Charity School of the City of Cologne in 1915 and approved by the state in 1919. Revived as a municipal school in 1945, it was transformed into a College of Social Work in 1959. The college was located in Cologne-Weidenpesch, Pallenbergstraße 24, in a former nurses' home and very cramped when it joined Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1971 and the faculty of social work and (completely new) social pedagogy were founded. In early 1972 the building was evacuated and the faculty moved into the same building as the faculties of architecture and construction engineering. Due to the unacceptably cramped conditions one-storey pavilions had to be set up on the site in 1974, before the faculties could move to a rented building in Höninger Weg in Cologne-Zollstock in 1977. In 1983 the two faculties found their final home in the restored building at Ubierring 48/ Mainzerstrasse 5 - part of the Humanities Centre - in the south of Cologne.

From a Business School to a Senior Business College

In May 1947 the Business School of the City of Cologne opened its gates in Lützowstraße 8-10 (entrance Lindenstraße 78). It was promoted to a senior business college in 1961 and moved to a building in Lotharstraße 14 - 18 on 19 April 1962. There it remained even after the foundation of Cologne University of Applied Sciences as the Faculty of Economic Sciences until relocating to the completely renovated northern wing of the listed Old University building in Claudiusstrasse 1 in Centre II, the Humanities Centre, still constituting the largest faculty.

The senior business college initially also offered training in foreign languages and was made an independent "College of Further Education for Translators and Interpreters on 1 April 1964. This - in Germany - unique teaching institution also grew very much and switched to rented rooms in Aachener Straße 217, where it remained in a very restricted form, until moving - as the faculty of languages - to the completely renovated former engineering school building in Ubierring 48/Mainzerstrasse 5 - Centre II in 1983.

The German Insurance Academy

The - for Germany - unique faculty of insurance was founded in 1949 as a privately sponsored college of further education and was state-approved as the German Insurance Academy in 1951. It was headquartered in Richard-Wagner-Straße 40, where it remained until its integration in Cologne University of Applied Sciences as the Faculty of Economic Sciences II, as which it then moved to the building at Ubierring 48/Mainzerstrasse 5 - Centre II - in the south of Cologne in 1983.
V. State College of Further Education for Photography

The State College of Further Education for Photography was founded on 6 May 1954 in Hohenstaufenring 48 - 54 and was integrated as Germany's only course of this kind in Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1971 and continued as the faculty of photo engineering in the Engineering Sciences Centre in Cologne-Deutz from 1977. The fast development of this field called for a restructuring of the course and its renaming into the faculty of photo engineering and media technology in 2000.

State College of Further Education for Photography

The State College of Further Education for Photography was founded on 6 May 1954 in Hohenstaufenring 48 - 54 and was integrated as Germany's only course of this kind in Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1971 and continued as the faculty of photo engineering in the Engineering Sciences Centre in Cologne-Deutz from 1977. The fast development of this field called for a restructuring of the course and its renaming into the faculty of photo engineering and media technology in 2000.

State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering becomes Campus Gummersbach

In Gummersbach, 70 kilometres from Cologne, the State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering was founded on 1 April 1963 and had to share 17 other buildings until it could move into its own building at Sandberg 1 on 1 June 1970.

In 1971 it became a faculty of Siegen Polytechnic and on 1 June 1983 it was integrated in Cologne University of Applied Sciences as Centre III with the faculties of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and (newly founded) informatics.
Organisationally Campus Gummersbach has since then officially been a branch of Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

The Faculty of Restoration and Conservation of Art and Cultural Heritage

With the wide support of political and professional organisations Cologne University of Applied Sciences created a new faculty for the restoration and conservation of art and cultural heritage, which kicked off at the start of the winter semester 1986/87 in Claudiusstrasse 1. From 1990 to 1994 the faculty moved into the renovated rooms of the former Kölner Werkschulen at Ubierring 40.

From the West German Public Library School Cologne to the Librarian Training College of North Rhine Westphalia

On 16 May 1928 the West German Public Library School Cologne opened its gates. This school, which initially only had one full-time lecturer, was housed in several provisional locations, before moving to a permanent place in what was then Public Library XI in Cologne-Deutz, where it remained until its total destruction in 1942. The school was closed from November 1944 to June 1946, before opening again in the buildings of the university and later in the university and municipal library. Under the patronage of the federal state, the school became the Librarian Training college of North Rhine Westphalia in the spring of 1949 and had close ties with the corresponding faculty at Cologne University. In 1981 the institute became the University of Applied Librarian and Documentation Science and received its own rooms in 1983 in the building Claudiusstrasse 1 of the Humanities Centre of Cologne University of Applied Sciences.

On 3 April 1995 it was integrated in Cologne University of Applied Sciences as the 22nd field of studies - "Librarianship and Documentation Science". Prof. Dr. Jung published a detailed account of the faculty's history in edition 4 of the "insider".
IX. Foundation of Universities of Applied Sciences in North Rhine Westphalia

Prof. Dr. Joachim Metzner described the political background of the mid-1960s that heralded the birth of universities of applied sciences on 1 August 1971 in a comprehensive essay for insider no. 6/1996.
He reported in detail about the "phases and stages of a dynamic development" in his article "The Founding Years Are Already History" (also available in English) in the publication Fachhochschulen in Deutschland.
After the completion of comprehensive building and renovation measures and restructuring of the course offerings of Cologne University of Applied Sciences were organised in three centres and 22 fields of study plus the Institute for Tropical Technology and central institutions.