Step by step back into the air

Now we've got the space, what about a course of study?

The expansion of the scientific discipline now urgently needed to be complemented with a full course of studies. As early as the 1930s, the German Aviation Ministry had envisaged Stuttgart College of Technology as a training centre for aviation engineers. These plans had not been shelved in the post-war period.

The Ministry of Culture in Stuttgart continued to plan the college as a centre for teaching aviation engineering. Thus in 1955 a separate department of Aviation Engineering and a corresponding course of studies was founded within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Now for the first time it was possible to start studying Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering from the very first semester, and not only from the fifth semester onwards after passing the intermediate exam, as had previously been the case. This new course got underway in the winter semester of 1956/57. Provisions had only been made for 60 students a year, a figure which was quickly exceeded by growing numbers of first-year students, and thus the old problem of lack of space soon returned.

Due to a lack of teaching capacity, between 1956 and 1960 students still had to complete their introductory studies in Mechanical Engineering. It was only when further buildings were completed and new professors were appointed that introductory studies could be carried out by the department itself from the winter semester of 1960/61.

Astronautic Engineering had been taught in Stuttgart since the late 1950s. But it was only as part of the reorganisation of the faculties in 1969 that the expansion of astronautic research was reflected in the university structure. The new faculty and course of studies were given the name of Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering.