Mittweida University welcomes Anniversary class

Both thirsty for knowledge and action at the start of this new chapter of their lives and at the same time excited for what might be awaiting them, the freshmen sat in the local church “Of Our Dear Women” on the day of their festive matriculation. More than 300 of the more than 2400 new students of the university came together with proud relatives and friends to be received ceremoniously into the big university family.

hey were welcomed not only by the current faculty of the university but also by three historical figures: Oskar Friedrich Kunze, mayor during the university’s founding years - portrayed by Lord mayor Ralf Schreiber, the university’s founding father Wilhelm Heinrich Uhland - portrayed by Lord mayor Ralf Schreiber and one of the university’s first rectors Carl Georg Weitzel - portrayed by current rector Ludwig Hilmer. Hilmer asked the Anniversary class to bear with this sense of history and proceeded to call out those students who also celebrated their birthday at this time, in order to symbolically matriculate them in place of their fellow students.

This winter semester 6,800 students were enrolled at the university, a peak number. Lord mayor Ralf Schreiber emphasized again that Mittweida, with approximately 15,000 inhabitants, deserved its title of "University Town”, which had recently been officially approved by the Free State of Saxony. The excellent supervision and counseling in particular are what students consider beneficial. Mittweida University continues to top national rankings for that quality year after year. Moreover, Ralf Schreiber congratulated the freshmen on having chosen Mittweida as their new home.

“That really was a world, it was almost the world,” it was said of the global reach during the days of popular Mittweida students August Horch and Friedrich Opel. Once again this year, 295 international students began their studies in Mittweida. "And again, the world comes to our town – with people who have been displaced and found sanctuary here,” rector Ludwig Hilmer reported of the 140 refugees who are currently staying at the university’s gymnasium. Never before in the 150 years of its existence did the university have so much reason to be proud of its students, he said, thanking all volunteers for their dedicated support.

Parish priest Johannes Grasemann, who welcomed the freshmen to his church, once more addressing the situation, "The new students have left home. So have the refugees, on their way to a distant land."

Chairman of the student council Gordon G. Oswald encouraged the newcomers to get settled in Mittweida and to approach the student council with any problems. He, too, has benefitted greatly from the family atmosphere at the university: “Everyone will find a place here - and not only on the stairs."

As has become tradition, the Carl-Georg-Weitzel-Award was awarded during the festive matriculation, too. Sponsored by the Mittweida University’s Association of Supporters and awarded for outstanding theses and dissertations, it is to serve as an incentive in the academic careers of the new students as well. This year it was awarded to Master graduate Dirk Linnemann for his especially innovative thesis entitled "Redesign of the entire process of tempering crank shafts with a focus on energy and resource efficiency". The chairman of the Supporter’s Association Professor Michael Hösel praised Linnemann's interdisciplinary approach, which is extraordinary for someone without many years of professional experience.

Having started with a sense of history, the event proceeded in a similar vein: The festive matriculation was followed by the historical "Techniker-Bummel" (engineers' stroll) that intended to remind everyone of how 100 years ago students of the former "Technikum", Mittweida University's predecessor, used to walk into the town centre with its 60 eateries after after each day's final lecture. The heavy rain alone made for refreshment in great quantities just as its historical role model.