The winter semester 1995/96 saw the start of studies in Aschaffenburg, founded by FHWS. Five years later, the location became an independent higher education institution. Today, there is no trace of the former connection in everyday university life.
The name was long: Fachhochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt-Aschaffenburg. Of a similar length were also the distances between locations: it took a good one and a half hours’ drive and more than 120 kilometres via the A3 and A7 to get from Schweinfurt to Aschaffenburg. It was still about 80 kilometres from Würzburg. For five years, Aschaffenburg was an FHWS branch, until the location split off as an independent higher education institution in 2000. Today, hardly any of the students at the two higher education institutions know that this relationship once existed. There are no special connections or contacts between the “mother” FHWS and the “daughter” Aschaffenburg. How did the founding of a third location even come about in the first place?
Foundation with a historic dimension
“Aschaffenburg is a university town once again” – these were the words the then University president, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Fechner, used to start his foreword for the 1995 inauguration of the new branch. “Again?” you might ask. Yes “again”, because Prof. Dr. Fechner was referring to the Karls-Universität, which was located in Aschaffenburg from 1808 to 1814 and goes back to Karl-Theodor von Dalberg. According to Fechner's foreword, for Dalberg the theory-practice-relationship in education and the training of young people already constituted the basis for founding new higher education institutions. It was therefore right and proper that the university tradition should finally be resumed, “with a university of applied sciences for the modern industrial, service and information society”.
The basic idea therefore does indeed have a historical reference, but the actual reason is more likely to lie in the general upswing of the 1970s, when numerous universities of applied sciences were founded in Bavaria for the first time – such as the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, which has existed since 1 August 1971. At that time, the city of Aschaffenburg also applied as a university location, but was not considered until the second development phase in 1990 and was able to prevail against 25 other competitors.
From architectural planning to legal establishment
In Aschaffenburg, planning began on a blank sheet of paper. This led to the idea of getting help and support from an experienced partner. The Bavarian Cabinet therefore passed a fundamental resolution, on 26 November 1991, for Aschaffenburg to be founded as a branch of FHWS which had been established 20 years earlier. This was followed by the appointment of professors and representatives of industry and the administration to a structural advisory board in order to tailor the planning of the new location to regional needs and conditions. The structural advisory board met between 1992 and 1993 and submitted its recommendations to Hans Zehetmair, who was Bavarian Minister of Education and Culture at the time. The State Parliament then passed the law establishing the new higher education institutions at the end of April 1994. As a result, the Fachhochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt- Aschaffenburg legally came into existence on 1 May 1994 and advertising for construction and professorships began.
In the development phase, a medium-target of 1,000 students was set for the degree programmes in business administration, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and production engineering. But first a suitable location in the city had to be found. Their choice: the protected Jäger barracks on Würzburger Strasse, which are still part of Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences (TH AB) today. The gradual conversion of the former US military barracks into a functional, modern university building cost more than 80 million Deutschmarks in total.
Improvisation and flexibility were needed
Things provisionally started on 9 October 1995: 89 business administration students started their studies, supervised by four professors and nine lecturers, including founding dean Prof. Dr. Ulrich Brunsmann. He wrote the following about the launch in the commemorative publication: “At present, university operations are beginning in a single small building with lecture rooms, seminar rooms, the laboratory for data processing, the business administration library, with service rooms and administration.” Back then, improvisation and flexibility were the order of the day. Brunsmann, who made significant contributions to the establishment and expansion of the university location in the early years, today describes his field of activity at that time as follows: “I was the ‘go-to guy. We had to improvise a lot back then, but we received a lot of support from Würzburg.”
The support paid off. The surveys carried out in Aschaffenburg from the beginning of operations was consistently positive, as described by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in May 1999. That year, more than 82 percent of the 400 students rated the study atmosphere as good or very good. “The curriculum, the higher education institution’s high-quality, modern equipment and the work of the student council were acknowledged, of course.” One point of criticism at the time: the poor parking situation.
It was clear right from the start that the Aschaffenburg branch would one day become independent and would soon have to stand on its own two feet without support from Würzburg and Schweinfurt. Roland Weigand, then editor of the commemorative publication for the inauguration and long-time assistant to the president of FHWS, puts it this way: “The spin-off made sense and was politically endorsed. After all, development of a new university location doesn’t happen overnight.” The vice president at the time and later president of FHWS, Prof. Dr. Heribert Weber, also confirmed this: “We were able to help Aschaffenburg with our administration, which was good. But after five years, they had to become self-sufficient.”
No competition for FHWS
From this emerged Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences with today over 3,300 students. The Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Business and Law offer more than 16 Bachelor’s and seven Master’s degree programmes. Strong competition for FHWS, you might think, but the significant distance between the two locations still plays as crucial a role as it did back then. In March 2020, the Sonntags-Kurier asked then newly elected president Prof. Dr. Weber: “And FHWS has competition right under its nose as a result?” Weber replied: “I don’t think so” – referring to the geographical location: “Aschaffenburg is more likely to attract students from Darmstadt, Dieburg or Frankfurt.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Both higher education institutions have their own catchment and research areas and are independent of one another. There was no special contact, “not even at the presidential level. We maintain a good-neighbourly relationship with the university,” explains Weigand. “Today, Aschaffenburg is completely independent.”
When asked if his departure from Aschaffenburg pained him, former president Prof. Dr. Weber replied in the 2000 interview: “It was our job to get the branch this far.” It sounds like parents having to accept that their offspring is moving out and spreading their wings.
