New public lecture series: ‘Forensic Sciences: Investigating Crime at the Football Stadium’

All interested parties are warmly welcome to attend in the Main Lecture Theatre on the BTU’s Cottbus main campus at Konrad-Zuse-Straße 4. Admission is free. No registration is required.

Under the patronage of the Brandenburg Football Association (FLB) and using FC Energie Cottbus (FCE) as a case study, the focus is on the Bundesliga football stadium as a scene of the crime. Operational and match safety in professional football are the focus of this series of events. The starting point for this is the ongoing debate on safety issues, which has recently led to public statements from the fan community through protests during prime-time league coverage.

About the lecture

The event will be preceded by an introduction by Prof. Dr Patricia M. Schütte from the German Police University in Münster – an honorary member of the German Football Association’s (DFB) Commission for Prevention and Safety.
Match operations in the third, second or first Bundesliga generate pressure that forces professionalisation. This affects the entire football operation and has repercussions that extend far beyond the stadium and its location, reaching into the wider region. Football clubs cannot avoid safety regulations and legal requirements and need the resources and expertise to successfully manage such challenges. The key areas this concerns and how safety should be approached conceptually will be addressed and illustrated with concrete examples.

The opening lecture on camera technology in stadium security will be given by Prof. Dr Dirk Labudde, who heads the Forensic Science Investigation Lab research group at Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.

The moderator is Dr Dirk Marx, coordinator of the Master’s programme
in Forensic Sciences and Engineering at BTU

Background

The lecture series ‘On the Trail of Crime in Football Stadiums’ is a first attempt to discuss security issues objectively and neutrally. The aim of the evening events is to examine the topic of security as a necessary part of match operations in professional football from various perspectives. In this respect, the requirements and implications, as well as expectations regarding such a concept and the relevant operations of professional football, must also be examined scientifically. The German Football Association (DFB) expressly supports this and welcomes future and optional collaborations.

Further dates in the 2026 summer term

– from 5.30 pm to 7 pm in the Main Lecture Theatre on the BTU’s main campus, Konrad-Zuse-Straße 4, 03046 Cottbus, with a follow-up discussion in the foyer

5 June:
Innovation, stadium security, pyrotechnic applications
Officer: Prof. Dr Thomas Fischer, BTU, Analytical Forensics.
19 June:
Pyrotechnics in football stadiums
Officer: Michelle Beth, Staff Member, Institute for Legal Policy (IRP) Trier
3 July:
Police and security in football stadiums
Officer: Police Superintendent Stefan Werner, Cottbus/Spree-Neiße Police Station,
Head of Command and Precinct Services. 
24 July:
Stewarding in football stadiums
Officer: Patrick Paulick, board chairperson of the Safety
Committee at the Brandenburg Football Association (FLB)

About the Forensic Sciences and Engineering study programme

The Forensic Sciences and Engineering study programme, leading to a Master of Science qualification, is an extra-occupational continuing education study programme at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and is unique in Germany. The seminars in the forensic science study programme focus on crime scene work, investigative procedures and the evaluation of evidence, as well as their analysis in the context of admissibility in court.
The programme is delivered in a transdisciplinary, scientific manner at the BTU. Forensic knowledge, which is also applicable to examiners in the private sector, is a key feature of the curriculum. Overall, forensic science faces new challenges: the pace of methodological, technical and scientific developments is shaped by digitalisation and new international and European trends, which are pushing law enforcement agencies and examiners – who have traditionally operated at a national level – to their limits.
Forensic Sciences and Engineering at the BTU is rising to these challenges and expanding its teaching profile by offering specialisation certificates in fire investigation, handwriting analysis, white-collar crime and the specialist area of chemical and biological substances. Those who do not meet the entry requirements for a Master’s degree are nevertheless given a unique opportunity to pursue further university-level education in these specialist fields.