50th alumni anniversary of the class of 8-72

In September there was a very special visit to the BTU from the seminar group 8-72. The former students, born in 1972, celebrated their 50th anniversary and returned to the central campus in Cottbus. The all-male class started their civil engineering studies at what was then the engineering college in Cottbus with the same youthful carelessness as all the other freshmen. “Fortunately, our supervisor at the time, Prof. Hans Hänsch, knew how to form an outstanding and powerful group from our pure bunch of men. Two-thirds of us had received performance scholarships during our studies and accordingly we later had successful professional careers," says alumnus Horst Gorn. The seminar group includes, among others, the building contractor Gunter Hüttner and the academic Prof. Rolf Silbereisen, who taught in Potsdam and maintained BTU cooperations, especially with Prof. Angelika Mettke. But many other engineering careers also belong to the career paths of the seminar group.

The above-average performance of the entire seminar group even saved their studies. The entire class was threatened with de-registration for political reasons because of a rebellious joke. During the GDR era, you had to be very careful about what you said publicly. Among other things, the limits were occasionally tested at carnival celebrations, which were among the party highlights of the year among students at the time. At that time there was no freedom of expression and false statements, protests and actions could cost you your studies, your career and even your freedom. But the seminar group was lucky and there was no exmatriculation thanks to strong advocates who had good arguments with the above-average performance of the group.

The alumni still knew the Cottbus University of Applied Sciences purely as a construction school, so they were visibly enthusiastic about the current developments and the scientific diversity on campus during the visit and the tour. The literal culmination of the anniversary was the presentation of honorary graduation hats. We are proud of all our alumni of the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and its predecessor institutions and are always happy to see alumni visiting the campus. At the next anniversary of the seminar group in 10 years, there will probably be completely new things to discover on campus, because the BTU will continue to be dynamic in the changing times with future-oriented scientific topics.