Atmospheric start to the semester whets the appetite for study and culture
With exciting information, entertaining activities and a party atmosphere, BTU students celebrated the start of the new academic year at Campus Senftenberg together with professors, teaching and research fellows and guests of honour on 15 October 2025 at the Theater neue Bühne Senftenberg. For around 300 first-semester students on eight Bachelor's and three Master's degree programmes, this also marked the start of a significant new phase in their lives.
"Give your curiosity space! Curiosity is the appropriate motto for this academic year at BTU," said University President Prof. Dr Gesine Grande in her welcoming address, in which she also referred to the outstanding development of the Senftenberg campus....
The students were also warmly welcomed by the director of the new theatre, Daniel Ris, the mayor of Senftenberg, Andreas Pfeiffer, and the head of education for the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz, Robert Weidner, as well as students from higher semesters.
Theatre director Daniel Ris led the varied programme together with BTU student Sandra Bierhals. Klara Richter and Elisa Michel from the Biotechnology Departmental Committee welcomed the first-semester students and humorously shared their personal experiences and tips. On the BTU side, Lena Berthold and Johann Hübner from the Materials Chemistry Departmental Committee amazed the audience with chemical experiments on stage, student teachers Alexandra Schapp and Marius Kotzsch gave insights into the First Lego League together with pupils, and the performance by the traditional Indian dance group fascinated the audience.
The new stage whetted the audience's appetite for the season's programme with a video clip and remarks by artistic director Daniel Ris and head dramaturge Karoline Felsmann. The performance by the theatre's JugendSpielClub was another atmospheric highlight of the start of the semester, accompanied on the piano by Saessak Shin from the new stage. Senftenberg vouchers, free tickets for the nB ClubNacht and the student Snowflake Ball on 24 January 2025 were up for grabs in several quiz rounds.
The successful start to the new academic year - organised in cooperation between the new stage and BTU under the leadership of Konstanze Keilholz - concluded with lively discussions and music as well as free beer and snacks, which were once again provided with the support of the city of Senftenberg and the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz.