The Polytechnikum, the "central technical and scientific educational institution of the North Hessian region" in the middle of the 19th century

What were the forerunner institutions of our university and how were the researchers Friedrich Wöhler, Robert Bunsen and the industrialist Carl Anton Henschel connected to first educational institution for mechanical engineering in Kassel? We answer these questions in the first part of our short series on the history of mechanical engineering in Kassel.

It was not only with the founding of the university in 1971 that mechanical engineers began to learn their trade in Kassel (at that time there were more male than female engineers - we will devote a separate article to the first female mechanical engineers in Kassel). This is evidenced, for example, by the meaningful name "Engineering School" of the Wilhelmshöher Allee location, where our mechatronics students attend the majority of their courses today. Mechanical engineering was taught in this building as early as the 1950s. However, the scientific and technical education of young people in Kassel had already been pushed 120 years earlier. The "Polytechnikum" was founded in 1832 on the initiative of Kassel's Mayor Karl Schomburg. At this institution, officially called the "Höhere Gewerbeschule" (Higher Industrial School), young people from the age of 14 could acquire a basic scientific and technical education that entitled them to subsequently attend a university.

Thanks to its outstanding teachers, including the chemists Friedrich Wöhler and Robert Bunsen, the Polytechnikum quickly became the "central technical and scientific educational institution in the North Hessian region", according to Albrecht Hoffmann (2011, p. 347). Due to the importance and reputation of the Polytechnikum, in the 1860s the responsible cultural officer Herrmann Schwarzenberger and some supporters lobbied for its transformation into a fully-fledged technical university. However, their initiative was unsuccessful. Over the next few years, the Polytechnikum lost more and more of its status; it was first downgraded to a commercial and industrial school and finally closed in 1888.

Although the Polytechnikum was closed decades before the founding of the engineering school or even the University of Kassel, it is nevertheless part of its development history - not only because of its thematic focus, but also because of its close connection to the Henschel & Sohn company: Otto Henschel, son of the machine manufacturer and builder of the foundry Carl Anton Henschel, was among the first students at the Polytechnikum. In addition, from the mid-1840s the Henschel company used its connection to the educational institution to "recruit suitable skilled personnel for the growing company and in particular for the construction of steam locomotives" (Hoffmann 2011, pp. 354-355).

With increasing industrialisation and the rise of the Henschel company over the next few decades, the need for qualified specialists in mechanical engineering also increased. However, due to the closure of the Polytechnikum, these could not be trained locally for a long time. Although a technical school was founded in 1896 with the "Baugewerkeschule", "[g]iven the training programme of the 'Polytechnische Schule', mechanical engineering had now come up short" (Bennedik 1965, p. 9). For this reason, the Engineering School  was finally founded in 1955.

German text Daniel Koch

Sources

Bennedik, Kurt (1965): 1955-1965. 10 years of the State Engineering School for Mechanical Engineering Kassel. Kassel.

Hoffmann, Albrecht (2011): The Polytechnic in Kassel (1832-1870). A college for sons of notable bourgeois families in the early industrial age. In: Björn Onken and Dorothea Rhode (eds.): "in omni historia curiosus". Studien zur Geschichte von der Antike bis zur Neuzeit ; Festschrift für Helmuth Schneider zum 65. Geburtstag. With the collaboration of Helmuth Schneider. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Philippika, 47), pp. 347-362.