Golden diplomas marking the 50th anniversary of exmatriculation were presented to former students at the seminar group meeting.
It has now become a good tradition that former students of the engineering school - now the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences - visit their old place of study. What does the campus look like today? Does the small kiosk in the basement of our former faculty still exist? Do you remember the carnival party in the dormitory back then? And what is it like to study today in the 21st century?
These are all questions that the young people from back then still ask when they visit Zittau today. With great curiosity, they stroll around the campus, visit laboratories or are shown the technology in the large lecture halls. When they talk about their student days in the former GDR, their eyes light up and they reminisce. They talk about cramming for important exams, strict professors and the dreaded dentist, but also about formative encounters and their first important experiences.
This late summer , some former seminar groups also took the opportunity to come to Zittau - the pandemic situation allowed such meetings at the time.
"We have always had a close bond. This friendly relationship still exists after 50 years." Bernhard Haase, former student
”This included a seminar group that graduated from Zittau 50 years ago. They were received in the university's Senate Hall by the Rector, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Kratzsch, and the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. A special highlight of such meetings is the presentation of the Golden Diplomas.
We enrolled at what was then the "Dr. Robert Meyer" engineering school here in Zittau in 1968. We came from all parts of the former GDR and wanted and had to live in Zittau for the planned period of study. The males were all accommodated in privately rented rooms. The girls, on the other hand, were allocated a place in a student hall of residence. And then life began in earnest: Mr. Böhme was appointed as the school supervisor for our seminar group. He was like a fatherly friend and always looked after us. Dr. Filter taught us the basics and specialist knowledge of optimizing thermal power plant processes. This subject naturally interested all of us. I also don't want to forget Prof. Hampel today. As a young assistant, he taught us the basics of nuclear physics and nuclear power plant technology.
A formative event of our student days was 11.11.1970: we came to class in full costume and marched through Zittau in a carnival procession. That was and remains unforgotten.
Our class flag is still our trademark today. And we have our own anthem, which we still sing today - "What could life give us better, we were at home in Zittau".
Who knows what today's students will say about their time studying in Zittau and Görlitz in 50 years' time.
