Technische Universität Berlin

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first German university to adopt the name Technische Universität (meaning 'university of technology').

The university alumni and staff includes several US National Academies members, two National Medal of Science laureates, the creator of the first fully functional programmable (electromechanical) computer, Konrad Zuse, and ten Nobel Prize laureates.

TU Berlin is a member of TU9, an incorporated society of the largest and most notable German institutes of technology and of the Top International Managers in Engineering network, which allows for student exchanges between leading engineering schools. It belongs to the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research. The TU Berlin is home of two innovation centers designated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. The university is labeled as "The Entrepreneurial University" (Die Gründerhochschule) by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

The university is notable for having been the first to offer a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen). The university designed the degree in response to requests by industrialists for graduates with the technical and management training to run a company. First offered in winter term 1926/27, it is one of the oldest programmes of its kind.

TU Berlin has one of the highest proportions of international students in Germany, almost 27% in 2019. In addition, TU Berlin is part of the Berlin University Alliance, has been conferred the title of "University of Excellence" under and receiving funding from the German Universities Excellence Initiative.

On 1 April 1879, the Königlich Technische Hochschule zu Berlin (en: "Royal Technical Academy of Berlin") came into being in 1879 through a merger of the Königliche Gewerbeakademie zu Berlin (en: "Royal Trade Academy", founded in 1827) and Königliche Bauakademie zu Berlin (en: "Royal Building Academy", founded in 1799), two predecessor institutions of the Prussian State.

In 1899, the Königlich Technische Hochschule zu Berlin was the first polytechnic in Germany to award doctorates, as a standard degree for the graduates, in addition to diplomas, thanks to professor Alois Riedler and Adolf Slaby, chairman of the Association of German Engineers (VDI) and the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE).^{[citation needed]}

In 1916 the long-standing Königliche Bergakademie zu Berlin, the Prussian mining academy created by the geologist Carl Abraham Gerhard in 1770 at the behest of King Frederick the Great, was incorporated into the Königlich Technische Hochschule as the "Department of Mining". Beforehand, the mining college had been, however, for several decades under the auspices of the Frederick William University (now Humboldt University of Berlin), before it was spun out again in 1860.^{[citation needed]}