Rostock University

The Department of Ship Technology of the University of Rostock

Rostock is a medium sized town with about 2,00,000 inhabitants at the coast of the Baltic Sea. It got the municipal rights in 1218. It was a leading member of the powerful Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages. Rostock had 2 major shipyards.

The Neptun Shipyard was founded in 1850, it launched the first iron seagoing steamship with screw propulsion in Germany. The Warnow Shipyard belongs today to the Aker Shipyard group in Oslo, Norway.

The Rostock University was founded in 1419. During those days in Europe permission had to be sought from the Pope of Rome for starting a University. It is the oldest University in Northern Europe. In the 15th and 16th century it was the most important university in the area of Baltic Sea. It was known as “Lumen Vandaliae”, the “Light of the North”. In the beginning the University was provided with 4 faculties only, namely Philosophy, Theology, Medicine and Jurisprudence as was usual in Europe; the natural science was added later.

After World War II a problem arose in connection with educated Naval Architects. They were educated before at the Technical High schools in Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland and Berlin, then West-Berlin.

It was necessary to educate Naval Architects in the GDR, in East Germany. In 1950-51 a Department of Ship Technology was formed to meet the requirements of the expanding shipbuilding industry of the GDR. It was the first technical faculty at a university in Germany. The Department educated students in Ship Technology in a 5 ½ years study, leading to the academic degree of a certified engineer (Dipl. Ing.)

In 1951 the first batch of students took up their studies in Naval Architecture. The branch Marine Engineering was introduced in 1953.

In the following years, the braches Applied Mechanics (1959) and Fishing Technology (1963) were introduced. In 1974 the training of mechanical engineers was started in the Department of Ship Technology.

The department was divided into sub departments as Ship design, Theory of ships/Hydrodynamics, Shipbuilding technology, Marine propulsion plants/Thermodynamics.

The respective staff members were responsible for both teaching and research work within the special branch of the sub department. Subjects of basic engineering such as mathematics, physics, electronics etc. were taught in close collaboration by staff members of other departments.
By 1990 about 2500 persons had finished their University education in the Department of Ship Technology as certified engineers, among whom nearly 200 foreign students were from more than 20 countries.
Under the guidance of the university professors of the department more than 200 persons had qualified for the degree of doctor (Dr.Ing.) among them about 20 were foreigners. In more than 1300 scientific publications the members of the teaching staff had presented the results of their research work.

The laboratories of the department are well equipped and provided facilities for both staff members and senior students to perform research work with high efficiency. Besides this every laboratory is equipped with facilities required for the practical training of students in the main fields of Ship Technology.