The University of Potsdam - A portrait
Structure
From Software Systems Technology to Jewish Studies
AUnique Co-Institutes at the University Increase its Diversity
Photo: Unicom
The Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering is the first, and currently the only university institute that is completely privately financed. With a donation of 200 million Euro, Hasso Plattner, co-founder and advisory board chairman of the software company SAP, created the opportunity for a unique academic elite-education in IT systems technology. Nowhere else can one study IT Systems Engineering - a practically oriented alternative to studying computer science. A close connection to practice is guaranteed by international contacts, for example with the renowned Stanford University in Palo Alto, as well as by cooperation with the business world. Meeting the demands of the industry, about a dozen professors and more than fifty additional visiting professors and lecturers are currently training about 450 highly talented young people in the Bachelor and Master's programs to become IT systems engineers. They do not only receive specialized insight into software technologies, but also an overview of entire IT systems. Because they understand such complicated systems and are able to develop and use them in practice, graduates form the management elite for the international IT sector.
Photo: Th. Roese
The Abraham Geiger College is the first rabbinical seminary in Central Europe after the Holocaust. When the Nazis closed the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies (Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums) in Berlin in 1942, it meant the end of an era that had begun with Abraham Geiger. In 1836 Geiger had called for the founding of a Jewish theological department at a German university that would be dedicated to Jewish tradition in the spirit of academic freedom. Today, the Abraham Geiger College provides education for rabbis and cantors for Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe. Besides vocational training, participants go through a regular university program of study that is integrated into the extensive curriculum of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam and that must be completed with a B.A. for cantors and an M.A. for rabbis. After completing the degree and contingent upon agreement of supervisors and mentors, the rabbinical college then recommends candidates for ordination into the Jewish clergy.
As a co-institute of the University of Potsdam, the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies is an integral part of the study program "Jüdische Studien/Jewish Studies." Its research focuses on the history, religion, and culture of Jews and Judaism in European countries. A special accent is placed on the history of relations between Jews and their non-Jewish environment. On the one hand, research is concerned with the problems of social integration and acculturation faced by Jews, and on the other hand it focuses on comparative social historical questions related to living conditions and to geographical as well as social mobility. Further areas of research include hostility towards Jews as well as historical and contemporary antisemitism. Much attention is also given to sociocultural and intellectual-historical aspects, such as literature, art, religion, philosophy, and music. The Moses Mendelssohn Center owns an extensive and publicly accessible specialized library that currently holds around 50,000 volumes.
