Memorials of the RWTH

Dear students, employees of RWTH and other interested persons,

as part of our culture of remembrance, we would like to take a look at the history of memorials at RWTH. Hardly anyone knows anything about many sites anymore. At the memorials themselves, there is little or almost no information about the background. A discussion is not possible.

We would like to change that! For this purpose, we are researching background information about the individual sites on behalf of the student parliament in order to make it available to you. This will give you the opportunity to inform yourself about the history of the RWTH and to critically question it on the basis of our contributions.

The first contribution is about Herwart Siegfried Opitz. There is still a bust of him in the machine tool laboratory WZL. Background information about Herwart Opitz, his 35 years of leadership of the WZL and his simultaneous membership in different NS organizations can be found in this text.

In the same way, we want to look at other memorials that you can send us. Furthermore, in cooperation with the RWTH, we want to look for a possibility to make the information accessible at the places themselves, for example by using plaques.

Your AStA of the RWTH Aachen

You know of other places, statues or buildings? Then enter them here!

Am besten die Adresse und eine Beschreibung, wo wir ihn finden können, falls er sich innerhalb eines Gebäudes befindet.
Selbst wenn es nur lose Fakten sind, teile diese gerne mit uns!

Previous and planned reprocessing of memorials and monuments

Herwart Siegfried Opitz

Herwart Siegfried Opitz

Stone bust in the WZL

… was head of the WZL at RWTH Aachen University and a member of the NSDAP. How can this be interpreted and how does RWTH deal with it? For more read here.

Stone tablets for the World War 1

Stone tablets for the World War 1

in front of the Aula 1 in the main building of the RWTH

Commemorative plaques to the relatives who died in the First World War” of the RWTH.
Theodore von Kármán

Theodore von Kármán

…a lecture hall complex, a dormitory, streets, and a moon and Mars crater. But who was von Kármán anyway and what is his relationship to the RWTH?

Weeping youth

Weeping youth

Statue in the student village

The memorial of the weeping youth is intended to commemorate the fallen students in the two world wars.
Josef Pierlet

Josef Pierlet

Prof. Pierlet street- and building

Einen Text zur Aufarbeitung und Diskussion folgt in Kürze.

Walter Rogowski

Walter Rogowski

Rogowski-building in Schinkelstraße 2

Einen Text zur Aufarbeitung und Diskussion folgt in Kürze.

August von Kaven

August von Kaven

von Kaven Auditorium

Einen Text zur Aufarbeitung und Diskussion folgt in Kürze.

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Do you know of other named places, buildings or memorials? Enter them in our survey at the top of the page and help us to work on the culture of remembrance at RWTH.

Our Department for Public Relations & Political Education
is responsible for this project. If anny questions arise feel free to ask them via erinnerungskultur@asta.rwth-aachen.de