Sympathy for Technology
Wetzlar has a great tradition as a significant market place and trade city. Due to the good location on the nationally significant trade routes between the trade fair cities Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig, industrialisation has set in early here.
The first bigger companies began to thrive here in the middle of the 19th century. The greater Wetzlar region became the point-oforigin of many world-renowned products from famous enterprises like Leitz/Leica, Buderus or Hensoldt (Carl Zeiss Sports Optics GmbH), which started as small enterprises and have now become big companies with global recognition. The tradition-rich iron-ore mining has totally shut-down. The wide and continuous development of the industry was a signal for many other futureoriented hightech companies. Above all, through their high strength to innovate, the precision engineering and optics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and the metal handling and processing sectors assisted the local economy to survive cut-throat competition. Today, market-proximity and customer-oriented products and process development are the strengths of the companies in Wetzlar.
New technologies continue to gain greater relevance for the future development potential of entire branches. Therefore, it is critical to focus the knowledge available in the region across the entire field of new technologies and to unfold it for the customer’s maximum benefit. Even the new offer of a double major of economic
engineering with mechanical engineering and electrotechnology in Wetzlar, with theory and operational application phase in a business, aims to win the commitment of highly qualified professionals in the region, and is intended to give them innovative impulse.
An example for a modern industrial potential is the material specialist Buderus Edelstahl (Buderus Stainless Steel). Recently, it developed special gear steel for heavy-duty gears, which are the component for one of the largest wind power stations of the world. The company also supplied stainless steel for the extremely loaded crankshaft for the new high-performance vehicle BMW M5.
