History of the Arts Management and Cultural Work Programme

90s

On the initiative of the founding rector of the University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr. Helmut Knüppel, and the then member of the Bundestag, Gert Weisskirchen, the model course in arts management cultural work, financed by the federal and state governments, was launched in 1995.
After the course was approved, Sigrid Redies began in May 1995 as a staff member in the dean's office to set it up and to conduct the application procedure for the first students.

In the winter semester of 1995/96, the first 25 students were enrolled from 97 applications. Many of them came from the civil movements that had helped bring down the GDR. Their critical and activist potential shaped the first years.

Four - unsecured and temporary - professorships were available to the programme. The first three were filled on 1 September 1995 with Dr Helene Kleine (Cultural and Social Change), Ellen Lissek-Schütz (Culture and Management) and Dr Hermann Voesgen (Culture and Project Work). At the beginning of 1996, Dr. habil. Arthur Engelbert (Media Theory and Practice) was appointed. Helene Kleine was appointed founding commissioner and entrusted with the management of the programme. The team received expert support from the advisory board appointed by Minister Steffen Reiche. The advisory board was chaired by Dr. Bernd Meyer, Head of the Department of Culture of the German Association of Cities.

2000s

After a trial phase of almost five years, the degree programme was positively evaluated and in 2000 it was incorporated into the regular programme at the university, where it is organisationally assigned to the Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Uwe Hanf joined the programme first as a lecturer, then as an academic staff member in the Department of Culture and Management. Andreas Klisch supports the degree programme as IT administrator and multimedia assistant. Helene Kleine was elected Rector of the University on 1 January 2001. Nicola Lepp took her place and was appointed honorary professor after Helene Kleine returned to the programme (2008).

In the course of the Bologna reform, the former diploma degree programme was modularised and has been offered as an eight-semester Bachelor's degree programme since the winter semester 2009/10. In the summer semester of 2018, it was again able to convince and was accredited for the second time.

2010s until today

The retirement of three founding professors: Ellen Lissek-Schütz in April 2011, Arthur Engelbert in April 2017 and Hermann Voesgen in October 2017 was accompanied by a partial reorganisation of the curriculum. Thus, Nicola Lepp was appointed professor for the new teaching area of Culture and Mediation in the winter semester 2014/15, where Michael Annoff also started as an academic staff member one semester later. Dr Julia Glesner was appointed to the teaching area of Culture and Management in the summer semester of 2017 and is responsible for the basics of project work. Uwe Hanf continues to work as a research assistant in this teaching area. In the winter semester 2017/18, Dr. habil. Ulrich Richtmeyer was appointed Professor of Media Culture Work.

In this new constellation, the programme is currently working on the development of a Master's programme.