Tradition and Innovation: Materials Engineering at the Sophie-Henschel-Haus
The establishment of the University of Kassel entailed the search for effective structures for teaching, research and the training of young academics. Materials engineering pioneered this in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering by founding an Institute for Materials Engineering (IfW). In 1981, it was the first of its kind and an exemplary establishment of an institute at the still young Gesamthochschule Kassel. This form of cooperation between related disciplines later became established at the University of Kassel. Today, the Institute of Materials Engineering, with over 100 employees, is visible worldwide and is one of the leading research institutions in the fields of residual stress research, additive manufacturing, materials development and composites, as well as plastics process engineering and bioplastics.
The Institute for Materials Technology is not only a Kassel success story from an organisational and scientific perspective. The institute building is also of great symbolic significance from an architectural and historical point of view: the owner's family home was located at this site during the founding period of the Henschelcompany. An annex housed the workshop with a lathe and locksmith's shop.
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In 1906, this building was expanded into the K 13 factory hall, which was, however, largely destroyed during bombing raids in September 1944 and February 1945. After the war, a new factory building was erected on the same site. Its restored façade still surrounds the institute building, which was vacated in 1993. This integration of modern architectural elements into the former factory hall has received great attention, because [...]together with the restored casting house, the façade of the former industrial hall K 13 forms an ensemble that is still reminiscent of the industrial site of the old Henschel company and at the same time incorporates modern elements. Only the ten-metre-high outer walls in the round-arch style of the old hall have been left standing and a three-storey glass cube has been placed in the empty space. [...] The Association of German Architects awarded the new building an 'Award for Good Architecture' in early 1998. (Ickler 2012, p. 83)
Since 2004, the Materials Engineering Institute building has been called the Sophie-Henschel-Haus. This is a further link to the legacy of the Henschel company and a reminder of the achievements of Sophie Henschel, who […] founded a number of company welfare institutions and [...] was active in the social field in the city of Kassel. [...] The Henschel myth is thus concentrated in Sophie Henschel, who is perhaps also honoured to this day because she is able to outshine the history of the path of German industry into the production of weapons and war. A history that is still contained in the K13. (Speitkamp and Weise-Kusche 2012, p. 66)
German text Daniel Koch
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