Diplom

A Diplom (German: [diˈploːm], from Ancient Greek: δίπλωμα diploma) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Finland (only for engineers), France, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. The term is also used in Brazil for engineers.

The Diplom originates from the French Diplôme (Diplôme de l'ordre impérial de la légion d'honneur) describing a certificate devised during the Second French Empire to bestow honours upon outstanding citizens and soldiers of the imperial French army to promote them into the Legion of Honour since 1862. The Magister degree was the original graduate degree at German speaking universities. In Germany the Diplom dates back to the pre-republican period: In October 1899 the engineering degree Diplom was announced by a supreme decree of the German emperor Wilhelm II in his function as the King of Prussia on the advent of the Centenary of the Prussian Technical College in Berlin. The Diplom was subsequently adopted by the Technische Hochschulen (Institutes of Technology) which had received university status following this Prussian decree. Later, all German universities adopted the Diplom as their degree in Science or Engineering.

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