Royal Saxon Polytechnic

Dresden University of Technology

Technische Universität Dresden
Motto	Wissen schafft Brücken. (German)
Motto in English	Knowledge builds bridges
Type	Public
Established	1828
Budget	€ 631.1 million
President	Hans Müller-Steinhagen[]
Academic staff	5,842
Administrative staff	2,461
Students	34,838
Location	Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	German Universities Excellence Initiative PEGASUS TIME CESAER TU9
Website	tu-dresden.de

The TU Dresden (abbreviated as TUD and often mistakenly translated from German as Dresden University of Technology) is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony and one of the 10 largest universities in Germany with 37,134 students as of 2013^[update]. It ranks among the best universities of engineering and technology in Germany.

The name Technische Universität Dresden has only been used since 1961; the history of the university, however, goes back nearly 200 years to 1828. This makes it one of the oldest colleges of technology in Germany, and one of the country’s oldest universities, which in German today refers to institutes of higher education that cover the entire curriculum. The university is a member of TU9, a consortium of the nine leading German Institutes of Technology. The university is one of eleven German universities which succeeded in the Excellence Initiative in 2012, thus getting the title of a "University of Excellence". The TU Dresden succeeded in all three rounds of the German Universities Excellence Initiative (Future Concept, Graduate Schools, Clusters of Excellence).

In 1828, with emerging industrialization, the "Saxon Technical School" was founded to educate skilled workers in technological subjects such as mechanics, mechanical engineering and ship construction. In 1871, the year the German Empire was founded, the institute was renamed the Royal Saxon Polytechnic Institute (Königlich-Sächsisches Polytechnikum). At that time, subjects not connected with technology, such as history and languages, were introduced. By the end of the 19th century the institute had developed into a university covering all disciplines. In 1961 it was given its present name, Technische Universität Dresden (Dresden University of Technology).