History of the University

1776
Founded as a drawing school, which was expanded in 1860 to become a trade school with its own specia­list depart­ment for golds­miths and silversmiths.

1907
The ​„Royal Tech­nical College for Precious Metals Industry“ is founded.

1909
Sepa­ra­tion from the voca­tional school and move on 1 April into the new school buil­ding desi­gned by the archi­tect Martin Elsässer with an adjoi­ning museum wing for the ​“Gmünder special museum”. The majo­rity of univer­sity is still housed in this buil­ding today.

1923
Renamed ​„State College for the Precious Metals Industry“. Josef Albers, Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, Wilhelm Wagen­feld and other Bauhaus greats are guests in Schwä­bisch Gmünd.

1926
Estab­lish­ment of the first ​„Class for Indus­trial Design“ by Prof. Walter Klein.

1950
Renamed ​„State College for Precious Metal Trade“. After the end of the 2^nd World War, classes begin as early as October 1945. The class for indus­trial design is restarted by the new head­master Prof. Walter Lochmüller.

1965
The ​„Staat­liche Werk­kunst­schule Schwä­bisch Gmünd“ (State school for tech­nical arts and crafts is founded. After the previous emphasis on craft­sman­ship, a strong concen­tra­tion on design issues follows. Product designs are now inse­pa­rably linked with visual design.

1972
The ​„Fach­hoch­schule für Gestal­tung“ is consti­tuted. The foun­ding rector is Prof. Karl Dittert. The educa­tional concept of the previously very artis­ti­cally oriented insti­tu­tion is now based on the design prin­ci­ples of the Ulm College of Design.

1983
The design funda­men­tals form the basis for the estab­lish­ment of the courses of study Product, Jewel­lery and Visual Design.

1987
Inte­gra­tion of the area called New Media.

1999
The course of study is funda­men­tally restruc­tured. The two over­laying courses of study, Infor­ma­tion and Media Design and Product and Envi­ron­mental Design, enable students to set their own indi­vi­dual priorities.

2003
The Master’s program in Commu­ni­ca­tion Plan­ning and Design commences.

2004
Conver­sion of the previous diploma courses to the new bache­lor’s degree courses in Commu­ni­ca­tion Design and Product Design.

2005
The univer­sity is now called Hoch­schule für Gestal­tung Schwä­bisch Gmünd ( Univer­sity of Applied Design).

2007
Addi­tion of the course of study Inter­ac­tion Design; first admis­sion in the summer semester.

2008
The Master’s degree program Product Plan­ning and Design is launched.

2010
Start of the reno­va­tion of the histo­ri­cally preserved univer­sity buil­ding by archi­tect Martin Elsässer in the Rector-Klaus-Straße. Move to Gmünd-Tech in Marie-Curie-Straße.

2012
Exten­sion of the Inter­ac­tion Design course of study to a full course of study; students are admitted for the summer and winter semester.

2014
The Master’s program in Stra­tegic Design starts. This marks the end of the Master’s programs Commu­ni­ca­tion Plan­ning and Design and Product Plan­ning and Design.
Move to a new univer­sity buil­ding at Bahn­hof­platz 7 in Schwä­bisch Gmünd.

2015
The bache­lor’s degree course Digital Product Design and Deve­lo­p­ment – Desig­ning Networked Systems starts. The HfG Schwä­bisch Gmünd is the first univer­sity in the German-spea­king world to offer this course of study and moves back to the HfG’s comple­tely reno­vated and moder­nized main buil­ding at Rektor-Klaus-Straße 100.

2018
The first DP students successfully complete their bachelor studies.

2019
For the first time since its foun­da­tion, the univer­sity has more than 700 students.