Full House at the Beyer Building: Day of the Faculty of Civil Engineering 2026

On October 30, everyone gathered closely together in the Beyer Building: The building’s largest lecture hall was filled to capacity as the Faculty of Civil Engineering bid farewell to its graduates from the 2025–26 academic year. It is a tradition for the ceremony to take place here of all places. Graduates have gathered in this lecture hall in the past to celebrate the completion of their studies. A total of 151 students graduated last academic year—many of them attended with family, friends, and guests, filling the hall to capacity.

Following the welcome address by the Dean, Prof. Birgit Beckmann, Faculty Administrator Dr. phil. Silke Dorethe Götte focused her commencement address on the connection between knowledge and responsibility. In particular, she spoke about the responsibility associated with acquiring and applying knowledge.

A staple of the Faculty Day is the presentation of awards for outstanding achievements. This year, four prizes were awarded:

EUROVIA Road Construction Award

Tom Anton received the EUROVIA Road Construction Prize for his thesis
“Capabilities of Novel Asphalt Base Courses with Consideration of CO₂ Emissions.”
Tilo Bräunig of VINCI Construction Shared Services GmbH presented the award at a ceremony.

Fichtner Hydraulic Engineering Award

Karoline Schütze was awarded the Fichtner Hydraulic Engineering Prize for her thesis “Comparison of Historical and Recent Flood Events in the Mulde River Between Bad Düben and Bitterfeld, Taking Mining Impacts into Account.” The award was presented by Marco Hornbogen of Fichtner Water & Transportation GmbH.

Johann Ohde Prize

The Johann Ohde Prize was awarded to Dipl.-Ing. Maximilian Kahnt. His thesis is titled “The Mechanical Behavior of Soils Under Cyclic Loading in a Large-Scale Model Test.” The prize was presented by Dr.-Ing. Patrick Wenzl of Bauer Spezialtiefbau GmbH.

altBau Graduate Award

Not only academic achievements, but also commitment beyond their studies
were recognized: The altBau Graduate Award went to Friederike Ebert, Jovan Reuter, Kaja Liesegang, Anna Reichel, and Karl Wehner. They were honored for their exceptional volunteer work during their studies.

Graduation Speech

An entertaining recap from a student’s perspective by Kaja Liesegang and Eric Leander Fabeck looked back on their time at the university and brought a few smiles to the faces of those in the lecture hall. Anna Bernardini on violin and Albert Dehne on cello provided the musical accompaniment. After the group photo, the afternoon came to a close with a champagne reception featuring light refreshments and plenty of conversation.