Presentation of Golden Diploma - Seminar Group 71/16/03

Report on the 50th anniversary of the graduation of seminar group 71/16/03

In September 1971, 22 blue-eyed young men, still largely untouched by the hard life, set off for Dresden. They all wanted to study at the TUD Dresden University of Technology. They wanted to become agricultural engineers.

After a few hectoliters of barley juice and sweaty exams, we had completed our basic studies and delivered our diploma thesis within the given time frame of three months.

Now we were graduate engineers and were let loose on the planned economy in 1975!

Since then, we have met again at many seminar group meetings and organized agricultural engineering section meetings. From May 20-23, 2025, our 11th seminar group meeting of 71/16/03 took place on the occasion of the "Golden Diploma" at the TU Dresden. Together with our wives, we were a total of 24 participants.

© Dr. M. Darnstädt und M. Schubert

Thanks to our method of always passing the baton of 71/16/03 to the next organizer, each fellow student has so far realized a challenging program in their region.

Now, after 50 years, we were all together again in Dresden and had three great days ahead of us!

We were accommodated in the ACHAT Hotel Dresden Altstadt and had reserved the "Braumeisterzimmer" in the Feldschlößchen-Stammhaus next door for all evenings. A very good combination for our anniversary meeting with convenient connections to the DVB city buses!

Our program for the "TU Dresden" day:

© Dr. M. Darnstädt und M. Schubert

• Tour and guided tour of the Saxon State and University Library Dresden SLUB.
• Tour of today's TREFFTZ building with the two historic lecture halls for MATHE and PHYSICS
• Event in the lecture hall for agricultural systems engineering and presentation of the "Golden Diplomas"

Of course, it was also a topic how enormously agricultural engineering and agricultural plant construction has developed in the last 50 years since our diploma in 1975.

Our program for the "City of Dresden" day:

• Visit and guided tour of the Frauenkirche Dresden
• Of course, a photo stop at the collapsed Carola Bridge (opened in 1971)
• A trip on the White Fleet steamer "August the Strong" to the Blue Wonder
• Individual stroll through the city with support for retail sales

Every evening in the "Braumeisterzimmer", various "cultural contributions" on old times, the development of agricultural engineering, the thick photo book of our seminar group and also a quiz about our student days were presented. It was never boring, even if some stories have been repeated several times in recent years.

We are delighted that we were able to pass on the baton to a fellow student who will organize our next seminar group meeting in Meissen in 2027.

We would particularly like to thank Ms Meißner, Alumni Representative of the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Ms Merseburger and Mr Fehrmann from the Chair of Agricultural Systems Technology for preparing and handing over the "Golden Diploma".

Dr. M. Darnstädt and M. Schubert