Back in 2001–2002, while I was finishing up my BFA at RISD, I spent a semester abroad at the Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, a large-ish University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany. The German-language blog Design Tagebuch (design diary) reports that this university has gotten a new name: the institution is now going to be know as the Hochschule RheinMain. Total bullocks! While I think that the new school logo is an improvement (the old logo looked like the US state of Texas with a hat on it), I find the name “Hochschule RheinMain” rather pompous.
In Germany’s Rhein–Main region, there are already several Hochschulen (universities). If we limit the number to only include state-run schools, we will find two in Mainz and several in Frankfurt, as well as the state of Hessen’s official art academy in Offenbach. And three more to be found in Darmstadt! Many of these universities have larger student bodies than the old Fachhochschule Wiesbaden did. Plus, while Wiesbaden may be the official political capital of the state of Hessen, the center of the Rhein–Main region—as well as the cultural and financial hub of the area—is Frankfurt. So if any Hochschule in the Rhein–Main area should rename itself the “Hochschule RheinMain,” perhaps it should have been the FH Frankfurt, and not the FH Wiesbaden.
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3 responses to “Germany’s FH Wiesbaden gets new name”
Also, I think that writing two words together without a space or punctuation is really stupid. It is so “year 2000,” and not post-millennial at all. There is no such thing as RheinMain. One may write of the Rhein–Main region in Germany, or one could anglicize the name, and write Rhine–Main. I could even live with Hochschule Rhein Main. But RheinMain is an impoverishment of language.
In fact, they did it because of a change in the German law for universities. In 10 out of 16 states the FH’s already changed their names or doing so by now.
Yeah, but just compare with Darmstadt, in the same state! There, the school formerly known as the Fachhochschule Darmstadt is now named Hochschule Darmstadt. Why not just change the name of the FH Wiesbaden to Hochschule Wiesbaden?
I know that the school has campuses in at least two other towns. But these places are not as important as Wiesbaden, which is a place that everyone in the country knows about. Also, the locations of the two subsidiary campuses are not far enough away or in prominent enough locations for the school’s name to be “RheinMain”…
Hochschule Wiesbaden would have been just fine. In fact, it probably would have help strengthen their brand through continuity, etc.