The Techniker-Cercle

Foundation

Although the activities of the Techniker-Kränzchen Committee date back even further, the first club-like structures of the Techniker-Ball Committee can be traced and are documented as early as 1874. A group of engineering students established the first club-like structures and called themselves the Techniker-Ball-Comité. This committee organized an annual social ball. The net proceeds from the event were used to provide scholarships to needy students at the Technical University.

The objectives to which they had committed themselves were:

• To raise the standing of engineers in comparison with other, already established academic professions
• To foster friendships
• To organise the annual ball, the net proceeds of which were to be used to support engineering students in financial need.

Industrialisation shaped TC – the early years

The year in which the TC was founded was also the year that saw the opening of Vienna’s first high-spring water supply system, the opening of the rack railway to the Kahlenberg, the start of construction of the Imperial Council building (today’s Austrian Parliament), the introduction of the pneumatic postal system in Vienna, and the success of the Payer–Weyprecht expedition to the North Pole. Only shortly before, the first Böhler steelworks had been established in Kapfenberg, the city of Steyr had been equipped with Europe’s first electric street lighting, and construction had begun on the University of Vienna building and the Stock Exchange on the Ringstrasse. The Vienna World’s Fair was held, while groundbreaking and significant inventions and innovations were being made across an extraordinary range of fields in science and technology.

“An association of like-minded people, liberal in outlook, free from national, religious or political prejudice, conservative in its respect for tradition, and modest in its aims.”

This principle was enshrined in the statutes of the Techniker-Cercle, which was established on 12 November 1912 from the Techniker-Ball-Comité and the Alumni Association. Incidentally, this was exactly six years before the proclamation of Austria’s First Republic. From that point onwards, the new association, known as the Techniker-Cercle, has organised the annual Ball of Industry and Technology.

At its 1930/31 General Meeting, the association resolved to establish closer ties with industry and to hold the 56th Techniker Ball as the “Ball of Technology and Industry”, returning to the Konzerthaus for the first time.

The Post-War Years

Amid the reconstruction of Austria, the Techniker-Cercle also came together again in 1946. Following a number of temporary arrangements, premises in the Palais Pallavicini on Josefsplatz (Rennverein) became the Techniker-Cercle’s new meeting place in 1949, with a permanent space for its younger members being established there in 1950.

Today, club life is characterised by lectures and social events. In addition, members take part in organised technical and cultural excursions under expert guidance.