The History of Technology’s main focus is the investigation of the intellectual and social dimensions of technology from a historical perspective. The issue at stake here is that any technology, if it is to succeed, must be designed to espouse the cultural and historical background of a society. This presupposes an understanding of the society and the historical transformation processes in which it is permanently involved. Thus, our primary mission is to cultivate such an insight within the engineering and natural sciences curricula at Technische Universität München.

In order to do so, the History of Technology builds a variety of bridges between engineering and the natural sciences on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other – be it in the interdisciplinary classes offered at Technische Universität, in joint research projects with research institutes based in and around Munich, or national and European research cooperation.

If these activities can be carried out successfully, it is only thanks to long-term cooperation within the fertile scientific arena in Munich as well as with national and international partner institutions.

• The umbrella organisation for these research activities is the Munich Center for the History of Science and Technology that brings together academic and museum-related institutions devoted to the history of science, medicine and technology.
• The large inter-university research centre linking these domains is located at the Deutsches Museum. It is on these stimulating and historic premises that the History of Technology is also housed.

As of October 2021, the History of Technology is part of the new School of Social Sciences and Technology, within the Department of Science, Technology and Society at TUM (formerly the Munich Center for Technology in Society, or MCTS), where it continues to conduct research together with the social sciences as well as the engineering sciences on technology and society.