200 Jahre TU Wien: Vom Versuch, ein Jubiläum (fast) ohne Geschichte zu feiern

: The 200 Years Anniversary of TU Wien in 2015 happened in a difficult context: Like all Austrian Universities, TU Wien since 2004 had experienced a period of far reaching organizational reforms, challenging, among other things, the corporate identity of its members. In addition, it had to compete with two other Viennese universities (Vienna University and Vienna University of Veteri-nary Medicine), who also celebrated their anniversaries in 2015, for resources and public attention. The paper examines the strategies of TU Wien to gain a maxi-mum of attention for its unique scientific competencies and at the same time strengthen internal corporate identity. Reviewing the celebrations of earlier anniversaries, this contribution shows which festive traditions were continued and which new ways of defining and presenting a corporate image of the university were developed. In addition, the strategies of TU Wien are compared with those of its two competitors in anniversary celebration, using commemorative publicati-ons and other media, to point out differences and similarities of the respective festive cultures.