Geodetic Engineering Education in West Germany

Considerable division of opinion surrounds the problem of improving the quality and scope of surveying education in the United States. Civil engineering curricula are requiring less and less formal instruction in this subject area. Five technischen hochschulen, or technical universities, in West Germany offer 4-yr professional programs in geodetic engineering leading to a diploma in surveying. The term, geodetic engineering, here embraces the entire spectrum of the geodetic sciences including geodetic surveying, photogrammetry, and geodesy itself. A typical curriculum, that at the University of Bonn, giving the number of class hours per week of instruction in both lecture and laboratory for each course, is presented. Brief comments are made on the curriculum, laboratory facilities, library holdings, and the staff. The registered surveyor in Germany enjoys a high level of professional prestige. He continues a tradition of excellence in geodetic engineering and geodesy that has spanned a century of distinguished achievement by leaders such as Helmert, Jordan, and Kneissl. There is need for expanding fundamental training at the professional level in all phases of geodetic engineering in the United States.