History

The history of Wildau begins with fisherman's families that settled by the Dahme River and then came to deliver sand, gravel and bricks from the region by boat to Berlin. As a location for industry, it was mechanical engineering that put Wildau on the map. In 1897 the Schwartzkopff company established a locomotive works here, and built a works' housing complex that is a listed building today. In the Second World War the works were involved in armaments production, and were then demolished after the war. It was from the remains of these works that the East German state enterprise in heavy engineering was founded, which in turn had to restructure completely after 1989. In the region around Wildau numerous technology and business parks have been set up in recent years, with service industries and logistics centres, energy and environmental technology companies. The works school, founded in 1949, was an integral part of mechanical engineering in the region before 1990. In 1991 the federal state of Brandenburg founded the University of Applied Sciences Wildau. With ca. 3400 students the University of Applied Sciences Wildau now is the largest university of applied sciences in Brandenburg.