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TUM Alumni couple Herbert and Rita Thiele (Picture: private)

TUM Families

8 TUM Alumni Couples Tell their Love Stories

TUM Forges Lifelong Bonds

12. Feb 2026

Reading time Min.

During your studies, you set the course for your future life, not only professionally, but also privately. The best and most lasting friendships are formed at university, and many students also meet their life partners there, fall in love, get married, and/or have children together, who often also choose to study at TUM. Seven TUM Alumni couples talk about how they met and what TUM means for their life together.

TUM Alumni Couple Günter and Lore Heilmann

Picture: photogenika/TUM

TUM Couple Günter and Lore Heilmann

TUM in their Hearts for 70 Years

When Günter Heilmann began studying architecture at TUM on January 1, 1955, in the winter semester of 1955/56, he had no idea how groundbreaking the start of his studies would be for his life, even beyond his professional career. Today, at the age of 90 and with a diamond diploma certificate in hand, he and his wife Lore look back on an active and joyful life.

Lore Heilmann – then “still Miss Brüggemann”- also studied architecture at TUM a little later. The two met and fell in love at the university, which their fellow students captured in a humorous caricature: two desks placed neatly side by side, with two lamps attached to them, secretly embracing under the table. The two TUM Alumni found the drawing so beautiful that they used it as the front page for their engagement announcement.

Zeichnung Ehepaar Heilmann

Picture: private

Dr. Lore Heilmann (degree in architecture in 1962, doctorate in 1999) was one of the few female students in her year at the time and fondly remembers close friendships and the creative study conditions in a city undergoing reconstruction. An internship abroad in São Paulo shaped her view of architecture and culture. After completing her studies, Dr. Heilmann participated in the reconstruction of the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich and, as a freelance architect in Erlangen, realized several award-winning residential projects. At the end of the 1980s, she began studying art history, which she completed with a doctorate.

After studying at TUM and completing his legal clerkship, Günter Heilmann (Diploma in Architecture 1960) entered the service of his hometown of Erlangen as a government architect and took over as head of the Office for Urban Development and Urban Planning. He held this position for 33 years until his retirement. Friendships formed during their studies at TUM bring the couple back to Munich regularly, as do honors at their alma mater, most recently with the Diamond Diploma Anniversary in 2025. The couple brought many of their memories with them to the event, as well as their daughter Susanne.

TUM Alumni Couple Barbara and Thomas Peither

Picture: private

TUM Couple Barbara and Thomas Peither
Together is the Keyword

It was in 1986, at a carnival party in the TUM cafeteria, that Barbara and Thomas Peither met. They quickly realized that they were both studying the same subject—mechanical engineering—and from then on they studied together, got involved in the student council, and grew closer. At a summer birthday party with a campfire at Flaucher and a starry sky backdrop, they fell in love and continued their studies and life together.

Exactly six years later, the couple celebrated their wedding with their many friends from the faculty. The gifts from their companions were as tongue-in-cheek as they were prophetic: a romper suit and a children’s T-shirt – a good omen for the three children the couple would later have.

Picture: private

Barbara Peither (Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, 1990) studied mechanical engineering at TUM from 1984 to 1990, specializing in aerospace, while Thomas Peither (Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, 1990) focused on manufacturing and industrial engineering. Together with fellow students, the two launched the IKOM Career Fair in 1989—an early sign of their entrepreneurial spirit. Ten years later, they finally founded their globally active publishing house in the Basel pharmaceutical region.
A portrait of the TUM Alumni couple was published on the occasion of IKOM’s 30th anniversary. Read the full alumni story here: Peither Barbara and Thomas – TUM Community

TUM Alumni Couple Xing Ye and Boson Stefan Liu

Picture: private

TUM Couple Xing Ye and Boson Stefan Liu
They are Connected by TUM and Music

TUM Alumni Xing Ye and Boson Stefan Liu met at Zhejiang University in China when the TUM Alumnus was spending a semester abroad as part of the TUMexchange Program. There, they decided to move to Munich together to continue their studies at TUM and complete their master’s degrees. Xing Ye enrolled at the TUM School of Management, Boson Stefan Liu at the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology.

After getting married in Munich and landing their first jobs in Germany, the couple has now settled in Boston, where they both work in the healthcare sector. In their free time, the two love to make music together. Even while pursuing his doctorate at the Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-Time Systems at TUM, Boson Stefan Liu enjoyed singing in an internationally renowned jazz a cappella choir in the evenings after a day of research, or making music together with Xing Ye: “It’s like relaxation,” says the TUM Alumnus. The two perform as a piano-pipa duo, with Boson Stefan Liu playing the piano and Xing Ye playing the pipa, a Chinese four-stringed lute.

Boson Stefan Liu (Bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics and Information Technology 2015, Master’s degree in Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence 2017, PhD 2024) and Xing Ye (Master’s degree in Management and Technology (TUM-BWL) 2021) came to Munich together in 2017 to study at TUM. In 2025, they moved to Boston together, where they both work in the healthcare sector: Xing Ye as a business analyst for an insulin pump manufacturer, Stefan Liu as a senior software developer for a surgical robot system after completing his doctorate at TUM.

TUM Alumni Couple Irena and Boris Idesman

Picture: private

TUM Couple Irena and Boris Idesman
Joint Commitment to the TUM Community

Irena and Boris Idesman met in their hometown in Bulgaria – a year before they moved to Munich in 2014 to study at TUM. Here, they both completed their bachelor’s and master’s degrees (the photo shows the two at Boris Idesman’s graduation ceremony in 2018) and then got married four years later, in the summer of 2022.

They have many fond memories of studying together at the TUM Campus Garching, which they are now continuing to build on in Berlin, as TUM continues to play a role in the lives of the two TUM Alumni even after their studies. They organize TUM Alumni Meetups in the German capital and love it when the TUM Community comes together. “Our university showed us that true strength grows from community and a common goal. With the alumni meetings, we want to keep this spirit alive – by supporting each other, creating opportunities for each other, and passing on our values.”

Irena Idesman (Bachelor’s in Bioinformatics 2017, Master’s in Data Engineering and Analytics 2020) and Boris Idesman (Master’s in Business Informatics 2018) currently live in Berlin and are pursuing their professional careers in the field of digitalization, with a focus on various industrial sectors.

TUM Alumni couple Herbert and Rita Thiele (Picture: private)

TUM Couple Herbert and Rita Thiele
TUM Brought them Luck

Their story began in 1969 during their undergraduate studies at TUM. Herbert and Rita founded a study group together with two other students – the beginning of a connection that would go far beyond their studies, as Herbert already suspected. “I had my eye on Rita from the very beginning,” he writes. “However, it took six months for her to feel the same way.”

The wedding took place in 1974, and this wonderful photo of the two was taken, which they shared with the TUM Community on the TUM Alumni Instagram channel in 2025. Two years later, they graduated together.

Picture: private

It is particularly nice that the connection to TUM continues across generations: Their son Moritz (Master’s in Aerospace Engineering, 2016) also studied at TUM and, like his parents, found his great love there. Herbert and Rita Thiele are convinced: “TUM has brought us luck in many ways.”

Herbert and Rita Thiele (both graduated in mathematics in 1976) began their careers at TUM in 1969, studying mathematics and computer science. Herbert worked for many years as an IT manager and head of software development at various companies. In 2024, they both celebrated their 75th birthdays and golden wedding anniversary, from which they also sent a photo.

TUM Alumni Couple Miriam and Max von Stern-Gwiazdowski

Picture: private

TUM Couple Miriam and Max von Stern-Gwiazdowski
The First Date in the Student Cafeteria

Miriam and Max von Stern-Gwiazdowski did not meet on campus, but at a concert at the Munich University of Music and Theatre, where they happened to sit next to each other in June 2012. At the time, Max was studying forestry and Miriam was studying nutritional science at TUM.

They met again and arranged to meet for their first “date” in the cafeteria on the TUM Campus Weihenstephan. They fondly remember events they attended together, such as the brewers’ summer festival and many Förster-Niko parties, their graduation ceremonies, and the days they spent together during Miriam’s semester abroad in Colombia. They also have fond memories of the places they frequented during their student days, such as the IV dormitory in Vöttig, where Max lived as a student, or the ZIEL at Gregor-Mendel-Str. 2, where Max often picked Miriam up after work for an after-work beer.

Picture: private

In September 2023, the couple married and took photos in the Hofgarten and Staudengarten in Freising, also beloved places where they had enjoyed many walks with views of the airport and the Alps.

Miriam von Stern-Gwiazdowski (Bachelor’s in Nutritional Science 2014, Master’s in Nutrition and Biomedicine 2017, PhD 2018-2024) studied nutritional science at TUM and also completed her master’s degree and PhD here. Miriam currently works in the pharmaceutical industry. Max von Stern-Gwiazdowski (Bachelor’s in Forestry and Resource Management 2015, Master’s 2018) currently works at the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Tourism.

TUM Alumni Couple Renate and Paul Schweiger

Picture: private

TUM Couple Renate and Paul Schweiger
From Formal to Informal

For TUM Alumni Renate and Paul Schweiger, their time studying at TUM also turned into a special love story. The two met in the early 1970s at the TUM Campus Weihenstephan. Paul Schweiger was a doctoral student at the Institute for Plant Nutrition, and Renate was attending lectures and practical courses at the institute as an undergraduate student. Since the doctoral students were involved in the courses, the two met almost weekly and knew each other by sight. Even outside the lecture halls, while shopping or in cafés, they kept running into each other, and at some point, the formal “Sie” naturally gave way to the familiar “Du.”

Gradually, they got to know each other privately, learned where the other came from, talked about their families, and had more and more mutual friends and acquaintances. “For us, this led from getting to know each other to falling in love,” writes Paul Schweiger. On a beautiful September day in 1973, Renate and Paul tied the knot in a heartfelt ceremony in Freising.

Picture: photogenika/TUM

Renate Schweiger (degree in agricultural sciences, 1972) and Dr. Paul Schweiger (degree in agricultural sciences, 1968, doctorate, 1973) studied at TUM in Weihenstephan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After eventful careers—Renate most recently at the Enzkreis Agricultural Office, Paul at the State of Baden-Württemberg—they returned to Munich after retirement. In the summer of 2023, the couple also returned to TUM for their golden anniversary: Renate received the Golden Diploma, and Paul was honored with the Golden Doctorate. Both are active members of the Freunde der TUM e.V.

Do you have a TUM family story to share?

Our previous call for TUM alumni love stories mainly reached couples from German-speaking countries. To make the diversity of the TUM family even more visible, we would like to invite international TUM alumni and couples from the LGBTQIA+ community in particular to share their stories with us.

→ Write to us at alumniandcareer@tum.de