TUM Alumnus und Universitätsstifter Rainer Stellwag liebt es, mit Menschen zusammenzukommen und Kontakte zu pflegen. Auf seine Alma Mater ist er mächtig stolz (Foto: Magdalena Jooss/TUM).

Alumni giving back

University Donor Rainer Stellwag

“It is beautiful to be so connected with the TUM Family”

06. Sep 2018

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Rainer Stellwag has studied Physics at TUM in the 60s. His alma mater’s achievements impressed him so much that he decided to donate part of his fortune to the TUM University Foundation.

Rainer Stellwag is born in Schwabing, goes to school here and eventually studies Physics at the then still Technical College. “I have always known – it’s either Chemistry or Physics” he says today. “However, my memory is way too weak to remember all the details you need to know as a chemist. On the other hand I was incredibly interested in the physical laws, the logical relationships.”

FANTASTIC PROFESSORS

He still fondly remembers his wonderful university days and the fantastic professors: “I was lucky to have an excellent mathematician as a teacher straight from the beginning. Josef Lense was an ingenious guy, close to Einstein. And then of course the stars of TUM: Professor Heinz Maier-Leibnitz and his doctorate student, the later Nobel laureate Rudolf Mößbauer.” But Rainer Stellwag was not just taken with TUM’s teaching staff, also his fellow students contributed to making his days as a student impossible to forget: “I met my really close friends, a handful, when studying together at the TH. Many of them where members of the Academic Singing Club Munich (Akademischer Gesangsverein München – AGM) with me.”

For me it was an inspiring time.
Rainer Stellwag
„

After his studies Rainer Stellwag initially works for IBM for a couple of years, then his job as a sales expert at Münchner Rückversicherung takes him all over the world – to South Africa and China, Australia and America. But his home is and always will be Munich. Being a retiree now he keeps doing what he enjoys most: “To be honest: I am a major idler, dreamer and reader of newspapers. Not too much TV and sports, and a lot of getting together with people and fostering friendships”. He frequently returns to TUM for various occasions.

SUPPORTING THE YOUTH

His alma mater’s achievements never seized to impress him, so he decided to donate a part of his fortune to the TUM University Foundation: “Unfortunately my wife and I have no children of our own and I always thought that it would be better to not just spend the money for entertainment, but to enable young people to have a similar education to the one I was so fortunate to have.” In the US he has seen many times that private persons and companies finance and support their universities. “From its own ranks TUM has produced remarkable people and has furthermore recruited the best from all over the world. It has brought forward innovative and successful things” Rainer Stellwag acclaims. “That impresses me and makes me very proud.”

Rainer Stellwag

DiplomA Physics 1965

Rainer Stellwag has studied Physics at TUM in the early 60s when the university was still called Technical College. After his diploma he initially went to the University of Grenoble for one year, then to IBM and acquired extensive skills in IT, business administration and management on top of his professional education. From 1969 up until his retirement in 1999 he worked for Münchner Rückversicherung and was responsible for controlling the global IT activities. In 1993 he married his wife Traudl. Since December 2016 he is one of the TUM University Foundation donors.

An interview with Rainer Stellwag: read the entire interview in the issue 1/2018 of our alumni magazine>

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