The
origination of a public engineering education in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia
was initiated by Christian Josef Willenberg (1650–1731). He addressed his
petition in Czech to the Emperor Leopold I in January 1705. Willenberg, 35 years
of age, was experienced in preceptorship and teaching in aristocratic families,
mainly in Bohemia and France.
After passing examinations in arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry and fortification of an irregular area, the Court Council awarded him the Emperor’s Engineer title in 1706. The Emperor Josef I supported the Willenberg’s idea by a rescript of 18 January 1707. Administrative and financial problems did not allow to implement the project of education in 1707.
Willenberg, an experienced soldier, connoisseur and enthusiast for technical sciences, began, by agreement with the Czech Estates, to teach ten aristocrats and two burghers in the art of fortification in 1717 only. The Estate Engineering Teaching Institute (Stavovské inženýrské učiliště) was placed by Willenberg, as an appointed professor, in his flat at Malá Strana in Prague.
We are organising these celebrations to the tribute of Willenberg and technical education, taking place in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia for a continuous period of 300 years.