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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The audiMAX lecture hall and study center gives the natural and life sciences campus of Heidelberg University a new architectural centerpiece and a central location for teaching, learning and exchange. Erected by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the five-storey building complex with a large, imposing auditorium, other teaching facilities, as well as areas for communication, a library, study places and exhibitions, is now being commissioned for use. The opening ceremony is to take place on 16 April 2026. In attendance will be Petra Olschowski, Baden-Württemberg’s science minister.
Press Release, 10 April 2026
Universität Heidelberg: audiMAX Lecture Hall and Study Center to Be Officially Opened
New central place for teaching, learning and exchange on the Im Neuenheimer Feld campus
The audiMAX lecture hall and study center gives the natural and life sciences campus of Heidelberg University a new architectural centerpiece and a central location for teaching, learning and exchange. Erected by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung, the five-storey building complex with a large, imposing auditorium, other teaching facilities, as well as areas for communication, a library, study places and exhibitions, is now being commissioned for use. The opening ceremony is to take place on 16 April 2026. In attendance will be Petra Olschowski, Baden-Württemberg’s science minister. It is the second big new university building in Heidelberg that the foundation is presenting to the state of Baden-Württemberg as a gift.
For decades, planning for Neuenheimer Feld has foreseen a structural campus focus near the central student refectory, the Theoretikum, and the physics institutes. The audiMAX lecture hall and study center, which took six years to complete, will fulfil an important function on the campus, notably for student affairs and teaching, information, communication and scientific exchange. The Auditorium Maximum has pride of place – a lecture theater with over 900 places and the largest at Heidelberg University. Added to this, there are seminar and training rooms as well as two science lecture halls, each seating 270, which can be joined together to make another large venue.
The building complex, accessible from all sides, with a usable surface of around 8,700 square meters, features an open building structure and is linked to the campus outside by means of generous-sized “study stairs” with steps that can also serve as seats. Alongside the central campus library with about 440 reading and study places, spacious study and common areas provide facilities for private study, group work, meet-ups and communication. Some of the over 120 study places freely available to students are media-equipped. The entrance hall is designed to cater for different event formats and, in addition, to showcase university collections and museums. The area outside the audiMAX can also be used for events, with the staircase forming a kind of ‘gallery’.
“For over 30 years, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung has been supporting research, education and science communication in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science”, says Lilian Knobel, Co-President of the foundation. “Over the course of these years we have also erected several prominent buildings for science and research, since space shapes teaching, learning and interaction. We are all the more delighted that the needs of students and teachers take center stage in the audiMAX.”
“Precisely in a digital age, genuine encounter and direct dialogue at attractive central places like the newly created lecture hall and study center on the Im Neuenheimer Feld campus remain essential preconditions for successful teaching and mutual exchange,” underlines Baden-Württemberg’s science minister Petra Olschowski. “Our special thanks go to the Klaus Tschira Stiftung which, with the outstanding technical equipment and thoughtful design of the audiMAX, has not only created a modern lecture hall building with study and work rooms but, above all, an inspiring environment for students and teachers at Heidelberg University.”
“With its lecture halls, which are also suitable for experimental lectures, as well as its learning and meeting spaces, the audiMAX lecture hall and study center offers ideal conditions for research-oriented teaching and for academic exchange,” underlines Prof. Dr Frauke Melchior, Rector of Heidelberg University. “Thanks to the extraordinary engagement of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung we can provide students and teachers with a future-ready place for communication, teaching and studying in one of the most significant research areas in Europe.”
The Rector of Ruperto Carola will open the ceremony. Greetings from Petra Olschowski as well as from Lilian Knobel and Udo Tschira on behalf of the Klaus Tschira Stiftung will follow. The program also includes a conversation on the topic “audiMAX – Space for Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning”, moderated by Prof. Dr Silke Hertel, Vice-Rector for Student Affairs and Teaching at Heidelberg University. The Collegium Musicum will provide a musical accompaniment to the event.
Like the new audiMAX lecture hall and study center, the Mathematikon – home to the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, the Faculty of Engineering Sciences and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing – was also erected by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung. The foundation funds natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, and seeks to increase appreciation for these subjects. It was established in 1995 by physicist and SAP-cofounder Klaus Tschira (1940–2015) with private financial resources. Its three funding priorities are education, research and science communication. Its nation-wide engagement begins in the kindergarten and continues in schools, universities and research institutions. The Klaus Tschira Stiftung advocates for a dialogue between science and society.
The opening ceremony is already fully booked. Walk-ins will therefore not be able to attend.
Note for newsrooms:
The official opening of the new audiMAX lecture hall and study center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 289, is taking place on 16 April 2026, starting at 5 pm. Media representatives are warmly invited to attend and report. Registration with presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de is required by 14 April.
Contact:
Press Office
Phone +49 6221 54-2311
presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de
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