Biography|Lars Wagner — The Templergraben Degree That Sent Him Back to the Line

The Hauptgebäude of RWTH Aachen stands at Templergraben 55.

Robert Cremer's stone block, finished in 1870, is still the address the university prints for its administration and its aula.

Lars Wagner took a Diplom-Ingenieur here in mechanical engineering and aeronautics, finishing in 2002.

Munzinger records the year and the two fields.

The same register notes semester work at Imperial College London and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before an MBA at the Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris in 2003.

Those side doors matter. They do not replace the Aachen degree.

He had already served an aircraft-mechanic apprenticeship in Bremen.

The Diplom was the paper that let the same company take him back as an engineer rather than as a fitter.

Airbus's later official note says he returned to the firm in 2003 and worked in flight physics and strategy before the Hamburg years on the A350 fuselage.

Stand on the steps facing Templergraben and the claim is modest.

This is where a North Sea apprentice became the engineer the industry would later put in charge of engines, and then of commercial aircraft.

The building is a listed monument. The degree date is 2002.

Photo: Aleph, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons