Without computers, little or nothing would function in today’s society. Be it in traffic, manufacturing, administration, health service, or in our leisure time – everywhere computers are discretely assuming an increasing number of important tasks. As a result, information technology has become a very significant economic sector in modern industrial society.

German computer science has its most important roots at Universität Karlsruhe. It was here where, in 1957, the first German chair in information processing was established and first held by computer science pioneer Karl Steinbuch. It was also here that Karl Nickel did his basic research on computer application and programming languages during the 1950s and 60s. Upon his initiative, in 1968, the Institute of Computer Science was founded, which in turn became today's Department of Computer Sciences in 1972.