Visitors from the German Bundestag at the Chair of Structural Engineering
On September 30, 2026, Benedikt Büdenbender (CDU), a member of the German Bundestag, visited the Chair of Structural Engineering at the University of Siegen.
After a scheduled meeting at this year’s SME Innovation Day 2026, organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) on June 11, 2026, in Berlin did not take place due to scheduling conflicts, Benedikt Büdenbender (CDU) visited the Chair of Structural Engineering at the University of Siegen on September 30, 2026. The member of the German Bundestag, representing the Siegen-Wittgenstein constituency, learned about current research into the development of innovative and multifunctional glazing for the facades of the future. Prof. Thorsten Weimar, Ph.D., Eng., addressed, among other things, the current challenges universities face with federal funding programs for research projects due to the tight budget situation.
The group then proceeded to the testing hall of the Chair of Structural Engineering. There, the two research assistants, M.Eng. Christian Hammer and M.Sc. Henrik Reißaus, presented two research projects on bullet-resistant glass and lightweight glass. In this context, Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thorsten Weimar emphasized the particular importance of collaborations between the University of Siegen and medium-sized companies in the region, which have already yielded successful research projects in the field of glass construction. The photo shows Henrik Reißaus, Thorsten Weimar, and Benedikt Büdenbender in front of a prototype they developed for bullet-resistant glazing in resistance class BR 6, with a total thickness of just 47 mm and a U-value of 0.7 W/m²K.
