Andreas Dengel is not one of those people who had a plan for their life early on.

"I was good at school, but a completely lazy student," he recalls.

At first, the young man from Regensburg didn't really know what career he wanted to pursue.

"I couldn't really get excited about anything back then." He did several internships and thought about an apprenticeship.

Then he decided to study architecture in Munich, which he quickly dropped out of.

He moved to Passau, enrolled in computer science and economics to teach at high schools.

He rates his academic achievements as good, but not outstanding.

Even when he found joy in research after his exams and decided to do his doctorate, he still thought that he would "be a teacher for the next 40 years" after earning his doctorate.

Sasha Zoske

Sheet maker in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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There is now much to suggest that Dengel will spend the next four decades of his professional life as a professor.

He had already reached this career stage at the age of 28: when he was appointed to the University of Frankfurt on January 1, he was the youngest holder of a professorship at salary level W2.

According to Dengel, the German University Association – to which not all chair holders belong – has not found any younger professors in its membership file.

The Ministry of Science cannot say whether Dengel currently at least holds the record for Hesse: So far, it only has figures from the State Statistical Office for the key date December 1, 2020.

At that time there were two professors - one man, one woman - who had been 28 years old at the time of their appointment.

However, the star violinist Julia Fischer clearly undercut this mark: When she received a professorship at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in 2006, she had just celebrated her 23rd birthday.

And even that is not record-breaking by Hessian standards: the great chemist Justus Liebig was appointed associate professor in Gießen in 1823 at the age of only 21.

Expertise and fortunate circumstances

He attributes the fact that Andreas Dengel made it so quickly to the top of the academic hierarchy on the one hand, of course, to his professional skills, but on the other hand to fortunate circumstances.

During his doctorate, he dealt with the use of virtual reality in computer science classes.

He was also fascinated early on by the idea of ​​teaching computer science without computers.

The basic principles of data processing can be taught to children without putting them in front of a screen – for example with a game about how the Internet works, in which students slip into the roles of clients and servers and depict their connections with threads of wool.

Such research topics are in vogue, and the corona pandemic caused the need for digital knowledge transfer to grow by leaps and bounds.

Dengel was in the right profession at the right time.

After completing his doctorate in Passau, he moved to Würzburg as a postdoc and devoted himself to media education;

he also taught part-time at a Würzburg high school.

Even before his temporary contract at the University of Würzburg expired, he was successful with his application for a W2 position in Frankfurt.

Dengel was initially skeptical about moving from the Bavarian provinces to the big city on the Main.

But in the meantime he has settled in, as he says: the city and the university "welcomed him with open arms".

Now, as a professor for didactics of computer science, he moves among students, some of whom are as old as he is. This sometimes leads to strange situations.

When Dengel once forgot his ID card during the corona-related access restrictions to the university buildings, the security guard did not want to believe that he was a professor and wanted to go to his seminar.

He had to call his students to ask them to pick him up at the entrance.

With the students per you

Otherwise, despite his youthful appearance, he is shown the respect he deserves.

With the students, he is by you, because he knows: "As a professor, you are the one who has to make the tough decisions." The fact that he now has a great deal of freedom to make decisions is what Dengel appreciates most about his position.

Unlike in industry, you can choose your own research subjects at the university.

He is currently setting up a didactics laboratory in which he wants to test different forms of teaching – a “classroom of the future”, as he puts it.

One of the focal points of his work is the vocational training of disadvantaged young people.

He also holds advanced training courses in which elementary school teachers, for example, can learn how search engines work.

There will be a cross-departmental offer in which Dengel brings his hobby.

He practices tricking, a sport that combines martial arts elements with floor exercises.

Dengel would also like to train somersaults, twists and kung fu kicks with university members.

He has already asked the Center for University Sports if he could run a course.