Hasso Plattner Institute

The Hasso Plattner Institute is a German information-technology college, affiliated to University of Potsdam and located at Potsdam-Babelsberg near Berlin. It was founded 1998 and is the first and by now the only entirely private funded college in Germany. Funder and eponymous person is Hasso Plattner, one of the co-founders of the largest European software company SAP AG.

History

The Hasso Plattner Institute was founded in 1998 as a Public-private partnership. Hasso Plattner created the non-profit "Hasso Plattner Foundation for Software Systems Engineering", which is the administrative body responsible for the HPI and its only company member. The foundation’s legal form is that of a GmbH, a limited liability company according to German law.As the public part of the partnership, the Bundesland Brandenburg provided the estate where three multi-story buildings where built. Half of the 36 Million euros of expenses where paid by the European Union, the other part by Hasso Plattner.Plattner has pledged 50 million euros of his personal fortune over a period of 20 years. Since its foundation, Plattner's commitment to the HPI has quadrupled to over 200 million euros. He not only fully finances the HPI, but is also actively involved as a director and lecturer in Enterprise Platforms and Integration Concepts [http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/personen/stifter.html?L=1] , in 2004 he received his honorary professorship from the University of Potsdam.