The Böttcher Building, whose cornerstone was laid on 2 September 1875, was named after Professor Eduard Theodor Böttcher (1829–1893). Böttcher was a professor of mechanics and for many years the director of the Royal Higher Industrial School in Chemnitz. The laboratory building facing the railroad station was handed over as early as 1876. The busts of Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Alexander von Humboldt in the staircase there also date from this time. On 16 October 1877, this building was consecrated as the State Technical School. Under this collective name, it united the Higher School of Trades, the School of Construction Trades, the School of Master Craftsmen and the School of Trades Marks. The building, which was equipped according to the most modern standards and in which 612 students were taught at the time, had 105 rooms with a total area of 6,613 square meters. Since the 150th anniversary of engineering education in 1986, the main building at the university has borne the name "Eduard-Theodor-Böttcher-Bau". In 1986, a sculpture of Böttcher by the Karl-Marx-Stadt artist Frank Diettrich was also unveiled in front of the Senate Hall on the second floor in the central part of the building.
