Back in 2001–2002, while I was finishing up my BFA at RISD, I spent a semester abroad at the Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, a large-ish University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany. The German-language blog Design Tagebuch (design diary) reports that this university has gotten a new name: the institution is now going to be know as the Hochschule RheinMain. Total bullocks! While I think that the new school logo is an improvement (the old logo looked like the US state of Texas with a hat on it), I find the name “Hochschule RheinMain” rather pompous.
In Germany’s Rhein–Main region, there are already several Hochschulen (universities). If we limit the number to only include state-run schools, we will find two in Mainz and several in Frankfurt, as well as the state of Hessen’s official art academy in Offenbach. And three more to be found in Darmstadt! Many of these universities have larger student bodies than the old Fachhochschule Wiesbaden did. Plus, while Wiesbaden may be the official political capital of the state of Hessen, the center of the Rhein–Main region—as well as the cultural and financial hub of the area—is Frankfurt. So if any Hochschule in the Rhein–Main area should rename itself the “Hochschule RheinMain,” perhaps it should have been the FH Frankfurt, and not the FH Wiesbaden.