UniChapter
The north gate of Burg Friedberg and the round Adolfsturm with its pointed turrets rising above the castle wall under a blue sky

Studying in Hesse, Germany

Friedberg (Hessen)

A small imperial town with a castle, a campus five minutes from the station, and Frankfurt on the S-Bahn.

2

2 English-taught programmes open for applications in Friedberg (Hessen)

Next deadline: 15 Jan 2027. Every entry links to its official source.

See the programmes ↓

Friedberg is a town of about 30,000 people in the Wetterau, the farmland north of Frankfurt, and it is where the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) has its engineering and business campus. You study in a place that was founded as a planned imperial town in the 12th century: a castle with a 14th-century tower stands at one end of the main street, a Gothic church at the other, and a medieval ritual bath sits 25 metres underground. The campus is a short walk from the train station, the S6 runs to Frankfurt, and Bad Nauheim, with its Art Nouveau spa buildings and a Max Planck institute, begins where Friedberg ends. It is a quiet place, not a student city, so most of your social life will be built around the campus, the dorms, and the trains out. If you want engineering, logistics, business information systems or facility management taught in a small setting, with a real chance of a dorm room, it deserves a look.

Population
30,448 (31 Dec 2025)
Area
50.18 km2, with the old town and five outlying villages
District and state
Seat of the Wetteraukreis, Hesse
Frankfurt am Main
about 30 km south; S-Bahn line S6 runs roughly every half hour
THM students
about 15,000 across the three campuses (winter 2024/25), 2,732 of them international
Campus from the station
about a 5-minute walk, 300 m along Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße
Semester fee in Hesse
about 355 EUR, including a semester ticket
Proof of funds for the visa
992 EUR a month, 11,904 EUR a year
Dorm places in Friedberg (Studierendenwerk Gießen)
64 at In der Burg, 219 at Steinkaute (closing 30 Nov 2026), 5 at Ludwigstraße 25

Part 1

Living in Friedberg (Hessen)

A planned town on a Roman hill

There was a Roman military camp on the Burgberg in the early first century AD, and a stone fort followed under Vespasian that was given up around 260. The town you walk through today is younger: castle and imperial town were probably laid out between 1171 and 1180 under Friedrich Barbarossa, and the first written records are from 1216 and 1219. Friedberg grew rich on cloth and two big yearly fairs, was home to a Jewish community from 1241, and then lost ground to the fairs in Frankfurt after fires and quarrels in the 14th and 15th centuries. It became Protestant in 1552, passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the early 19th century, and got a boost when the railway arrived in 1850 to 1852.

In the Second World War US forces took the town on 29 March 1945 after negotiations that spared it heavy destruction, and Americans stayed for decades afterwards. The most famous of them was Elvis Presley, stationed here from 1958 to 1960. You will see his name on a square, a monument by the old Ray Barracks and the pedestrian traffic lights. He lived privately in Bad Nauheim, next door.

For a student this history is a backdrop rather than a programme. What it gives the town is a compact centre with a castle, old half-timbered houses and a main street, the Kaiserstraße, that is still where the weekly market and the town's events happen.

The Altes Rathaus on the Kaiserstraße, a yellow baroque building with red sandstone window frames, a clock gable and a small roof turret, with a half-timbered house to its right
The Altes Rathaus on the Kaiserstraße.

What to see in an afternoon

Everything below is inside the old town or a short bus ride from it, and the city's own pages describe each one.

  • Burg Friedberg ↗

    A 39,000 m2 castle complex built between 1171 and 1180. Its landmark is the Adolfsturm, from the middle of the 14th century and the oldest surviving late-medieval building on the site. Also here: the classicist Burgkirche, inaugurated in 1808, a redesigned garden next to the Kaiserstraße and the remains of a Roman bath.

  • Mikwe (medieval ritual bath) ↗

    Built around 1260 and 25 metres deep, the deepest of the medieval monumental mikvehs in Germany. It is underground and not visible from the street; the city shows it on Sunday guided tours.

  • Wetterau-Museum ↗

    The history of the region from the Stone Age to the early Middle Ages, with a focus on the Celtic and Roman periods and a section on the castle and town of Friedberg. Special exhibitions change.

  • Theater Altes Hallenbad ↗

    An Art Nouveau swimming hall from 1909, closed in 1980 and rescued by townspeople, now a theatre. The city counts about 80 events a year: theatre, concerts, opera and cabaret.

  • Seewiese ↗

    A green space beside the Kaiserstraße with baseball and volleyball in summer, free open-air ice skating in hard frost and an outdoor calisthenics area for people aged 14 and over. The yearly September fair is held here.

Town and campus

The ochre front of the former indoor swimming pool in Friedberg with the word Schwimmbad on the facade and a carved wooden double door at the top of a stone staircase
The front of the old swimming pool, now the Theater Altes Hallenbad.
Main building of the Friedberg campus of Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen: a long brick-clad block next to a white round building, with parked cars along the street
The main building of the THM campus in Friedberg.
The yellow station building of Friedberg (Hessen) with a large arched window, a slate roof and a clock, with the DB and S-Bahn signs above the entrance
Friedberg station, where the S6 to Frankfurt stops.

What the year looks like

The city's event pages list a market on the Kaiserstraße every Wednesday and Saturday, open-air concerts on Elvis-Presley-Platz on selected summer days, an open-air cinema, a wine festival in the Rathausgarten, carnival with parades by local clubs, and the Elvis Weekend. At Advent the castle hosts Weihnachten in Friedberg, with an ice rink, and Winterzauber. Pentecost is the Wäldchestag, a folk festival in the district of Ossenheim.

Most of these are small, local events, free to wander through. The city's pages do not give dates for all of them, so check the events calendar when you plan a weekend.

A rust-coloured steel monument with a guitar and the words Army Home of Elvis Presley 1958 1960 on a roundabout planted with tall grasses
The Elvis Presley monument at the former Ray Barracks.

Getting around, and getting out

Friedberg station opened in 1850. The S-Bahn line S6 has run to Frankfurt since 1978, roughly every half hour, and several ICE trains stop here as well. The A5 motorway passes close by. Frankfurt is about 30 km away, which makes it easy to use the city for flights, consulates, big museums and a bigger night out, and to come back to a quiet room.

Inside town you can walk. The campus is about five minutes from the station, and the old town is a few minutes further. Your student card carries an RMV semester ticket for regional transport, according to the university. The AStA's site mentions a switch to the Deutschlandsemesterticket from summer semester 2027, so check what your ticket covers when you enrol.

Friedberg and Bad Nauheim are also good cycling country: a local site lists signposted routes around both towns for day trips and weekends. Giessen, where THM has its main campus and the Studierendenwerk its main office, is the other town you will deal with; the Studierendenwerk covers Friedberg, Giessen and Fulda.

Next door: Bad Nauheim

Bad Nauheim borders Friedberg to the south and has about 32,700 residents. It is where most of the Friedberg students go for green space.

  • Sprudelhof ↗

    An Art Nouveau spa complex with the drinking hall and the 1905 machine house, decorated by artists of the Darmstadt Artists' Colony and counted among the best examples of spa architecture in central Europe.

  • Kurpark ↗

    A historic park with old trees and a pond, the Großer Teich, that was dug in the 18th century for salt production. The Kurhaus stands in it.

  • Christmas experience in Bad Nauheim ↗

    THM's guide for international students recommends it for the Advent season.

Bad Nauheim

The Sprudelhof in Bad Nauheim, the Art Nouveau spa complex
The Sprudelhof in neighbouring Bad Nauheim.
A fountain playing in the pond of the Kurpark in Bad Nauheim, with trees around the water
A fountain in the Kurpark of Bad Nauheim.

Where the work is

Friedberg is an industrial and administrative town as well as a student one, and as the district seat it has the Wetteraukreis administration, which includes the foreigners' office. Companies named for the town include Subaru Deutschland, which has been headquartered here since 1980, Fresenius Kabi with one of its biggest plants since 1992, the board-game publisher Pegasus Spiele, Engel Caravaning and the supplier Erich Jaeger. Frankfurt, with its banks, logistics firms and airport, is close enough for internships and student jobs.

None of this promises a job. What it shows is that the subjects taught at the campus, such as mechanical and electrical engineering, logistics, business information systems and facility management, have employers in the same town and the same region. THM's International Career Center runs career fairs, alumni talks and company visits for international students, but its page does not say whether they are open to Friedberg students, so ask when you arrive.

Part 2

Student life in Friedberg (Hessen)

Where you can study

University of applied sciences

Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), Campus Friedberg ↗

THM was founded in 1971 and has about 15,000 students, of whom 2,732 are international, from over 110 countries, with 39 Bachelor's and 44 Master's programmes in 12 departments on campuses in Giessen, Friedberg and Wetzlar. The Friedberg campus at Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße 13 teaches 27 programmes from four departments: IEM (electrical engineering, information technology, mechatronics), M (mechanical engineering and materials), MND (mathematics, natural sciences and data processing) and WI (business administration and engineering), plus the management and communication department MuK. Bachelor's courses include Applied Physics, Railway Engineering, Logistics Management, Mechatronics, Media Informatics, Organizational and IT Security, Real Estate and Facility Management and Business Information Systems. In English: the Bachelor's in Electrical and Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics (listed as German and English), and the Master's in Control, Computer and Communications Engineering, Optical System Engineering, Sustainability Transformation in Engineering and Management, Mathematics for Sustainability, Economics and Data Science, Supply Chain Management and Business Information Systems, plus a part-time MBA. THM does not say how much of the Bachelor's courses is in English, so ask the department before you apply.

International office ↗
Research institute

Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research (W.-G.-Kerckhoff-Institut), Bad Nauheim ↗

Not a university, but the research institute next door in Bad Nauheim, at Ludwigstraße 43 and Parkstraße 1. It works on heart biology and disease, lung research and organ development, in departments led by Thomas Braun, Stefan Offermanns and Didier Stainier. The institute links to a doctoral graduate school, IMPRS-MOB, so it matters mostly if you plan a PhD in the life sciences, not for a first degree.

Student unions, services and groups

  • AStA of THM ↗

    The student union. Its Friedberg rooms are in building A3, on the ground floor; the secretariat is staffed Monday to Wednesday from 9:30 to 14:30, and the AStA shop in A3 sells student services such as the ISIC card. Its department Kultur & Internationales welcomes international students and helps with everyday problems; the Solifonds supports students in financial emergencies.

  • Studierendenwerk Gießen ↗

    Runs the dorms in Friedberg, the Mensa THM Friedberg, BAföG, social and financing counselling and the Wohnbörse. Housing consultation hours at the Gießen office are Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:00 to 13:00 without an appointment. It also gives advice to international students on health insurance, the ISIC card and funding.

  • THM International Buddy Programme ↗

    Each semester it pairs newcomers with returning students from different countries, based on subject and interests, with free events, excursions and workshops. You can register for the winter semester on the programme page.

  • International Get-Together ↗

    A regulars' table on the first Wednesday of every month, 17:00 to 19:00, at the Pulse.Point on the Giessen campus. All THM students and staff are welcome.

  • Hochschulsport THM ↗

    University sport with recreational, health and team sports, including badminton, rowing and a fitness studio. Its programme lists Giessen locations, so ask the sports office whether a course takes place in Friedberg.

  • Fachschaft M (mechanical engineering, mechatronics, materials) ↗

    The student council of department 12, one of the Friedberg departments. Student councils are the department's own student representatives.

  • Fachschaftsrat IEM ↗

    The student council of the department for information technology, electrical engineering and mechatronics, based in Friedberg.

  • Fachschaft WI (business administration and engineering) ↗

    The student council of department 14, one of the Friedberg departments.

  • ESG Gießen (Protestant student community) ↗

    Henselstraße 7 in Giessen. It welcomes students whatever they believe and offers advice for international students, and it rents shared-flat rooms (13 to 17 m2) at Henselstraße 7.

  • KHG Gießen (Catholic student community) ↗

    Wilhelmstraße 28 in Giessen. It runs social counselling for international students, a welcome party at the start of the semester, a French-language Mass and shared flats.

Campus life and study culture

The Friedberg campus is one block of buildings on Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße, with its own Mensa, AStA rooms and student advising in building A3. THM has a campus building planned with extra lecture halls, laboratories and offices. THM is a university of applied sciences, so study means labs, projects and a practical semester, and the Friedberg departments are technical: engineering, physics, logistics, IT and business.

This is a small campus in a small town. Many events for international students happen on the Giessen campus, such as the International Get-Together and the career centre, so expect to travel for them. Giessen also has the Studierendenwerk's main office and the chaplaincies listed above. Student life in Friedberg itself is the Fachschaft, your project group, the Mensa and the dorm.

THM's International Office holds personal consultation hours on both campuses, including room A3.0.10 at Friedberg on Mondays and Thursdays from 13:00 to 15:00. It helps with residence permits, money worries and personal crises, as well as study advice.

What things cost

Semester fee, including the semester ticket
about 355 EUR per semestersource
Proof of funds for the visa
992 EUR a month, 11,904 EUR a yearsource
Dorm: Steinkaute, single rooms in shared flats
from 284.60 EUR, 12 m2 (applications closed, see below)source
Dorm: In der Burg, single apartments
411 to 527.40 EUR, 13 to 22 m2, with private bathroom and pantry kitchensource
ISIC student card
18 EUR, valid 12 monthssource
Minimum wage
13.90 EUR an hour since January 2026source
Minijob income without tax
up to 556 EUR a monthsource

Hesse charges no tuition for most degree courses. Dorm rents are per place and from the Studierendenwerk's own pages; private rents and food are not included.

Housing: dorms, and one is closing

The Studierendenwerk Gießen rents places in Friedberg, applications go through its online form, and the housing office answers at wohnen@stwgi.de or 0641 40008-300. Do not count on a dorm place: THM says plainly that one is not certain.

  • Studierendenwohnheim In der Burg ↗

    64 single apartments for THM students in two buildings at In der Burg 15 and 19, each furnished with a bed, wardrobe, desk, shelf, private shower room and pantry kitchen, with internet included. Rents run from 411 to 527.40 EUR.

  • Studierendenwohnheim Steinkaute (Fauerbach) ↗

    219 places in five houses: shared flats with single rooms from 12 m2, single apartments and double apartments, about ten minutes by bike from campus. The Studierendenwerk will close it on 30 November 2026 because of its condition, and no applications are accepted, so you will be pointed to other halls.

  • Studierendenwohnheim Ludwigstraße 25 ↗

    Five single rooms between 14 and 31 m2, listed at 364 to 647 EUR.

  • Wohnbörse and tips for the private market ↗

    The Studierendenwerk runs a free online room board all year, a Netzwerk Wohnen with private landlords each autumn, and a list of guesthouses in Giessen and Friedberg for short stays. It also names the Friday listings in the Wetterauer Zeitung as a source for Friedberg, and the AStA of THM keeps folders of offers for Giessen and Friedberg.

Food, sport and evenings

The Mensa THM Friedberg is at the campus address, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße 13, and is run by the Studierendenwerk; the menu is on its website. Opening hours and prices are not listed with the canteen entry, so check the Speisepläne before you plan a lunch around it.

Sport at THM is organised from the Giessen campus, so a Friedberg student should ask the sports office what runs locally. In Friedberg itself the Seewiese has volleyball, baseball and a calisthenics park, and the group Calisthenics Friedberg / Bad Nauheim usually trains in public on Sundays from 11:00 to 13:00.

For an evening out, the Theater Altes Hallenbad has theatre, concerts and cabaret, the Kaiserstraße has the cafés, and the S6 takes you to Frankfurt. Do not expect a student quarter or a club scene in town.

Help for newcomers in Friedberg

Friedberg is the district seat, so the offices that handle migration are here, and several are open to adult newcomers of any kind.

Your first weeks

  1. 1

    Before you fly

    Apply to THM through uni-assist if your school certificate or Bachelor's is from abroad. Apply for a dorm place with the Studierendenwerk at the same time, and prepare proof of funds of 992 EUR a month.

  2. 2

    First week

    Register your address at the Bürgerbüro in the Rathaus, Mainzer-Tor-Anlage 6. Tuesday and Thursday mornings need no appointment; other slots are booked online, and new slots appear overnight. It is closed on Wednesday. Phone 06031 885200.

  3. 3

    Enrolment

    Enrol with the student secretariat; for Friedberg the page lists 06031 604-1222. Your student card carries the RMV semester ticket. Check the AStA page for the digital ticket that replaces the chip card from 1 October 2026.

  4. 4

    Residence permit

    The Ausländerbehörde of the Wetteraukreis is at Europaplatz, Gebäude A, in Friedberg. Phone 06031 83-2566, and appointments are booked online; Monday to Thursday 07:30 to 16:00 and Friday 07:30 to 12:30 are the general hours for the district office. Ask THM's International Office which documents to bring.

  5. 5

    First semester

    Take part in the buddy programme, join your Fachschaft and look at the International Get-Together dates. Health insurance is compulsory for enrolment, and the Studierendenwerk advises against opting out of the statutory scheme.

Working while you study

Students from outside the EU may work 140 full days or 280 half days a year. More needs permission from the Agentur für Arbeit and the foreigners' office, and is granted only in cases of financial need. Jobs as an assistant at your own university have no day limit, but you must tell the foreigners' office. A minijob up to 556 EUR a month is tax-free, and the minimum wage is 13.90 EUR an hour.

STIBET, the DAAD's support scheme for international students, offers at least 300 EUR a month for one to six months, with deadlines on 31 March, 30 June and 31 October. BAföG is not open to international students on a study permit. THM's guide recommends the consultation hours of Welcome & Stay for part-time job questions.

Where you come from matters here

Pick your home country: food, faith, community groups and the consulate that serves you, checked 21 October 2026.

🇮🇳 Living in Friedberg (Hessen) as an Indian student

Friedberg has no Indian association of its own, so the nearest places are in Frankfurt and Offenbach, a short S-Bahn ride away. The consulate in Frankfurt is the one to book for passports and OCI.

  • Consulate General of India, Frankfurt ↗

    Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 26, 60325 Frankfurt am Main. Passport, visa, OCI and attestation services, by online appointment.

  • ISKCON Frankfurt-Offenbach ↗

    A Krishna temple at Kaiserstraße 26, 63065 Offenbach am Main. Its Sunday programme starts at 13:00 with kirtan, a lecture in English and Russian and a shared meal, and it says everyone is welcome.

  • Frankfurt Tamil Church ↗

    A Tamil-language Christian congregation at Nieder Kirchweg 7, 65934 Frankfurt, with Sunday worship at 15:00 and a Tuesday prayer meeting at 19:00.

English-taught programmes in Friedberg (Hessen)

Soonest open deadline first. Every entry links to its official source.

Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences

Is Friedberg (Hessen) right for you? Ask us. Free.

Tell us your passport, grades and budget. We compare Friedberg (Hessen) with the other places you could study, then apply for you. You never pay us.

Get my free plan