Setting Out for New Worlds

"Retirement" is definitely not a word that applies to Sabine Hirte. After all, the Bielefeld native has always wanted to discover and shape new worlds.

So, after graduating from high school, the now 66-year-old first completed an apprenticeship as a print plate maker. She then studied visual communication at Aachen University of Applied Sciences from 1981 to 1986. And because a degree in design wasn’t enough for her, she went on to complete a one-year supplementary training program in Munich in desktop publishing (DTP) and 3D animation. Afterward, Sabine Hirtes worked as an art director for various employers until she moved to the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg from 1993 to 1997 to serve as an assistant for digital image design. From then on, she didn’t want to miss out on the inspiring collaboration with students. And so, following a brief stint at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, she took on teaching positions at the Cairo Film School and the Bauhaus University in Weimar. From 2002 to 2010, she returned to the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg and worked at the Institute for Animation, Visual Effects, and Digital Post-Production, serving, among other roles, as program coordinator.

In search of a new challenge and greater autonomy, Sabine Hirtes finally joined Hochschule Offenburg in 2010 as a professor of “Audiovisual Post-Production and Visual Effects.” Since then, she has taught countless creative courses across the various degree programs in the Media Department. In doing so, she always encouraged her students to try new things, develop their own creativity, and be bold. She often put this into practice herself with fashion accessories—unfortunately, in her opinion, she rarely had enough time for larger personal projects. Nevertheless—or perhaps precisely because of this—she was a strong advocate from an early stage for the development of the media fields of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) at the University, as she recognized their potential for interdisciplinary projects. Until the very end, she served as Dean of Studies for the bachelor's program in Medien und Kommunikation and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Teaching in the department of Media. And because attracting talented young people was also very important to her, she frequently represented the Media Department at college information events and led countless lab tours for school classes.

In the future, she hopes to explore the world, give free rein to her creativity, and get involved in social and cultural causes.