The predecessor of Tongji University, Tongji Medical School, began with the German Medical Hall founded in Shanghai in 1907. When the school was first founded, it was located on Baike Road (now Fengyang Road) in Shanghai. In 1908, due to the increase in students, the school decided to purchase 12 acres of land on the present-day Fuxing Middle Road (now the Fuxing Road Campus of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology). The school building was completed in 1909. In 1912, the Department of Engineering was established, and the school was renamed Tongji Devon Medical Engineering School.
At the beginning of 1914, the Chinese and French governments negotiated to revise the Shanghai Concession Treaty, and the site of the Tongji Devon Medical Engineering School was designated as the French Concession. On March 17, 1917, under the influence of the First World War, the authorities of the French Concession in Shanghai used the excuse that the Tongji German Medical School was a German industry, and in order to prevent the Germans from using the school's advanced machinery to make weapons, the French General Inspector of the Capture House led the Annan Army Brigade to surround Tongji, and summoned all the teachers and students in the wind and rain playground to publicly announce the dissolution of the school.
On April 23, 1917, the Ministry of Education issued a directive to rename the Tongji Devon Medical Engineering School as the Tongji Medical School. The Chinese-made school council became the highest governing body of the school, and teaching was still dominated by German teachers, thus beginning the years of "Tongji" in Wusong. In 1919, under the auspices of Yuan Xitao, vice minister of education, the Ministry of Education allocated 10,000 yuan to purchase 150 acres of land in Wusong Township. In February 1922, the Engineering and Mechanics Section moved into the new school building in Wusong, and the Pre-Medical Department moved to Wusong in 1923. On April 24, 1923, the Ministry of Education issued a directive to change the name of the school to Tongji University. By the spring of 1924, all the new school buildings in Wusong were completed.
In August 1927, the Nationalist government officially named the school National Tongji University. In 1930, the National Tongji University renamed medical and engineering departments as medical schools and engineering colleges. At that time, the medical school had 18 teachers and 204 students, ranking first among all medical universities in the country. From 1929 to 1937, research halls of physiology, pharmacology, biology, pathology, and bacteriology were established successively. In 1933, the Department of Higher Surveying was added (changed to the Department of Surveying in 1935), which became the source of civil surveying disciplines in China. On April 1, 1936, the German Society of Engineers in Berlin sent a letter acknowledging that graduates of the Faculty of Engineering of the National Tongji University had the same qualifications as graduates of the German University of Technology, and that they were also full members of the Shanghai Branch of the Association and enjoyed the treatment of engineers. The Faculty of Science of National Tongji University was established in 1937 with two departments of biology and chemistry. At this point, National Tongji University formed a pure practical university with three major faculties of medicine, engineering and science, and became one of the world-famous scientific centers in that year.
In the Songhu War, national Tongji University was the hardest hit area. Since then, the ruins of the "Tongji" Wusong campus have gradually become farmland. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, National Tongji University moved back to its current location on Siping Road in Shanghai in 1946. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tongji University ushered in a new spring and developed into a famous institution of higher learning in China.
Author: Zhu Daming
Editor: Yang Xiaoxi