TUM Alumna Sandra Gebhart, as Chief Fire Officer, ensures that there are always enough firefighters on site when the Munich Fire Department is called out (Picture: Berufsfeuerwehr München).
After graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from TUM in 1993, the native of Ingolstadt did not pursue a career in the automotive industry but – as the fifth woman nationwide – trained to become a professional firefighter for higher service. She was initially a fire trainee at the State Fire School in Regensburg and came to Munich for the basic training course: “I was the only woman there for a long time,” she explains. However, it never bothered her. She has always enjoyed working with men: “That’s just how I know it and I like it the way it is.”
SOLVING PROBLEMS AS A TEAM
When you sit across from Sandra Gebhart, you can tell that she loves what she does and knows where she stands. As the current Chief Fire Director and head of the “Operations” department, she has a desk job at the main fire station in the center of Munich and also takes on operational duties. During an operation, she no longer rides in the vehicle with her colleagues but observes the situations from the command center and ensures that there are always enough forces in action. Nearly 1,300 people belong to the department, which includes all fire stations in Munich. Solving problems together with all of them is one of the native Bavarian’s passions.
“During my studies, I learned how to teach myself a subject, how to approach things.”
Perseverance, humility, and thriving in the community are part of Sandra Gebhart’s recipe for success. Teamwork is always important to her, and it works particularly well when everyone can step back a bit and let other opinions count. When you can allow the diversity and strengths and weaknesses of each individual. “If I always want to be in charge, teamwork won’t work.”
PROMOTING THE NEXT GENERATION
On her way to becoming Chief Fire Director, she always had supporters – “otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now,” she explains. As a mother of three, she was never hindered: taking parental leave and returning, balancing work and family, “I never had even the slightest problem with that.” This is also why the TUM Alumna is committed to promoting young women and diversity in the fire department today. Because it also needs women with their skills and talents to ideally represent society and to be able to help it adequately.
For Sandra Gebhart herself, it was always an essential life wish to have children, “to be a housewife and mother,” as she wrote in her high school yearbook. “I was a typical girl,” she says. After graduating from an all-girls high school, she decided to study Mechanical Engineering at TUM because she was good at math and science and an information evening about the course was simply exciting. She still became a mother – but also a professional firefighter in a leadership position.
Sandra Gebhart (Picture: Berufsfeuerwehr München).
Diploma Mechanical Engineering 1993
Sandra Gebhart grew up in Ingolstadt and could have easily started working at the car manufacturer in her hometown after studying Mechanical Engineering at TUM. However, she quickly realized that this was not what she wanted. So she decided to train as a professional firefighter, was a fire trainee at the State Fire School in Regensburg, and came to Munich as a fire councilor in 1996: There, she was the first and for a long time the only woman in the Munich Fire Department. After many stations, Sandra Gebhart is now Chief Fire Director at the Munich Fire Department and leads the “Operations” department with a team of about 1,300 people. She has three grown children, enjoys playing Schafkopf, and loves knitting complicated patterns.
