In 1767, the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades (in short: Patriotic Society of 1765) laid the foundation for today's Hamburg University of Fine Arts by founding a drawing school. The aim was to increase taste and creative ability in the craft and to train it in an aesthetically sophisticated way. As a result of the debate about the establishment of a trade school, the range of courses, originally limited to a building plan and a freehand drawing class, was expanded and differentiated considerably from 1830 onwards. This enabled the students not only to specialize in their craft, but above all to develop and sharpen their artistic expression. In 1865, the city of Hamburg took over the sponsorship of the institution, which had previously been financed by the guilds and now operated as a public trade school. Its importance grew first as a state school of applied arts, then as a state art school and since 1955 as a college of fine arts with the success of its students and teachers at home and abroad.