Originally called Hochschule der Bundeswehr München the institution was supposed to offer civilian academic education for military officers.

In 1970 the then minister of defence Helmut Schmidt decided that the education of military officers in Germany had to be reviewed and had to include full academic studies.

After one year the Ellwein commission presented its proposal for the creation of two civilian colleges within the armed forces.

The idea was that students would have better conditions than at normal universities so that they could cope with a higher workload and study faster.

In the 90s and 2000s the university has started to open its teaching towards civilian students and to extend its international relations.

In the past few years different federal agencies have started to qualify their employees at the university.

It has completely restructed its curriculums and awards bachelor's and master's degrees instead of the former German Diplom.

The large campus used to host the Air Force officer school before, and also included a military airport.

[5] On campus students have access to different sports facilities like gyms, tennis courts and golf ranges.

Different multinational engineering companies have their headquarters or important industrial facilities directly next to the campus, most notably Siemens, Infineon Technologies, Bosch and Siemens Household Appliances (BSH), and EADS facilitating frequent cooperation in research.

International initiatives like the German-American, German-Israeli or German-Hispanic clubs as well as the Model United Nations Society play an important role on the campus.

The sports center provides a variety of free courses for students – e.g. for different martial arts.

The contents generally have no relation to the military and correspond to courses at regular German universities.

Due to this there also is a small number of highly gifted civilian students who are sponsored by industrial and financial companies like Allianz, Bosch or Munich Re.

In addition to that other German ministries and federal institutions like Bundesnachrichtendienst also educate some of their employees at the university.

Military students of the university usually only have a maximum of 4 years to pass their master's within the intensive studies with more content.

As the studies have to be finished in a shorter time than at common German universities, the academic year consists of three trimesters instead of the normal two semesters.

With both organizations on campus the federal government aims to build up a cluster for cyber defence and security unique of its kind within Germany.