Abstract
"Federal investments into the future of a region" - pushing economy in the right direction or throwing tax money into a black hole? Hot-headed contentions keep circulating within politics and economy discussing the effect of technology centers and their sustainability within a region. Start-up support and technological infrastructure with the auxiliary service of well developed sector-oriented clusters as a fertile soil for successful networks are an undeniable advantage of well organised technology centers. Sceptic contemporaries still hold against that in order to implement such a center millions of federal funds for infrastructure and operation are invested. What output of this tax money is verifiable in the long run? The case of Dortmund provides substantial food for this necessary and relevant discussion. Now, after 27 years of history of the TechnologieZentrumDortmund, TZDO for short, a positive balance can be drawn. This is not just a matter of personal belief and stance. Fortunately, a recent study on the economic effects of the TZDO on the whole region was performed by the Center of Applied Economy Research M$\ddot{u}$nster, Germany (Gundel and Luttmann 2008). The result is clear and measurable: the TZDO has shown to be of great impact on the positive development of a whole region. This paper presents an account of the approach of the TechnologieZentrumDortmund and its current strategy and mode of operation to reach an utmost of effectiveness of personal and pecuniary input in establishing economic success for the region of Dortmund. An immense change of minds, employment opportunities and a massive structural change of the whole region were some of the ambitious aims that had to be reached and that are achieved to a large extent.