Karsten Asshauer

Karsten Asshauer is a media informatics specialist with a focus on system administration and web development, as well as an IT project coordinator in the field of humanities informatics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Since October 2025, he has served as the IT Officer of the ZfK – Zentrum für Kulturtechnik. Since October 2019, he has been responsible for the operation and continuous development of its IT systems, client and server infrastructure, web platforms, and digital services. He supports the ZfK’s staff, units, projects, collections, and exhibition venues, including the Humboldt Labor, Tieranatomisches Theater, Objektlabor, Kleine Humboldt Galerie, and Campuskunst.

His role combines system administration, web development, IT project coordination, and user support at the intersection of humanities informatics, digital cultural infrastructure, and exhibition technology. His responsibilities include server and web operations, web programming, technical maintenance and quality assurance, IT onboarding and offboarding, account and access management, documentation, staff training, and day-to-day support for macOS, Apple devices, and other workplace systems.

In 2025/2026, he coordinated the relaunch and migration of the central ZfK website from WordPress to Humboldt-Universität’s new TYPO3-based web platform. He continues to manage the WordPress websites of the Humboldt Labor, Tieranatomisches Theater, and Campuskunst. His work includes technical administration and development, multilingual publishing workflows, performance and security optimization, website migrations, and coordination with internal departments and external agencies.

Further areas of responsibility include strategic IT needs assessment, hardware and software procurement, inventory and lifecycle management, workplace standardization, and the planning and coordination of technical solutions for events, exhibitions, and collections. This includes audiovisual systems, digital signage, networked exhibition technology, digitization and publishing workflows, and collaborative platforms such as HU-Box/Seafile and SeaTable. Requirements relating to data protection, information security, and digital accessibility are incorporated into technical planning and implementation.

Since 2016, Karsten Asshauer has been deputy chair of the General Staff Council of Humboldt-Universität and head of its “IT & Data Protection” working group. He supports IT co-determination procedures under the HU IT Framework Service Agreement and the Berlin Staff Representation Act and contributes to the drafting and negotiation of service agreements.

From 2014 to 2019, he worked at the Computer and Media Service, where he led the “HU-Box” cloud storage project, contributed to the backup and file service, and coordinated the university’s IT liaison officers.

From 2001 to 2013, he worked at the Institute of Art and Visual History in administration, development, coordination, and communication for digital humanities projects, including Requiem, Census, Bildakt und Verkörperung, Digital Peirce Archive, imagelab, and imeji.

Focus areas and keywords: IT governance and co-determination, IT strategy and organization, system administration, IT support, web development, IT project coordination, data protection and information security, digital accessibility, web and data infrastructures, WordPress, TYPO3, Seafile/HU-Box, SeaTable, interfaces and integrations, digital cultural and exhibition infrastructure, training, and stakeholder communication.

• Döbler, J., Vollmer, A., Pirr, U., Fromm, N., Helbig, K., Rohde, D., Asshauer, K., Bachmann, M., Rauschenberg, I., Stange, L., Dreyer, M. (2016). CMS 2015/16. , 2015,3, https://doi.org/10.18452/5003
• Asshauer, K., Bachmann, M., Biernacka, K., Dreyer, M., Kühnlenz, F., Molnár, T., Naumann, W., Pirr, U., Rohde, D., Schirmbacher, P., Stange, L., Vollmer, A. (2015). CMS 2014/15. , 2014,2, https://doi.org/10.18452/5002
• Malte Dreyer, Karsten Asshauer, Enno Gröper, Malte Schmidt; HU Berlin. André Brinkmann, Carsten Allendörfer, Thomas Scheffczyk; JGU Mainz. Building an Online File Storage and Sharing Service using Seafile and CEPH for HU Berlin and JGU Mainz. May 2015. Conference: Cloudspeicher im Hochschuleinsatz 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293814919_Building_an_Online_File_Storage_and_Sharing_Service_using_Seafile_and_CEPH_for_HU_Berlin_and_JGU_Mainz
• Karsten Asshauer, Natasa Bulatovic, Jörg Busse, Malte Dreyer, Friederike Kleinfercher, Hai Nguyen, Julian Röder, Bastien Saquet,  Georg Schelbert, Marco Schlender. Digitale Bildarchive für Kultur und Wissenschaft. In: Kultur und Informatik – Aus der Vergangenheit in die Zukunft. Tagungsband (Seiten 115-132). Hg. Jürgen Sieck; Regina Franken-Wendelstorf. Verlag Werner Hülsbusch (2012).
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