When Berlin, indeed the whole of Germany, was fiercely debating the reconstruction of the Stadtschloss, most people had in mind the palace as the former residence of the Hohenzollerns, a symbol of militarism and the German Empire. There was far less awareness of its history after the First World War, after the end of the monarchy in Germany. From 1918 onwards, namely, it was no longer home to crowned heads, but served as a cultural and academic centre. The Kaiser Wilhelm Society, now the Max Planck Society, was based here. As was the German Research Foundation. And also, from its foundation in 1925, the Academic Exchange Service, as the forerunner of the DAAD was called.
Your centenary, then, sees you back where it all began. In a place, moreover, which now also bears the name of two great scholars, Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, two scientists who, more than almost any other figures of their day, prove that excellent research does not stop at national borders. What could be a better fit for the DAAD?
For one hundred years, the DAAD has been promoting international exchanges for students and teachers, strengthening international cooperation between universities, and helping countries which could not do so themselves to build up academic and research systems. It is a real success story. I wholeheartedly congratulate you, the President, Mr Mukherjee, all members of staff, alumni and scholarship holders on the centenary of the DAAD! Congratulations to you all!
We owe the establishment of the DAAD not to far-sighted education policy specialists or to a private patron. No, it was the product of what today would likely be called a bottom-up approach. The foundations were laid by American students – a fact we should not forget at this time – and a curious, globally-minded student in Heidelberg. Carl Joachim Friedrich, who was studying social and political sciences in Heidelberg, took up an invitation from those American students and travelled around the United States in 1922/23. On his return to Germany, he could not get the idea of academic exchange out of his head, and began to seek partners and mentors.
The time was right: after the November Revolution, the Kapp Putsch and clashes in the streets, the political situation had again settled somewhat. The first German democracy appeared to be becoming consolidated and was seeking its place in the post-war world. Political and academic exchange was part of this hope for a better future.
Scholarships initially having been granted to students of social and political sciences, the Academic Exchange Service was eventually founded in January 1925. When the Academic Exchange Service moved to Berlin, to this very place, the exchanges were extended to all subjects. Today, students, academics and researchers in all disciplines can enjoy support from the DAAD. This is important for international scientific and academic cooperation, but not only for that.
Because in international relations, it is often science and academia that lead the way, that open the first doors. After the Second World War and following the re-establishment of the DAAD, the DAAD office in London reopened in 1952 – three years before the German Embassy in the United Kingdom. Similarly, German-Israeli cooperation on science and research from the late 1950s onwards paved the way for the establishment, pretty much exactly sixty years ago, of diplomatic relations between our two countries. I am delighted that we will be marking that anniversary in just a few days, first here in Berlin, then in Israel.
The global exchange of ideas and research data, debates with colleagues from other countries, international research projects – all this lies right at the heart of science. Science is not apolitical, but enjoys freedoms that political office-holders do not always have. Outside the confines of official protocol and at a level below official diplomatic relations, it is often the scientists of different countries who work closely together. That is not to say that scientific and academic exchange mutates into foreign policy – indeed, it should not. But it is important, not least at times when political relations between countries become a little less reliable. These international contacts, ties which frequently persist even when others have broken, whether as a result of war or government crises – this research and academic relations policy is also part of the DNA of the DAAD. A time to make friends
: the slogan of the FIFA World Cup 2006 could also be yours. Just as foreigners studying here make friends, you help Germans to study and make friends far and near. Your work promotes international understanding. Germany can and will continue to support this.
I can testify to your value for our country from my own experience throughout my political career. Over the past twenty years, I have made countless trips abroad with your Presidents, first Mr Hormuth, then Ms Wintermantel, and for some time now you, Mr Mukherjee. I have seen, and continue to see, how academic exchange turns people from all continents into friends, indeed into ambassadors for our country, many of them maintaining lifelong ties with Germany. Examples abound. I recall, for instance, my state visit to Kenya in 2020, on which you, Mr Mukherjee, accompanied me. There we met William Ruto, then the Deputy President of Kenya. He, too, is a former DAAD scholarship holder who spent time in Germany in the 1990s. He is just one of many alumni. William Ruto is now Kenya’s President and, to our great delight, was our guest of honour last year at the citizens’ festival at Schloss Bellevue.
If an institution is marking its centenary this year, then in Germany this necessarily invites the question of what role it played in National Socialism. What remained of the idea behind the foundation of the DAAD? Could academic exchange survive under the ideology of the "master race"? If so, then how? The DAAD has examined its history and has revealed that, although its work did not cease during the National Socialist regime, it had to serve entirely different purposes. Very soon after the Nazis’ assumption of power, it was no longer about cooperation, but about German hegemonic interests. After 1933, the organisation, which as recently as 1930 had awarded Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who later became a resistance fighter, a scholarship to study in the United States, became part of the workings of the dictatorship. Scholarships were granted on the basis of Nazi affiliation and racist criteria. Contact was broken off with those countries that were now regarded as enemies.
It was important that you undertake a critical examination of this part of the DAAD’s history: the susceptibility even of scientists and academics to an inhumane ideology, their readiness to adapt and to submit – none of this must be forgotten. Because looking to the past heightens our awareness of present dangers and shows us that precisely because science is supposed to be free, it must never be apolitical in the face of dictatorship and inhumanity.
The fact that Britons and Americans took the initiative to re-establish the DAAD after the Second World War and the liberation of Europe from National Socialism was truly a stroke of good fortune for our country. In light of the profound burden of guilt that Germany had incurred through the crimes of the Nazi era, this step by the Western Allies was by no means something that could be taken for granted.
Since the re-establishment of the DAAD 75 years ago, one thing has become clear time and again: neither freedom of research and teaching nor free international academic exchange can be taken for granted. This is reflected in the DAAD’s many special programmes alone. I am thinking here of the Hungary programme after the 1956 Revolution, the Hilde Domin Programme for academics from crisis regions and authoritarian states, the special programme for Syrian students, scholarships for Afghan women or programmes for Ukrainians following the start of Russia’s war of aggression in 2022. Again and again, the DAAD steps in precisely where scientists and academics can no longer work independently, where they are at risk of persecution, where they are deprived of their rights and robbed of their freedom. For this, I am most grateful to you!
State intervention in the freedom of research and teaching – unfortunately, this remains a threat even today. Not only in authoritarian regimes such as Russia or China, but sometimes even in liberal democracies. A glance at the United States in particular, where the new US administration is making sweeping cuts to funding for science and research and putting universities under huge pressure, is profoundly worrying. The news from your colleagues at Harvard, Columbia, Yale and other universities will reach you daily.
At this time in particular, then, it is all the more important that the scientific and academic community continues its international cooperation, that it does whatever it can to support colleagues in endangered disciplines, and that it demonstrates solidarity. You, the DAAD, set an example here! The aim should be not a brain drain, but brain circulation: we will adhere to the ideals of cooperation and exchange for as long as it is possible and feasible to do so. We offer at-risk scientists and academics refuge when they have no other options left to them, while at the same time strengthening as far as possible independent science in their countries. In the other direction, we keep the gate to the world open for students and teachers from Germany.
The DAAD is a think tank for the freedom of science in practice. Now in particular, we need institutions like yours that defend and strengthen free and independent thought, research and teaching. Now in particular, this is a task and an obligation for Germany and for Europe.
The DAAD’s work has long consisted of far more than awarding scholarships. You have advised, and continue to advise, many countries of the Global South in building up their higher education sector. You are thereby strengthening regional structures – and you are an excellent representative of our country, because people in the countries where you work experience the DAAD as a reliable partner with tremendous know-how, and this positive image also benefits Germany as a whole. And of course it is not only the countries concerned that benefit when high-level research is conducted in other countries and young people are well trained and given a prospect for their professional future, but us as well.
Since 1925, around three million people have been supported by the DAAD. That’s an amazing number! And it makes you the world’s biggest funding organisation for international exchanges among students and academics. We – but first and foremost you – can be proud.
At a time when we are seeing a new fascination with authoritarianism, when nationalism is once again spreading, in Europe too, and when new threats to the freedom of science are emerging, independent thinking across all borders is as important as never before. The DAAD and its work are as important as never before. If it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it!
Thank you very much indeed for your important work. I wish the DAAD every continued success! And I look forward to continuing to explore the world with you, Mr President.