Gathering of Scholars, Fellows and Alumni 2024

From October 3 to 6, 2024, around 30 current and former scholarship-holders of the Daimler and Benz Foundation met in Wrocław, Poland. Along with joint excursions, the particular focus was on interdisciplinary exchange.
Whereas the first evening enabled participants to get to know each other and to network over an informal dinner after their arrival, the Friday started with a guided tour of historic Wrocław and its university, which aroused the participants’ interest above all with its magnificent Aula Leopoldina and its museum. After a hearty lunch with the Polish specialty pierogi, the participants gathered for lectures by alumni and scholarship-holders in a lecture hall of the university’s Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, which dates back to the Prussian School of Law founded in 1811. Of particular interest was the guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Director of the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies and Chair of Contemporary History at the University of Wrocław, who spoke about the relationship between Germany and Poland after the end of the Second World War. The evening lecture was given by Prof. Dr. Piotr Ponikowski, an internationally renowned cardiologist and Rector of Wrocław Medical University, who can look back on an impressive academic career with over 700 high-ranking scientific publications. The evening then concluded for the travel group with a visit to restaurant Marina on the Oder island. (See below for summaries of the lectures.)
The boat trip on the Oder River scheduled for the following day unfortunately had to be canceled due to continued flooding in the western regions of Poland. But the good-humored participants did not let this dampen their spirits: A round trip through Wrocław in small electric buses was quickly arranged, with highlights including a visit to the Centennial Hall and the Japanese Garden. After a lunch break, during which the travelers were free to stroll through the city, shop, and undertake other activities, the group brought the annual gathering to a close in the rustic restaurant Karczma Lwowska.
Having made new acquaintances, and filled with lasting impressions, the participants then set out on their journey home on Sunday, October 6. The Foundation would particularly like to thank our scholarship-holder Dr. Łukasz Jędrzejowski for his great personal commitment: His tireless efforts in preparing and conducting the gathering made it a highly enjoyable, memorable experience.
Making the EU both more efficient and more democratic: A reform proposal in connection with the debate on further extensions
In his lecture Prof. Dr. Joachim Blatter, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lucerne, showed that the European Union’s capacity for action is repeatedly restricted in particular by the right of veto, which among other things takes into account smaller states’ fear of domination by larger states. Motivated by the regular discussions on increasing the EU’s capacity for action as the number of member states increases, Joachim Blatter presented a reform proposal as an alternative to this veto right: According to his suggestion, states should allow a small proportion of their parliamentarians to be elected by citizens of other states, so that parties and ideas in these states are strengthened that take more account of the interests of the other states. In this way, each state should be enabled to influence the politics of a predefined number of other states whose decisions seem most relevant to it. Joachim Blatter expects that this approach would for example bring about a stronger transnational balance of interests already at national level, along with the opportunity to counteract negative developments regarding rule of law and democracy at national level through democratic processes.
Polyvalent gardens: German drama and European landscape architecture around 1800
Dr. Anna Axtner-Borsutzky from the Institute for German Philology at LMU Munich opened the academic program with a lecture on the connections between landscape gardening and theater in Germany at the turn of the 19th century. She pointed out that due to the growing self-confidence of the bourgeoisie, both of these areas underwent significant changes which found their expression in the transition from formal French baroque gardens to more natural English landscape gardens, and in the increased focus of drama on bourgeois rather than courtly themes. There is in fact a close connection between these two developments: First, gardens and parks acquired significance as settings in the dramatic texts, and second, plays were increasingly performed outdoors. As Anna Axtner-Borsutzky demonstrated with numerous examples, drama – to a greater extent than other art forms – allows the different perspectives of the characters to be contrasted, for instance regarding the secludedness or openness, or the artificiality or closeness to nature, of the garden environment; this creates a contrast that also challenges and puts into question the viewer’s perception.
The long shadow of war: Key events in German-Polish relations
In his both intriguing and informative lecture, Prof. Dr. Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Director of the Willy Brandt Center for German and European Studies (WBZ) and Chair of Contemporary History at the University of Wrocław, analyzed the relationship between Germany and Poland after the end of the Second World War. His lecture focused above all on the post-war period, the peaceful revolution, and current developments.
The Second World War marked the low point in German-Polish relations. This was followed by a period of territorial reorganization of Poland resulting from cession of territory to the USSR as well as the expulsion of more than 3.5 million Germans and the awarding of the former German territories east of the Oder and the Lausitzer Neisse. However, the question of possible reparations – which, at least in the view of the Federal Republic of Germany, had been settled by a declaration of renunciation on the part of Poland in 1953 – repeatedly arose in the course of the following decades and is still a predominant political issue in Poland today.
In the 1960s, after a period dominated by the East-West division of the post-war era, the new “Ostpolitik” propounded by the West German SPD led to a change in circumstances. Willy Brandt’s historic gesture of kneeling in Warsaw in 1970 and the associated signing of a normalization agreement marked the beginning of a gradual improvement in German-Polish relations.
Krysztof Ruchniewicz sees the end of Soviet domination in Central Eastern Europe as the breakthrough in German-Polish relations. In the summer of 1989, the first government not led by a communist was formed in Poland. This triggered a wave of refugees from the GDR, which then brought about its collapse. It was in this atmosphere that Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl traveled to Poland: On November 12, 1989, an ecumenical service was held together with Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, during which the two heads of state made a sign of peace and warmly embraced. A Border Treaty was then concluded on November 14, 1990, and on June 17, 1991 the Treaty of Good Neighborship and Friendly Cooperation was signed. This treaty between Poland and the now reunited Germany not only ended the long-standing dispute over the definitive course of the German-Polish border along the Oder and Neisse rivers, but also laid the foundations for increasingly close cooperation between the two states.
The Neighborship Treaty, which clarified many issues such as the status of the German minority and German heritage in Poland, also had the effect that the Federal Republic supported Poland in joining Western structures (NATO, EU). Nevertheless, the relationship continued to be strained by issues that had up to that time been ignored or deferred: Around the turn of the millennium the first dissonances appeared, not least in questions regarding the Second World War and its aftermath. In particular, demands on the part of some expellees for compensation for lost property gave rise to a wave of indignation. The situation was alleviated by the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who emphasized that no German government would support the manipulation of history or territorial claims against the victim states of Hitler. A further crisis in German-Polish relations occurred between 2005 and 2007 – this time in connection with the swing to the right in Poland, when the first Law and Justice (PiS) government came to power. The leading politicians of this formation, President Lech Kaczyński and his brother Jarosław, increasingly distanced themselves from Germany, placing historical resentments and prejudices above good neighborly and friendly relations with Berlin. This phase was short-lived, however, and ended with the victory of the liberal opposition under the leadership of the Civic Platform in the elections of fall 2007. Poland rose to become an important player at European level, gradually outgrowing its role as a protégé of Berlin.
Scientific creativity in the shadow of copyright
The lecture “Scientific creativity in the shadow of copyright” by Prof. Dr. Hanjo Hamann of EBS Universität for Business and Law was found intriguing by all participants; after all, this matter affected everyone in attendance. Of particular interest was the discussion of standard publishing contracts, and how authors deal with already published results and “open access”: What is still permissible to an author after publication of an article, and how can he or she continue to use the results? A rather narrow interpretation of the restrictions imposed on authors was recommended here. In addition, one should make use of the secondary exploitation rights laid down in copyright law.
Another key topic involved dealing with artificial intelligence (AI) and how the processing of one’s own results by AI can be restricted. Most of those in attendance were surprised to hear that reservations regarding usage of works accessible online must be made in machine-readable form. According to copyright law, it is not sufficient to declare such reservations only verbally. Although AI exploits natural language, prohibition of such exploitation for machine learning must take the form of a digital code. Recent court rulings have gone even further, and the conditions are in constant flux. This legal digression proved very informative for all participants, especially with regard to their own work.
Science needs courage: My personal story of calling paradigms into question, perseverance, and serendipity
The lecture program was rounded off with the evening lecture by Prof. Dr. Piotr Ponikowski, Rector of Wrocław Medical University. In his oration, the renowned cardiologist showed how important it is in science to think outside the box and to take a new perspective on what may seem obvious, in order to gain new scientific insights. Based on René Descartes’ Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (1637), Piotr Ponikowski outlined selected milestones in modern cardiology. The achievements attributed to Werner Forssmann in the history of human medicine include in particular the first cardiac catheterization – a method of examining the heart using a catheter, which he performed on himself and documented with X-rays. Ponikowski pointed out that this milestone could only be attained because Werner Forssmann had dared to do something unusual for his time by transferring cardiac catheterization from domestic animals to humans.
Piotr Ponikowski also gave an overview of the greatest challenges facing the pathophysiology of heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia. One such challenge is the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of heart disease. Just as in the field of oncology, we also need individualized medicine in cardiology that pursues the goal of maximum therapeutic efficacy for each and every patient while keeping side effects to a minimum.