Germany seeks new Einsteins for new scientific age

GOETTINGEN – It may have brought the world aspirin, rocket science, quantum physics and the diesel engine, but Germany’s days of scientific glory are long gone and it is now hunting for a new generation of Einsteins.

Decades of underfunding and a distaste for the elitism nurtured by Nazis has means the world’s third-largest economy is trailing its global competitors, causing concern among business leaders and provoking warnings from economists. With only five universities in the US-dominated top 100 – the University of Munich is highest at 48 – Germany has launched a scheme to compete for funding and create its own ‘Ivy League’.Two Nobel prizes awarded last month to Germans – a physicist and a chemist – has revived pride in the country’s scientific heritage.”There is a fresh wind,” said Kurt von Figura, president of Goettingen’s Georg-August University, one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious educational institutions.”You lose a good reputation over a long period of time and it also takes a long time to rebuild it,” he told Reuters in an interview at the university, whose immaculately kept buildings and well-equipped laboratories dominate the medieval town.The recent record on Nobel Prizes provides little comfort.Between 1901 and 1931, German universities and institutes produced 15 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry and 10 in physics – more than any other country.Since 1984, research at US institutions has yielded almost 10 times the number of German-based winners in both fields.”It’s hard to measure but some data suggest Germany is not doing so well any more and it needs to do all it can to push ahead.Innovation is essential for the economy in the long term,” said Klaus Schruefer, an economist at SEB in Frankfurt.German companies are proud of the part they played in establishing Germany’s reputation as a scientific powerhouse.German children still learn about chemist Felix Hoffmann, who invented aspirin at Bayer in 1897, and Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz whose work on the first vehicle to be powered by an internal combustion engine led to car manufacturer Daimler Benz AG.After World War Two, a backlash against the Nazi ethic of natural selection and survival of the fittest, universities have focused on equality rather than individual excellence.”The egalitarian approach, born of a fear of elitism after the war, worked well in many ways but people forgot you can’t train everyone to get a Nobel prize,” said Stefan Treue, Director of the German Primate Centre, an institute in Goettingen which works closely with the university.STRIVING FOR MEDIOCRITY These factors coupled with funding shortages – the United States spends almost twice as much of its gross domestic product on higher education as Germany – has contributed to a brain drain.Business is worried.By 2010, small- and medium-sized firms will be short of 30 000 researchers, say Germany’s DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce.This puts Germany at the risk of missing a European Union target of spending three per cent of GDP on research and development by 2010, up from 2,49 per cent in 2005 – above the EU average but below US and Japanese levels.”Today we need to invest in research to be able to develop and produce the goods for tomorrow.If we don’t have the scientists to do the work, we won’t have competitive products,” said Stephan Wimmers, who specialises in technology at the DIHK.Nampa-ReutersWith only five universities in the US-dominated top 100 – the University of Munich is highest at 48 – Germany has launched a scheme to compete for funding and create its own ‘Ivy League’.Two Nobel prizes awarded last month to Germans – a physicist and a chemist – has revived pride in the country’s scientific heritage.”There is a fresh wind,” said Kurt von Figura, president of Goettingen’s Georg-August University, one of Germany’s oldest and most prestigious educational institutions.”You lose a good reputation over a long period of time and it also takes a long time to rebuild it,” he told Reuters in an interview at the university, whose immaculately kept buildings and well-equipped laboratories dominate the medieval town.The recent record on Nobel Prizes provides little comfort.Between 1901 and 1931, German universities and institutes produced 15 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry and 10 in physics – more than any other country.Since 1984, research at US institutions has yielded almost 10 times the number of German-based winners in both fields.”It’s hard to measure but some data suggest Germany is not doing so well any more and it needs to do all it can to push ahead.Innovation is essential for the economy in the long term,” said Klaus Schruefer, an economist at SEB in Frankfurt.German companies are proud of the part they played in establishing Germany’s reputation as a scientific powerhouse.German children still learn about chemist Felix Hoffmann, who invented aspirin at Bayer in 1897, and Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz whose work on the first vehicle to be powered by an internal combustion engine led to car manufacturer Daimler Benz AG.After World War Two, a backlash against the Nazi ethic of natural selection and survival of the fittest, universities have focused on equality rather than individual excellence.”The egalitarian approach, born of a fear of elitism after the war, worked well in many ways but people forgot you can’t train everyone to get a Nobel prize,” said Stefan Treue, Director of the German Primate Centre, an institute in Goettingen which works closely with the university.STRIVING FOR MEDIOCRITY These factors coupled with funding shortages – the United States spends almost twice as much of its gross domestic product on higher education as Germany – has contributed to a brain drain.Business is worried.By 2010, small- and medium-sized firms will be short of 30 000 researchers, say Germany’s DIHK Chambers of Industry and Commerce.This puts Germany at the risk of missing a European Union target of spending three per cent of GDP on research and development by 2010, up from 2,49 per cent in 2005 – above the EU average but below US and Japanese levels.”Today we need to invest in research to be able to develop and produce the goods for tomorrow.If we don’t have the scientists to do the work, we won’t have competitive products,” said Stephan Wimmers, who specialises in technology at the DIHK.Nampa-Reuters