Four honours, classical concert pieces and standing ovations: Around 550 guests enjoyed an atmospheric evening at the New Year's reception of the University and University Society (UGO) at the Oldenburg State Theatre on Thursday.
Verdi, Rossini, Mascagni, Lehár, Lanner and Resnicek: On Thursday evening, the State Theatre offered the University and its friends a varied gala concert - and a worthy setting to honour four personalities for their special services. University President Prof Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper presented the President's Plaque to historian Prof Dr Dagmar Freist, marine biologist Prof Dr Helmut Hillebrand, Vice President Prof Dr Martin Holthaus, who recently left office, and long-serving Head Librarian Hans-Joachim Wätjen. "A university is only as good as the people who are committed to it. It is an extraordinary pleasure for me to honour four individuals today who have undoubtedly excelled here," emphasised Piper.
The historian Prof. Dr Dagmar Freist was honoured for her special services to Oldenburg as a research location: Her research project "Prize Papers" has been accepted into the programme of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and thus into the largest humanities and social science research programme in Germany. According to Piper, this enables the unique collection of more than three million documents from ship captures from the 17th to 19th centuries to be systematically recorded, scientifically analysed and made accessible to the public. Freist and her team came across the forgotten holdings in the British National Archives in 2012.
Prof Dr Helmut Hillebrand, one of the most internationally cited biodiversity experts, also received the award for his outstanding commitment to research: the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) was opened on the Oldenburg campus in 2017. Hillebrand was the inspirer and driving force behind the conception and successful application for this Institute, which is unique in Europe and was established by the university together with the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven. According to Piper, he has thus rendered outstanding services to the university. As founding director, Hillebrand will build up the Institute, which will investigate the importance of biodiversity for marine ecosystems and their response to human and climate-related changes, over the coming years.
The third honour of the evening went to physicist Prof. Dr Martin Holthaus, who has helped shape the university both internally and externally over the past two years as Vice President for Research and Transfer. In addition to the usual official duties of a Vice President, he has been particularly involved in advising and preparing large collaborative research projects as well as promoting young scientific talent, according to the citation. He also played a significant role in the success of the proposal submitted by the University and Jade University of Applied Sciences in the "Innovative University" competition organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Piper emphasised.
Hans-Joachim Wätjen, who will retire in a few weeks after almost four decades at the university, received the award for his extraordinary commitment to the university library. He has been a member of the library management team since 1983, initially as a permanent deputy to the then director, then as library director and from 2000 as senior library director. According to the tribute, Hans-Joachim Wätjen is held in the highest esteem both within the university and in specialist circles thanks to his tireless commitment to a university library that is always at the cutting edge of science.
The cultural highlight of the evening was the classical New Year's concert pieces, Italian arias, Spanish songs and Neapolitan canzonas - performed by the Oldenburg State Orchestra with soloists from the opera ensemble. The guests acknowledged the concert with a standing ovation at the end. Beforehand, they were welcomed by Lord Mayor Jürgen Krogmann, University President Piper and UGO Chairman Hon. Prof. Dr Werner Brinker and given an introduction to the evening by General Director Christian Firmbach. The performance was followed by the traditional "chat afterwards".
By purchasing their tickets, guests at the New Year's reception were once again supporting the "Deutschlandstipendium" programme, which supports particularly talented and committed students.
