Gerhard Schröder, who served as Federal Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, will speak at the University of Oldenburg on 19 October 2017 to mark the opening of the academic year. He is accepting an invitation from the University and the University Society of Oldenburg e.V. (UGO), which aim to bring together members of the university community, UGO members and guests from the city and the wider region through this event.
The new event format, entitled ‘Auftakt’, is to take place at the start of every winter semester. A fixed item on the programme will be the presentation of the UGO prizes for excellent research and for an outstanding doctoral thesis.
Gerhard Schröder has been a guest at the University of Oldenburg on several occasions – as leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the state parliament and as Minister-President of Lower Saxony. In 1991, his government tabled a bill which received broad support in the state parliament for the University of Oldenburg’s proposed naming of the university after Carl von Ossietzky.
