The educational scientist and former acting president of the University of Oldenburg, Prof. Dr Hans-Dietrich Raapke, passed away on 10 February 2016 at the age of 87.
Raapke taught and researched as a professor of education and adult education at the University of Oldenburg from 1965 until his retirement in 1997. From 1979 to 1980, he acted as its provisional president and from 1970 to 1972 - before the university was founded - he was head of the former Oldenburg College of Education (PH).
Raapke, born in Hanover in 1929, initially completed an agricultural apprenticeship in the post-war years before enrolling at the PH Göttingen in 1951. After passing his teacher's examination, he studied at the University of Göttingen and obtained his doctorate in 1957, after which he headed the university's advanced training programme ("Göttingen Seminar Course"), where he laid the foundations for advanced scientific training at German universities.
In 1965, the educational scientist was appointed to the Oldenburg University of Teacher Education. As its director in the early 1970s, he made a name for himself nationwide as an advocate of scientific teacher training, which was realised in Oldenburg through its integration into the university founded in 1973.
In 1979, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science appointed Raapke as provisional head of the university for one year. During this time, he succeeded in concluding a co-operation agreement with the renowned Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. With this agreement, he laid a particularly important foundation stone for the development of the University of Oldenburg, explained University President Prof Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper. The School of Medicine and the Hanse Law School would not have been possible without this co-operation. After his provisional presidency, Raapke continued to be active in university politics as Vice President from 1980 to 1982.
Known far beyond the borders of Lower Saxony, Raapke is one of the academics who had a lasting influence on the reform of teacher training and gave important impetus to further education at the university. On the occasion of his retirement in 1997, the then University President Prof. Dr Michael Daxner paid tribute to him as "a humanist with a sense for the practical". In retirement, Raapke advised schools on their planning and was committed to Montessori education.
