• Institute
    • Leadership
    • Committees
      • Academic Advisory Board
        • Members' List since 1981
      • Board of Trustees
      • Members' Assembly
    • Contact Persons
    • The Kolleg
      • History
        • History of the Institute
          • History of the Kolleg
        • History of the Buildings and Gardens
          • Hauptgebäude
            • Excursus - Villa Linde's Grounds
          • Weiße Villa
          • Neubau
          • Villa Jaffé
          • Villa Walther
        • History of the Signet
      • Funding & Charters
        • Foundation Deed of the Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study
        • Charter of the Wissenschaftskolleg
      • Donors & Friends
    • Initiatives & Cooperations
      • Working Futures
        • Interviews
          • Gabriel Abend
          • Ève Chiapello
          • Elena Esposito
          • Michel Lallement
          • Sophie Bernard
          • David Stark
          • Richard Swedberg
        • Publications
          • Shifting Categories
          • Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times
            • The digital transformation of work. COVID-19 as a taste of things to come?
            • Thinking the Global Rise of Forced Labor: Old, New, and Changing Forms of Labor Exploitation in Times of Crisis
            • Rearticulating globalization, solidarities, and work in Ethiopia
            • The future of shopping - Corona as a catalyst for the transformation of work
            • The End of the Pandemic of Productivism?
            • Covid and Looking for the Exit
            • Who or what is being tested in pandemic times?
            • The Crisis as Beginning of a New Relationship to the Professional World?
            • Controlled Avalanche – A Regulated Voluntary Exposure Approach for Addressing Covid-19
            • Caring about what we hold dear and the final purposes of work
            • How does the Corona crisis affect the future of work and our view of it?
            • "Useful", "indispensable", “essential”: Is the health crisis changing the categories with which we consider professional activities?
            • The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future
            • The Need for De-Integration in Pandemic Times
            • The COVID 19 crisis accelerates structural change in the world of work
            • How can we strengthen the contributory logic of work?
        • Events
        • Network
      • Blankensee-Colloquia
      • Anna Krüger Foundation
      • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
      • Support for Ukraine
      • VUIAS
        • Bilder der Eröffnungsfeier
      • Elkana Fellowships
    • Library
      • Ordering and Borrowing
      • Research
        • Journals and Newspapers
        • Catalogs
        • Specialised Information Services (Fachinformationsdienste)
        • Archives
      • Books & Music on-site
      • Questions?
  • Fellows
    • Fellow Finder
    • Fellows 2024/2025
    • Fellows 2025/2026
    • Permanent Fellows
      • Former Permanent Fellows
    • Alumni
      • Fellows' Club
        • Club
          • History
        • Membership
        • Newsletter
          • March 2025
            • Editorial
            • Architecture of Survival: An Interview with Natalia Romik (Elkana Fellow 2024/2025)
            • “Definitions Are Not Ultimate Truths”
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • The School of Human Rights Association: Building an Egalitarian and Democratic Academia in Turkey
            • Academic Freedom on a Small Scale
            • Save the Date: Annual Meeting of the Fellows’ Club
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2024
            • Editorial
            • Feeding the World with Edible Insects
            • Schöner Leben
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • Conversation with a Left-Handed Hairdresser: The Cutting-Edge Sociology of Barbara Thériault (Fellow 2023/24)
            • Dishes that Raise Questions: Interview with chef de cuisine Sonja Frühsammer
            • Round and round the Grunewald Lake: Five Years of Wicked Wiko Runners
            • Save the Date – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2024
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2023
            • Editorial
            • History Teacher of the People
            • War and Peace. The Past and Future of Ukraine
            • Cold, Ashamed, Relieved: On Leaving Russia
            • Music of a Refugee
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2023
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • March 2022
            • Editorial
            • Politics, Law, and Science in Times of the Pandemic
            • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
            • Roni Taharlev: The Harbinger of Corona
            • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin with a Mask
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2022
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2021
            • Editorial
            • Between Eigenzeit and Interdisciplinarity
            • The Masked Kolleg Unmasked
            • Was war und zu welchem Ende studiert man Trumpismus?
            • When Computers Took Their First Steps
            • A Farewell to Sonja Grund
            • Angelika Leuchter
            • Blog Series on Academic Freedom
            • Save the dates – Meetings of the Fellows’ Club 2021 and 2022
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club!
            • Obituaries
          • March 2020
            • Editorial
            • Constitution as Nonviolent Revolution
            • Imre Kertész und die europäische Literatur der Gegenwart
            • A Profound Sense of Loss
            • The Wissenschaftskolleg and the East: The New Europe College in Bucharest
            • Save the date - Meeting of the Fellows’ Club - Biodiversity: Conceptual Challenges in an Era of Rapid Change, June 11 and 12, 2020
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Obituarium
          • March 2019
            • Editorial
            • Paintings for the Future
            • Landmark Papers Revisited
            • Working Futures
            • Society Benefits From Our Autonomy
            • Two Million Blossoms in a Jar
            • Save the Date - Meeting of the Fellows' Club: June 13-14, 2019
            • Lectures on Film
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows' Club
            • Obituaries
          • March 2018
            • Editorial
            • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
            • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
            • Return to Gdańsk
            • Sign the Gdansk Petition
            • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
            • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
            • (Almost) A Lifer
            • Late Checkout
            • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
            • Prizes
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
          • March 2017
            • Editorial
            • Luca Giuliani: Facets of Stephen
            • Berliner Abend 2017
            • Michael Jennions: Walking Berlin
            • Nostalgia
            • Prizes
          • June 2016
            • Editorial
            • Daniel M. Weary: Three days at Wiko to imagine a new world
            • Katharina Wiedemann: Travelling Lights
            • Wiliam Marx (fr)
            • Luc Steels: Grunewaldkirche, Bach, and Passions
            • Nostalgia
          • June 2015
            • Editorial
            • Adam S. Wilkins: Humanities and Natural Sciences
            • Rob Page: The Decline of the Humanities?
            • Alfons Söllner: From "Exilforschung" to "Emigrationsforschung"? A Journey in Memory.
            • Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman: Wiko Then and Now: 1991-1992 and 2014-2015
            • Daniel Schönpflug: Ins Grüne
          • December 2014
            • Editorial
            • Sebastian Conrad: Global History
            • Sahotra Sarkar, Chris Margules: Biodiversity group at the Kolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: On Uwe Pörksen: Camelot im Grunewald. Szenen aus dem intellektuellen Leben der achtziger Jahre
            • Meredith Reiches: "Literary studies and biology: The Shakespeare-Workshops at the Kolleg 2012 and 2013"
            • Simon Teuscher: Workshop: Perspectives on Actors in Social History
            • Gebhard Kirchgässner: Workshop “The Economic Model of Human Behaviour”
            • Gerald Wilkinson: Workshop “Mind the Gap: Closing the Gulf between Genomic and Phenotypic Studies of Sexual Selection”
            • Sonja Grund: News from the Fellows’ Club
          • May 2014
            • Editorial
            • Peter Reill: From the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to Wiko: Reflections on a Return after Twenty-Seven Years
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus:Why artists are needed at research institutions
            • Martin Loughlin: Constitutions beyond the Nation-State
            • Franco Moretti: Invisible objects
            • Stefanie Rentsch: The Forum Transregionale Studien – its Mission and History
          • November 2013
            • Editorial
            • Jim Hunt: Ten Years in the Rearview Mirror
            • Thorsten Wilhelmy: My First Year at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Giovanni Frazzetto: The College for Life Sciences at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: The Fellow Forum for Former Fellows
      • Fellow Forum
  • Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Workshops
    • Series of Events
      • Lecture Recitals
      • Zur Zeit
      • Observatorium
      • Ernst Mayr Lecture
    • Three Cultures Forum
  • Wikotheque
    • Wiko Shorts
    • Lectures & Keynotes
    • Features
    • Köpfe und Ideen
    • Projects
    • Yearbook
    • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
  • Becoming a Fellow
    • Fellowship Applications
      • Preconditions
      • Selection Criteria
      • Selection Procedure
      • FAQ
    • Wiko Early Career Calls
      • Early Career Call Humanities and Social Sciences
        • Application and Selection
        • Eligibility
        • FAQ
      • Early Career Call Life and Natural Sciences
    • Living and Working
      • Financial Arrangements
      • Housing
      • Academic Life
      • Services
      • Services for Partners and Families
image/svg+xml
DeutschEnglish
 Login


MENU

  • Institute
  • Fellows
  • Events
  • Wikotheque
  • Becoming a Fellow

  • Fellow Finder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Fellows 2025/2026
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

  • Fellows' Club
  • Fellow Forum

A Word from the Chairman

Like all institutions, the Fellows’ Club of the Wissenschaftskolleg also suffered from the current pandemic. The statutes see the point of the Club in carrying out events, with the goal of bringing current and former Fellows together. The Berliner Abend and the Members’ Assembly are the external signs of this, and they are intended as an occasion for former Fellows to come to Berlin and the Wissenschaftskolleg. The aim is thus to maintain connection and closeness – almost an impossibility in times when the order of the day remains utterly different, namely keeping one’s distance. Nonetheless, we hope that this year, after an interruption of two years, we will be able to carry out a Fellow Meeting again and afterward another Berliner Abend (the last one having taken place January 2020). That this newsletter is devoted to the topic of the pandemic is doubtless also the order of the day – and aims to encourage readers to cast their gaze on the time afterward. In 1787, when Beethoven set off for Vienna for the first time, smallpox was raging there; from the time when he finally arrived for good in 1792, he witnessed three severe smallpox epidemics (with a high mortality rate) in rapid succession until 1800. This was not dangerous for him, solely because he had already undergone and survived a smallpox infection in Bonn. A glance back in time sometimes helps put present-day events in perspective.

After we had to do without a Members’ Assembly in 2020 and the reelection and new election of the Board of Directors was postponed, leaving the existing Board provisionally in office, in 2021 we were at least able to hold an Assembly and elections virtually. After two terms in office, Frank Rexroth has left the Board of Directors. Let us cordially thank him again here for his exemplary engagement! Simone Reber was elected as the new Deputy Chairperson. She heads the research group “Quantitative Biology” and is Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin as well as at the Berliner Hochschule für Technik; in 2014/2015, she was a College for Life Sciences Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg. Here we cordially greet her in happy anticipation of our work together. I, too, was reelected, but due to the shifted cycle, for a term of just two years.

Another change in personnel is to be conveyed here. For health reasons, Vera Kempa had to temporarily give up her engagement for the Fellows’ Club in 2020. To everyone’s great joy, she has now been able to fully resume her work at the Wissenschaftskolleg. But she decided to let someone else take over as Secretary of the Fellows’ Club. Sabine Ubags, the head of the Rector’s office, temporarily carries out the Club’s business in close cooperation with Nina Kitsos, and we are grateful that she has declared her willingness to take on this task entirely from Vera Kempa. Collaboration with Sabine Ubags is also wonderful. But according to our statutes, the Secretary must be appointed by the Members’ Assembly, so we will place this on this June’s agenda. Until then, Sabine Ubags will continue to conduct business provisionally.

Here I would like to thank Vera Kempa in the name of the Board of Directors and the whole Fellows’ Club for her longstanding efforts as its Secretary. The collaboration with her was always a real pleasure: thorough, precise, and unperturbed; and as a person, she was as reliable as enhancing. Of course, we hope to be able to greet Vera Kempa regularly at the Club’s events.

Our annual meeting is to be held in June. At the beginning of this new year, let us be optimistic that it can take place without major restrictions. And that we then have the possibility to finally see each other again in the flesh or “in presence”, as it is now called.

Last but not least, I’d like to encourage you not to forget your membership fee. Without the regular contributions from all of you, we hardly can afford the interesting meetings in the summer. And with the new PayPal account, set up by Sabine Ubags for the annual contribution and donations, your support is only a matter of a few clicks!

Laurenz Lütteken

  • Club
  • Membership
  • Newsletter
    • March 2025
    • February 2024
    • February 2023
    • March 2022
      • Editorial
      • Politics, Law, and Science in Times of the Pandemic
      • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
      • Roni Taharlev: The Harbinger of Corona
      • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin with a Mask
      • A Word from the Chairman
      • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2022
      • Join the Fellows’ Club
      • Membership Fee and Donations
      • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
      • Prizes
      • Obituaries
    • February 2021
    • March 2020
    • March 2019
    • March 2018
    • March 2017
    • June 2016
    • June 2015
    • December 2014
    • May 2014
    • November 2013

Institute for Advanced Study

  • Press Releases
  • Contact Persons
  • Contact
  • Vacancies
  • Legal Notice
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap

Institute

  • Leadership
  • Committees
  • Contact Persons
  • The Kolleg
  • Initiatives & Cooperations
  • Library

Fellows

  • Fellow Finder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Fellows 2025/2026
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

Events

  • Calendar of Events
  • Workshops
  • Series of Events
  • Three Cultures Forum

Wikotheque

  • Wiko Shorts
  • Lectures & Keynotes
  • Features
  • Köpfe und Ideen
  • Projects
  • Yearbook
  • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte

Becoming a Fellow

  • Fellowship Applications
  • Wiko Early Career Calls
  • Living and Working