Max Planck Society celebrates its 75th anniversary

The Max Planck Society conducts basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences and humanities and emerged from the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1948. With 30 prizewinners, it is regarded as a Nobel Prize centre and, with its 85 institutes and facilities, is an international flagship for German science. In Bavaria, the Max Planck Society is represented by 13 institutes. In the field of life sciences with the Institute of Biochemistry and the newly established Institute of Biological Intelligence, which emerged from the MPI for Ornithology in Seewiesen and the MPI for Neurobiology based in Martinsried.

The Max Planck Society has a special research concept: Max Planck Institutes are always built around world-leading researchers who choose their research topics and staff themselves. This so-called Harnack principle goes back to the first president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, founded in 1911, Adolf von Harnack.

Max Planck President Martin Stratmann formulated his wish for the birthday boy at the ceremony, which Stratmann said he would also give to a young person: „… a long life, the courage to make something of one's own gifts, the ability to always seek and find exciting paths off the beaten track and, along with this, a healthy degree of non-conformity, the longing for intellectual fulfilment and: an almost insatiable curiosity.“

In his speech, former Federal President Joachim Gauck praised "curiosity and the desire to know. The scepticism towards supposedly ultimate truths. Above all: the conviction that we can only fully develop our potential in freedom. And the awareness of the responsibility that follows from this knowledge.“

Germany is a country poor in raw materials, but rich in research, ideas and inventiveness. However, before something can be invented, it needs knowledge, data and facts, which the Max Planck Society provides with its basic research.

Gauck also had a concern for the future: Rarely in the history of mankind have we been as dependent on the support of research as we are today. In reference to Max Planck's quote that application must be preceded by realisation, we should therefore say today: „Understanding must precede change“. The current crises - the pandemic, the Russian attack on Ukraine and climate change as probably the greatest challenge - have also made it clear outside the research community how important science is in two respects: firstly in understanding and secondly in coping with the crises.

Article from "Bio M" from 28 February 2023