Press release: The Göttingen research location: Freiraum für neues Denken

Nr. 195/2010 - 05.10.2010

Göttingen institutions of science and scholarship launch first joint campaign

“Freiraum für neues Denken” – this is the central message of the first joint communication issued nationwide by institutions of the Goettingen Research Campus to highlight Göttingen as a location for science and scholarship. Promotional announcements, in which the slogan is presented in combination with various different motifs, will appear in national newspapers, magazines and online over the coming months. A microsite also accessible via the website of the University of Göttingen informs visitors by way of texts, images and videos on research and teaching at these institutions. Academics talk about how Göttingen enhances their work, about the freedom and space they enjoy, and about the opportunities given for cooperation. The Goettingen Research Campus consists of the University of Göttingen, five Max Planck Institutes, the German Primate Center, the German Aerospace Center and the Göttingen Laser Laboratorium.

“The motto ‘Freiraum für neues Denken’– freedom and space for new thinking – conveys our tradition-based commitment, where innovation can take us, and why we need autonomy. It defines the high standards by which we wish the results of our planning and endeavours to be judged in future”, explains Prof. Dr. Kurt von Figura, President of the University. “Top-level research and research-based services need an active and vibrant environment. We are proud to be closely integrated into such a community, one of the top sites for science and scholarship in Germany”, says Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue, Director of the German Primate Center. And this close involvement in the research community is highly significant also for the Max Planck Institutes in Göttingen: “We find here an excellently functioning infrastructure in research and academia and engage with it intensively for cooperation”, says Prof. Dr. Nils Brose, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine.

The conceptual basis of the campaign was developed by one of the most creative and successful German advertising agencies, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), under the direction of Managing Director Dr. Tonio Kröger who himself studied for his degree at Göttingen University. The motifs shown in the promotion represent an unusual approach to steering attention towards Göttingen as a location for science and scholarship: two apparently unrelated objects provoke the viewer to consider possible connections – projecting Göttingen as a research location where thinking against the tide is expressly welcomed. “We aim to provoke discussion and inspire people to use their own individual space and capacity for creativity, and their freedom for reflection. This is why the theme selected is not the university itself, but what Göttingen students and researchers can change in the world through their know-how”, notes Dr. Kröger.

The microsite containing comprehensive information on the Goettingen Research Campus is accessible online at http://www.uni-goettingen.de/neuesdenken.