Foreign Minister Wadephul meets Humboldt Foundation and DAAD in Bonn

Summit on the Rhine: On Tuesday, 16 June, the German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, met the leadership of the Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Bonn. He also shared thoughts with sponsorship recipients of the two intermediary organisations for foreign cultural and educational policy.

Wadephul emphasised, “The DAAD and the Humboldt Foundation are key players in German academic diplomacy. During my conversations with sponsorship recipients, I was able to gain a first-hand impression of how our sponsorship works – it creates international networks, attracts first-rate researchers to Germany and offers a safe haven to people who are no longer free to study or conduct research in their own countries.”
Particularly against the backdrop of the most recent geopolitical developments, building and fostering international networks were of inestimable value, he noted, as they generated trust, reliability and continuity with partners worldwide. The Secretary General of the Humboldt Foundation, Markus Zanner, and his deputy, Katrin Amian, explained that the Humboldt Foundation was looking to leverage the knowledge within its global Humboldt Network to an even greater extent to promote Germany’s key interests: security, freedom and prosperity.

In their conversation with the minister, the three Humboldt Foundation sponsorship recipients – two fellows of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative for researchers at risk from Iran and Russia, and a Humboldt Research Fellow from Australia – reported on the meaning of the sponsorship for their academic careers as well as their own personal situation. Foreign Minister Wadephul spoke to the Philipp Schwartz Fellows also about the current political situation in their countries and how civil society and academic freedom could be strengthened there.