Winter
2002 VOL.58, NO.2 |
LeadersDespite these concerns, Bremen leaders were almost unanimously
enthusiastic. The vision of a bold new academic enterprise had seized
their imaginations, and support welled up across the entire political
spectrum and throughout the community. A first step was to put together
a board of governors who had both academic prestige and political
and business clout. One of the first new members was Dietrich Zeyfang,
widely known and respected in Bremen for his role in building the
giant Mercedes-Benz plant there that is the state’s largest
employer. Zeyfang fully understood the importance of the new university
as a generator of new jobs and new ideas about higher education.
Then the board gained an absolutely critical new member who was
the obvious choice for chairman: Reimar Lüst, former head of
all the Max Planck Institutes, head of the European Space Agency,
and president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. No one in
the entire nation had more academic cachet than did Lüst, who
strongly supported the introduction into Germany of many characteristics
of the American university system. Lüst’s appointment
to the chairmanship of the board of the new university instantly
gave it credibility throughout the nation. And by this time, the
new institution had an official name: International University Bremen.
Meanwhile, Bremen’s government leaders were pushing ahead to make the proposed university a living reality. On September 29, 1998, the Senate of Bremen authorized the expenditure of 230 million deutsche marks (more than $100 million) for IUB and formal acquisition of the former military base for that purpose. Skilled negotiation reduced the purchase price of the base to only 16.7 million deutsche marks—this for an 80-acre campus with many usable buildings, playing fields, and landscaped lawns. One essential matter still demanded attention, however: the choice of a capable president to lead the endeavor. The position was to be similar to that of an American university president, with far more authority and responsibility than wielded by the rector of a traditional German university, and the first president would need to possess extraordinary skill in order to launch IUB successfully. Scherf, who had wholeheartedly backed IUB with his immense political skills and the power and prestige of his offices as both mayor of the city and president of the senate of the state of Bremen, along with Lüst, already had a candidate in mind: Fritz Schaumann. Schaumann was presently deputy secretary of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology, and he knew and was respected by everyone within the German world of higher education. Lüst approached him on behalf of IUB, and Schaumann admitted it was an important and very interesting position, but he insisted that he intended to stay in his current office. However, in the fall elections Schaumann’s party was turned out. IUB officials persisted, and Schaumann talked further and even came to Rice to meet with Gillis and be assured of the level of Rice’s support. Shortly thereafter he accepted the offer. Since IUB had not yet had its official founding, Schaumann became president of the International University Bremen Planning Corporation, but now with its board of trustees and president in place, campus purchased, and planning far advanced, the time was ripe for IUB’s official founding. The date for the announcement was set for February 11, 1999, the day before Bremen’s most famous social occasion, the 500-year-old Schaffermahl, a grand charity dinner originally intended to raise money to support impecunious families of sailors lost at sea. On this occasion, with all the IUB officials present, Malcolm Gillis in attendance, and the U.S. ambassador to Germany there, IUB was officially founded, its charter accepted, Lüst appointed chairman of the board, Schaumann named president, and an elaborate mission statement accepted that had been finalized at a major meeting of IUB and Rice officials in Houston the month before. After more than a year of work, IUB was now official.
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