Dear Ernst Reuter Prize winners,
Dear members of the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft,
Dear guests,

This year we are using a rather unusual format to celebrate Ernst Reuter Day, which marks the anniversary of the founding of Freie Universität Berlin on December 4, 1948, in the Titania-Palast in Steglitz.

To shield the participants from a possible covid-19 infection, the Ernst Reuter Day celebrating the 72^nd anniversary of the university is taking place online this year, just like most of the classes being taught during the current winter semester. Of course, I would like to welcome all of you no less cordially to this monitor and at a location of your choice – as members of the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft, as members of Freie Universität Berlin, and as guests and other interested persons. We will not let the coronavirus pandemic prevent the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft from awarding the Ernst Reuter Prizes on December 4 this year, just like every year. With these awards, we recognize the young researchers who submitted the best doctoral theses at our university during the year. Over the past 35 years, we have awarded 135 such prizes so far.

Thanks to the annual membership dues and generous donations made by members of the Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft, we are able to confer five Ernst Reuter Prizes including 5000 euros each for outstanding dissertations. I would particularly like to thank the members of the selection panel for their work under difficult conditions due to the pandemic this year. The award winners and titles of their dissertations are:

• Luca Danilo Bertzbach, Ph.D., Department of Veterinary Medicine, for “Marek’s disease virus-host interplay: Novel insights into lymphocyte infections of an oncogenic avian herpesvirus” (First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Benedikt Kaufer)
• Dr. Marco D’Addezio, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, for “Monodromy groups in positive characteristic” (First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Hélène Esnault)
• Lisa Müller, Department of Philosophy and Humanities, for „Schriftpoesie. Eigenbedeutung der lyrischen Graphie. Am Beispiel Thomas Klings“ (First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Georg Witte)
• Jasmin Wrobel, Institute for Latin American Studies, for „Topografien des 20. Jahrhunderts: Die memoriale ,Poetik des Stolperns‘ in Haroldo de Campos Galáxias“ (First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Susanne Klengel)
• Dr. Pavle Zagorscak, Department of Education and Psychology, for “Mechanisms of Change in Internet-Based Interventions for Depression” (First reviewer: Prof. Dr. Christine Knaevelsrud).

I warmly congratulate all of you on being awarded the Ernst Reuter Prize for 2020!

Please allow me to briefly look backward and forward at the same time. Our Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft was first mentioned in public a little over 66 years ago. That was on June 19, 1954, in a speech made by the chair at that time, Senator Dr. Paul Hertz, in front of 1500 guests on the occasion of the grand opening of the Henry Ford Building, which was made possible through donations by the Ford Foundation. And right there, in the Henry Ford Building, is where I hope to welcome everyone back in the best of health next year at this time, when I would like to congratulate each of the prize winners in person, along with next year’s winners.

Peter Lange
Chair, Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft der Freunde, Förderer und Ehemaligen der Freien Universität Berlin e.V. (ERG)