Hubert Markl (1938–2015) Biologist Who Steered German Research Organizations Through Reunification
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COMMENT OBITUARY Hubert Markl (1938–2015) Biologist who steered German research organizations through reunification. ubert Markl had an extraordinary quickly earned him a tough reputation, impact on research in Germany particularly when he decided to close before, and crucially during, the underperforming and outmoded depart- Hturbulent process of reunification. An ments, as well as entire Max Planck evolutionary biologist and behavioural institutes, such as the one for history in scientist, he was also a writer, public intel- Göttingen and for cell biology at Laden- FILSER/MPG WOLFGANG lectual and policy-maker. His stints as burg, near Heidelberg. The closures were president of the German Research Foun- resisted by the affected state governments. dation (1986–91), the Berlin-Brandenburg With his sharp intellect and his talent for Academy of Sciences and Humanities communication, Markl prevailed and (1993–95), and the Max Planck Society rejuvenated the Max Planck Society. (1996–2002) shaped the entire German During his term, 153 new directors out and European research systems. of the society’s 266 were appointed. As a Markl died on 8 January, aged 76. He result of a root-and-branch evaluation of was born in Regensburg, southern Ger- the society, Markl improved the institutes’ many, in 1938. Although he had an early links with neighbouring universities, such interest in the humanities, Markl stud- as Göttingen, Munich and Heidelberg. In ied biology, chemistry and geography at 2000, he started the International Max Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Planck Research Schools programme. His teachers included luminaries such as The scheme has attracted several thou- the behavioural scientists Martin Lindauer, sand young scholars from abroad to study Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch and in Germany and continues to build bridges the zoologist Hansjochem Autrum. He got across institutional boundaries. Many his doctorate in zoology aged 24. and the opening up of funding opportunities Max Planck directors have become closely During the early 1960s, Markl held for East German researchers well before uni- involved in training doctoral students as well several research posts in the United States: fication was agreed on in the autumn of 1990. as in the teaching and research activities at the at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massa- Next, Markl became deeply involved in respective German partner universities. chusetts, Rockefeller University in New York unifying Germany’s two higher-education Markl spoke truth to power on topics and the Tropical Research Station of the New and research systems that had headed in dif- including genetic engineering, cloning and York Zoological Society (where colleagues ferent directions after the Second World War. stem-cell research. He was also outspoken called him Jim). He returned to Germany, In West Germany, teaching and research were against xenophobia and in favour of inter- to the Goethe University Frankfurt. In 1967, combined in a federal system where each cultural learning and the right to medically he submitted a thesis on the communication state had a lot of independence. The East assisted suicide. behaviour of social insects to acquire his had adopted the Soviet model of universities In 1997, he initiated an independent study lecturing qualification. tooled mainly for teaching and specialist insti- of the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society In 1968, he became professor and direc- tutes focused on research. In 1993, Markl’s (the predecessor of the Max Planck Society tor of the zoological institute at Darmstadt task as founding president of the Berlin- from 1911 to 1946) during the Third Reich. University of Technology. Markl recalled this Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and In 2001, as a result of this research, he pub- appointment as the most crucial and suc- Humanities was to attract the best research- licly acknowledged the guilt of its members cessful of his life. It gave him the freedom to ers from the former East and West to become participating in the expulsion of Jewish pursue research interests from evolutionary active members of a unified academy. He colleagues and other Nazi atrocities, and biology and behavioural ecology to sen- forged joint working groups through which apologized to survivors at a commemora- sory physiology and conservation. In 1974, the best minds came to trust each other. tion ceremony. Markl moved to the University of Konstanz, Markl faced much bigger challenges “Responsibility does not rest with science founded eight years before to revive the when he took the helm of Germany’s Max as such,” Markl repeatedly told his students, Humboldtian ideal of research-based teach- Planck Society in 1996. He was the first and “it is always the individual scientist.” He will ing. He became one of the leading figures of so far only president recruited from outside long be remembered as a visionary, a bril- ‘Little Harvard on Lake Constance’. the organization. The society had planned liant intellectual and courageous leader. That year, Markl was also elected senator 18 new institutes in eastern Germany. But Without him, scholarship and science in of the German Research Foundation, the owing to the government’s severe under- Germany and beyond would not be what nation’s main public funding agency for basic estimation of the costs of unification, the they are today. ■ research. After a six-year stretch as vice-presi- organization did not get the funds it needed. dent, he became its youngest ever president in Hard decisions were required. Wilhelm Krull is secretary-general of 1986. Of his many achievements there, three It was clear to Markl that savings had to be the Volkswagen Foundation in Hanover, stand out: his implementation of long-term made at existing institutes in the west, and Germany. He frequently collaborated with grants; the introduction of a structured pro- more resources transferred to the new insti- Hubert Markl over 30 years. gramme for doctoral training and research; tutes in the east. This controversial policy e-mail: [email protected] 168 | NATURE | VOL 518 | 12 FEBRUARY 2015 © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.