LICHTGEDANKEN 14

On 7 January 2025, the president of the Technion, Uri Sivan, and the president of the University of Jena, Andreas Marx, discussed how the Gaza conflict affects everyday life at the Technion in Haifa and the role of universities as places of discourse and freedom of expression.

Prof. Dr. Christine Römermann, Director of the Senckenberg Institute for Plant Form and Function (SIP), which was founded in Jena in spring 2024, outlines how the new structures can augment the research spectrum and further enrich the Herbarium Haussknecht.

Jutta Hübner is Professor of Integrative Oncology at the University Hospital. Her research work, extensive public relations activities and teaching programmes are ensuring that the treatment of cancer by way of »conventional medicine« and complementary medicine is becoming the standard. With her foundation, she supports patients and their relatives in actively influencing the recovery process—for example by dancing.

Rudolf Eucken arrived at the University of Jena 150 years ago. A Professor of Philosophy, Eucken lectured in Jena from 1874 to 1920 and was held in high renown, especially abroad. In Jena, however, the prevailing mood when Eucken won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1908 was one of scepticism—not least from Ernst Haeckel, who would have liked to receive the prize himself.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a poet, statesman and science minister. Less well known, however, is his work as a naturalist. He devoted himself to subjects including geology, mineralogy, anatomy, botany, colour theory and meteorology. Our author follows in the footsteps of Goethe's nature research in the renovated and modernized “Inspector's House”.