Foerderverein "Friends of Oberwolfach": Thank you Reinhold Remmert!

It was a good day for the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach when in 1992 Reinhold Remmert accepted the nomination from the founding meeting of the "Friends of Oberwolfach" to become chairman of the new association.

He was the right man at the right time for this job.

Even though the Institute already had a solid basis of funding from the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the founding of the "Friends of Oberwolfach" opened up new funding possibilities that were not available under the strict financial regulations of the state.

It wasn't long before Reinhold Remmert, who chaired the "Friends of Oberwolfach" for 15 years, managed to convince a large number of mathematicians and scientific associations to join the Foerderverein. Already during the 1990s, the extra funding generated by the Foerderverein was an important addition to the state budget.

In order to provide the Institute with a further permanent income, the "Friends of Oberwolfach" established the Oberwolfach Foundation. Reinhold Remmert realized that this would attract renowned professionals from business and science. One year after its establishment, the Foundation had already collected a capital stock of over DM 200,000. Today, the Foundation's assets, the returns of which are used to support the Institute, are over €1.2 million.

An important section of the Oberwolfach Foundation is the Horst Tietz Fund, named after Horst Tietz of the Universität Hannover. His student, Peter Preuss, a regent of the University of California and member of the Board of the Oberwolfach Foundation, matched the Fund's existing donations with a contribution from his family fund.

A large number of direct donations to the Institute were also sent by members of the Foundation Board. The "Friends of Oberwolfach" and the Foundation were able to help in a number of ways. There were travel subsidies to enable people from Eastern Europe to attend conferences at Oberwolfach, and financial shortfalls in the library were covered. When universities and institutes in Baden-Wuerttemberg were not permitted to take on new staff, the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach was unable to fill the vacant IT administration and other administrative positions. The Foundation stepped in to cover the costs during this period.

Some of the latest examples of how the Foerderverein and the Foundation are helping: When the Institute became part of the Leibniz Association, it was necessary to establish a non-profit making association. The capital for this was provided by the Foerderverein and the Foundation. As was the capital to buy the premises to extend the library and the funding of the Oberwolfach prize. None of this would have been possible without the more than 15 years of committed effort from Reinhold Remmert.

Through his successful work for the "Friends of Oberwolfach", Reinhold Remmert has achieved great things for the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach and for mathematics in general. We would like to thank him for all the years he spent as Chairman of the Foerderverein and are pleased that we will be able to continue to seek his advice as Chairman of the Board of the Oberwolfach Foundation.

Thank you!

Ursula Gather
Juergen Lehn
Thomas Peternell