› Preface

by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit:

I wholeheartedly welcome you to our city on the occasion of the 2nd European Feldenkrais congress. That you have chosen Berlin as your venue I interpret as recognition of the superb conditions that you find here.

Berlin is not only an internationally renowned metropolis but also a well recognized »city of knowledge«. We are proud of our excellent infrastructure for science, research and development, of the nationally unique potential of universities, higher education institutions and private institutions and of the numerous specialized networks that enhance cooperation between science and enterprises. With the 2nd Feldenkrais congress you do underline our reputation in this field.

That is why I am very happy indeed that you have chosen Berlin for this high-level event. At the same time I would like to encourage you to take the opportunity the congress provides to have a look at Berlin. Maybe you just have a stroll around the newly designed Potsdamer Platz, roam the lively quarters around Hackescher Markt or visit some cultural institutions. Whether you take theatre, or opera, classical music or jazz, ancient sculptures or modern art – the all encompassing cultural calendar of Berlin offers highlights for each and every taste daily.

I express my wishes for a stimulating congress and for beautiful and eventful days for the participants in Berlin.

› Preface

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen, President of the Freie Universität Berlin:

As president of the Freie Universität Berlin, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the 2nd European Feldenkrais Congress. I am delighted that you have chosen a very special venue, namely the Freie Universität Berlin, for your gathering.

With more than one hundred subjects and und 39,000 students, 14 percent of them from abroad, the Freie Universität Berlin is among Germany’s largest and most high-performing universities, and is distinguished by its modern and international character. The Freie Universität is currently spokes-university for twelve Collaborative Research Centers (SFGs) and five research groups of the DFG, the German Research Foundation. Because of our specialized disciplinary profile, two Collaborative Research Centers in the humanities are located at the FU – a novelty for Berlin as a whole. To date, thirteen FU researchers have received the Leibniz Prize of the DFG, the most highly esteemed German award for achievement in research. In 2003 alone, third-party funding rose by ca. 11.2 percent over the previous year. With over 55 million Euros per annum, the Freie Universität receives approximately 20 percent of its overall funding from third-party sources. The Freie Universität has also formed a strategic alliance with the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität in Munich. Moreover, the FU works closely together with globally-active firms such as the BMW Group, Schering, Siemens and Pfizer.

The FU is set in Dahlem, the »German Oxford« established at the turn of the 20th century by Kaiser Wilhelm, when he had numerous scientific institutes installed here. Since its foundation in 1948, the Freie Universität Berlin has nurtured a scientific tradition for which Dahlem offers the ideal and today even indispensable prerequisites for scientific and scholarly activity today, i.e., networked, interdisciplinary research approaches transcending the boundaries of both disciplines and institutional structures. Characteristic of these demands are the »Clusters of Excellence« currently under development at the Freie Universität, a response to current megatrends and to prognoses for the future.

With the Clusters of Excellence, the Freie Universität has elevated the interdisciplinary exchange of scientific research to a coherent program. In part, this was made possible by the distinct advantages enjoyed by Berlin as a location, despite current regional problems, specifically by the immense knowledge potential of its universities, academies and extra-university research facilities. With the cluster concept, it becomes possible to generate precise prognoses concerning future knowledge demand at the global, national and regional levels, and to make accurate predictions regarding social and cultural processes and of the consequences of demographic and socioeconomic changes.

In these times, with every sphere of society, and particularly that of education, experiencing dramatic changes that demand to be met with bold initiatives, we should be mindful of the »Dahlem Myth« and its associated tradition of scientific work. Let us therefore confront these turbulent times by treating them as a new point of departure directed not just at securing this vital scientific locale within Berlin, but also at expanding and enhancing it. For in scholarship and education lie not just the future of our city, but the future as such.

I wish you a successful and productive congress, and I welcome you most cordially to the Freie Universität Berlin.