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New Year's reception at Bielefeld University

University of Bielefeld

New Year's reception on 23 January 2026

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Questions and contact:

neujahrsempfang@uni-bielefeld.de

Talking. Listening. Understanding. The future needs dialogue

This was the motto of this year's New Year's reception, which took place on Friday, January 23, 2026, in the Audimax.

The event centered on a conversation with Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk and Bodo Ramelow. The evening was accompanied musically by the brass quintet Fusion Brass from the Detmold University of Music.

  • © S. Sättele

    The New Year's reception began with a welcome and speech by the rector and host, Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple (center). This was followed by a discussion with historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk (right) and politician Bodo Ramelow (left) about their experiences with dialogue, contradiction, and understanding.

  • © S. Sättele

    The award ceremony began with an interview with Christiane Fuchs (left), Vice-Rector for Research and Research Networking, and Rainer Norden (right), Chairman of the University Society UGBi. The evening was hosted by presenter and journalist Eva Schmidt (center).

  • © S. Sättele

    This year, the Jörg Schwarzbich Inventor Award was presented to Dr. Jianing Yang and Prof. Dr. Harald Gröger for their research into overcoming thermal limitations in biocatalytic processes. Once again, the award's founders, Michael Geis and Jörg Schwarzbich, were on hand to present the award. (from left to right)

Further impressions

  • © S. Sättele
  • © S. Sättele
  • © S. Sättele
  • © S. Sättele

Information for photo shoots

Photographs will be taken during this event for the purpose of documenting the event.

The photographs will show and reproduce individual staff, people or groups of people who are not in the foreground. These photographs will be taken on the basis of legal authorisation. You have the right to object to the production and use of the photographs.

For recordings in which staff, people are in the foreground, we will obtain your (verbal) consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time without giving reasons.

If you do not wish to be photographed, please contact the photographer first. If you would also like to object to the processing of the photographs or withdraw your consent, please contact the event management team (veranstaltungsmanagement@uni-bielefeld.de).

The detailed data protection information is available here.

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