Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (born 25 June 1939) is a German scientist and politician (

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

). He was a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

and served as co-president of the Club of Rome jointly with

Anders Wijkman Anders Ivar Sven Wijkman (born 30 September 1944 in Stockholm) is a Swedish politician (Swedish: '' Kristdemokraterna'', KD) who was Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009. As member of the European Parliament, he focused on issu ...

2011 – 2019.

Family

A member of the prominent

Weizsäcker family The Weizsäcker family (), some with the nobiliary particle von (), originated in the former Kingdom of Württemberg and has had prominent and influential members over several generations. Its members include a Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Wür ...

, he is the son of physicist and philosopher

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 28 June 1912 – 28 April 2007) was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under ...

and nephew of former German president Richard von Weizsäcker. Since 1969, he is married to Christine von Weizsäcker. Together, they have five children, including MEP Jakob von Weizsäcker.

Youth and education

Born in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, Switzerland, Weizsäcker spent his childhood in

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

. In 1966, he graduated from Hamburg University with a Diplom in physics. In 1968, he obtained his PhD in biology from

Freiburg University The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemb ...

Career

In 1972, he was appointed full professor of biology at Essen University. In 1975, he was recruited as president of the then newly founded

University of Kassel The University of Kassel (german: link=no, Universität Kassel) is a university founded in 1971 located in Kassel, Hessen, in central Germany. As of February 2022 it had about 25,000 students and about 3300 staff, including more than 300 profe ...

. In 1981, he joined the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

in New York as director at the UN Center for Science and Technology. From 1984 to 1991 he headed the Institute for European Environmental Policy in Bonn. In 1991, Weizsäcker became founding president of the

Wuppertal Institute The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (official German name: ) is a German research institution for sustainability research focusing on impacts and practical application. It explores and develops models, strategies and in ...

, soon establishing itself as a leading environmental think tank. In 1998, he was elected a member of the German

for the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SPD) and re-elected in 2002. As a legislator, he chaired the select committee on

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

(2000–2002) and the environment committee (2002–2005). After his decision not to run in the 2005 election, he became Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

. He returned to Germany in 2009 where is his an honorary professor at

. A bestselling author in Germany, his English language books include ''Earth Politics'' (1994), ''Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use'' (1995), ''Factor 5'' (2009) and ''Limits to Privatization'' (2005).

Awards and honours

* 2000 Honorary doctorate of

Sōka University , abbreviated typically as or , is a private university in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan. In 2014, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) designated Soka University as one of Japan's Top Global Universitie ...

* 2001

Takeda Award The Takeda Foundation, is an organisation based in Japan. In 2001 it launched an annual awards program, which presented awards accompanied by 100 million yen under the categories social/economic well-being, individual/humanity well-being, and ...

* 2008

German Environmental Prize The German Environmental Prize (german: Deutscher Umweltpreis) is a government-sponsored award for protecting the environment. Worth €500,000, it is one of the most valuable environmental awards in Europe. The sponsor German Federal Environment ...

* 2009 Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

* 2011 Theodor Heuss Prize * 2012

Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg (german: link=no, Verdienstorden des Landes Baden-Württemberg) is the highest award of the German State of Baden-Württemberg. Established 26 November 1974, it was originally called the Medal of Merit of Bad ...

*Honorary Councillor of the

World Future Council The World Future Council (WFC) is a German non-profit foundation with its headquarters in Hamburg. It works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to future generations. FuturePolicy.org The website f ...

References

External links

Website of Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weizsacker, Ernst Ulrich von 1939 births Living people Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag 1998–2002 Politicians from Zürich Ernst Ulrich Club of Rome members Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Non-fiction environmental writers Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Scientists from Zürich