Every year, students from different countries and Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry or Physiology or Medicine are invited to Lindau in the south of Germany. The meetings rotate by discipline each year. The idea is to let students with interest in science and research meet Nobel Laureates and to let Nobel Laureates meet students informally. It all started in 1951.
History of the meetings
The isolation of German science, which began when the Nazis seized power and increased during the war, continued to a large extent after 1945. To break this isolation two physicians living in Lindau Drs Gustave Parade and Franz Karl Hein started to organize medical conferences in Lindau. To improve the status of these meetings they wanted to include Nobel Prize laureates. A lucky coincidence for putting the idea into practice was the fact that a member of the Swedish Royal Family lived on Mainau, an island in the Bodensee not far from Lindau. Hein and Parade presented the idea to Count Lennart Bernadotte asking him to act as an honorary patron of the Lindau meetings and to ask the Nobel Foundation for assistance. The Nobel Foundation, however, was reluctant to support private initiatives which used the Nobel name.
Initially the number of Nobel Laureates attending the meetings was quite small and limited to German scientists. Over the years, however, an increasing number of Nobel Laureates have accepted the invitations to attend these meetings. The scope of the meetings has been broadened from medicine to include physics and chemistry. A large number of students have been invited turning the meetings into an encounter between Nobel Laureates and young scholars with an interest in the sciences.
Another attractive feature has been the relaxed atmosphere of Lindau and the boat trips to the island of Mainau.
Today the meetings are organized for the Committee of the Meetings of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, headed by Countess Sonja Bernadotte and Dr Ludwig Feinendegen.*
Video interviews
Interview with Count Lennart Bernadotte af Wisborg in June 2000. Interviewer is Professor Håkan Westling.
Count Lennart Bernadotte talks about the history of the Lindau meetings and the Mainau Manifesto.
Interview with Countess Sonja Bernadotte af Wisborg and Dr Ludwig Feinendegen in June 2000. Interviewer is Professor Håkan Westling.
Countess Sonja Bernadotte af Wisborg and Dr Ludwig Feinendegen talk about organizing the Lindau Meetings, that Nobel Laureates and students can meet for discussions during the meetings, the financial support of the meetings and future meetings in Lindau.
For more information:
Read more on the web: “The Nobel Laureate meetings at Lindau”
* Today, Countess Bettina Bernadotte af Wisborg is President of the Council, which sets the course for the Lindau Dialogue concept and programme.