From 1992 to 2005, Prof. Dr.Hans Bienlein served as the KAAD liaison professor in Hamburg, working in recent years alongside Prof. Dr. Georg Zimmerer, who passed away in 2022. During this time, he played a key role in shaping the regional work in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein and left a lasting mark on the support provided to scholars through a personal approach to mentoring: He regularly created spaces for exchange where, beyond academic support, personal relationships developed that endured long after their time as students.
Many of our former scholars still remember these encounters to this day. Alumnus Robert Baowollo, who has lived in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, since 2004, describes this experience on behalf of many alumni: Hans Bienlein was “the father to all of us KAAD scholarship recipients from various countries who studied in the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein regions.”
Hans Bienlein was a professor of particle and nuclear physics at the University of Hamburg and a researcher at institutions including the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. For many years, his research was part of international collaborations. For his scientific work, he was honored with an honorary professorship by the Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow, among others.
Even after his active career ended, Hans Bienlein remained closely connected to KAAD. As long as he was able, he attended the KAAD’s annual academies together with his wife, Melanie Bienlein-Röllin, sought dialogue with scholarship recipients, and continued to advocate for their interests. Furthermore, he repeatedly provided targeted support for the KAAD’s work.
The KAAD remembers his contributions and the encounters with him with gratitude.
