The DAAD celebrated the highlight of its anniversary year with a festive ceremony at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin on 6 May 2025. Around 500 guests from academia, politics and society, including numerous DAAD alumni, came together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world's largest organisation for international academic exchange.

Science as a bridge in foreign policy

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivered his speech by video to mark the occasion. In it, he emphasised the role of the DAAD as a ‘door opener in foreign science policy’. The DAAD had already demonstrated the value of academic exchange for foreign science policy when it was founded in 1925, when it was re-established in 1950 and during periods of global political upheaval. Steinmeier paid particular tribute to the DAAD's commitment to academics in distress: ‘Time and again, the DAAD has been active precisely where academics can no longer work independently, where they are threatened with persecution, where they are disenfranchised and deprived of their freedom.’

In times of increasing authoritarian tendencies and anti-science movements, the work of the DAAD is indispensable.

Planetary responsibility of science

In his speech, DAAD President Professor Dr Joybrato Mukherjee emphasised the responsibility of science in a changing world. The ceremony was not only a moment to look back, but also a call to actively shape the future: ‘In a world in upheaval, it is important to take planetary responsibility and to vigorously utilise and shape all opportunities for exchange and cooperation.’ Mukherjee recalled the founding of the DAAD in Heidelberg in 1925 with US support and the new beginning after the National Socialist tyranny. He traced its development into the world's largest funding organisation for international academic exchange and paid tribute to the vision of co-founder Carl Joachim Friedrich, who saw exchange as a path to understanding and excellence.

Perspectives, opportunities and change

The ceremony was framed by musicians who are studying in Germany on DAAD scholarships. Students and alumni from all over the world delivered greetings and shared their DAAD experiences via video transmission. 

After the speeches by the Federal President and the DAAD President, Dr Ralf Beste (DAAD alumnus and Head of Department at the Federal Foreign Office), Jana Nguyenová (DAAD scholarship holder at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) and Sherif Rizkallah (DAAD alumnus, TV journalist and presenter) discussed the importance of international academic exchange in a panel discussion moderated by DAAD Secretary General Dr Kai Sicks - with a view to the present and the future.

Jana Nguyenová emphasised the importance of internationality in studies. Science, she emphasised, thrives on cultural exchange and a change of perspective - both key experiences that a stay abroad makes possible.

Rizkallah and Beste emphasised how profoundly a DAAD scholarship can influence one's own life. Rizkallah put it in a nutshell: ‘It sounds like a lot, but it's not: I almost certainly wouldn't be here (in Germany) today if I hadn't received this scholarship back then.’

Ralf Beste also spoke openly about his path: studying abroad was by no means a matter of course for him - not only because he came from a working-class family in the Ruhr region where no one had ever studied before, but also because he had not thought for a long time that such a thing was even an option for him. ‘But there was this great scholarship offer,’ he said - and seized the opportunity.

The discussion made it clear how formative and groundbreaking international educational experiences can be - for individual biographies  as well as for global academic dialogue.

At the reception that followed, the guests had the opportunity to talk to each other in a personal atmosphere and make new contacts.