Handing over office to the new rector

Professor Dr. Angelika Epple was inaugurated in her new office as the university’s rector on the evening of Friday, 13 October. More than 500 guests attended the festive event in what currently is the university’s largest lecture hall in building Y. Guests included, among other people, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister for Education, Culture and Science Ina Brandes, Bielefeld’s mayor Pit Clausen, and Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, the university’s former rector. International guests from Bielefeld’s partner universities were attending as well. Find a review of the evening in pictures, the video recording of Angelika Epple’s inaugural speech and the international perspective during and around the inauguration below.

The handover of office in pictures

Anna Katharina Bölling (Detmold district president), Pit Clausen (mayor of the city of Bielefeld), Ina Brandes (Minister for Education, Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer in front of the University.

From the predecessor to politicians from the city, region, and NRW: new rector Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple (2nd from the right) welcomed about 500 guests for her inauguration, including Anna Katharina Bölling (Detmold district president), Pit Clausen (mayor of the city of Bielefeld), Ina Brandes (Minister for Education, Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia), and her predecessor Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer (from left to right).

Andreas Liebold (front), rear: Sign Language interpreter.

Andreas Liebold (front) served as the host of the event, which was accompanied by Sign Language interpreters (rear), in lecture hall building Y.

Ina Brandes, Minister for Education, Culture and Science of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is looking forward to cooperation with the new rector …

Ina Randes hands over certificate to Gerhard Sagerer.

… while at the same time saying goodbye to Gerhard Sagerer, who held the post for 14 years.

A cordial farewell between the former rector and his successor: Gerhard Sagerer handed a “diverse university” over to Angelika Epple.

Andreas Liebold in conversation with Sabine Kunst and Silke Schwandt

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst, chair of the University Council (centre), and Prof. Dr. Silke Schwandt, chair of the Senate (r.), were talking about the university “where many things are in the process of becoming” to host Andreas Liebold (l.).

Mayor Pit Clausen conveyed greetings from the city.

Prof. Åke Strid from Örebro University in Sweden had come to the inauguration to represent the NEOLAiA network. Örebro currently is the chair of this network, which counts Bielefeld University among its members. NEOLAiA has been a joint European University since the middle of the year.

Tableau Quartett in the Lecture Hall Building Y.

Tableau-Quartett was musically accompanying the inauguration, playing “I can see the change” by Celeste before Angelika Epple’s programmatic inaugural address.

In her inaugural address, Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple was speaking about the focus areas for her plans as rector, including interdisciplinary research projects, building structures for talent development, cultural change by digitalisation, and the university’s task of strengthening democracy.

Angelika Epple in front of an audience with an image of her rectorate team behind her.

Angelika Epple will be facing these challenges together with her rectorate team (see picture, from the left): Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rückert (vice-rector for digitalisation and data infrastructure), Prof Dr. Christiane Fuchs (vice rector for research and research networking), Dr. Stephan Becker (chancellor), Prof. Dario Anselmetti (vice-rector for studies and teaching), and Prof. Dr. Alexandra Kaasch (for science and society). As Angelika Epple said: “We can see the change”.

Stephan Becker hands over bouquet to Angelika Epple.

Representing the new rectorate team, chancellor Dr. Stephan Becker presented a bouquet of flowers to Angelika Epple with best wishes for her new office. The evening ended with a champagne reception in building X following the event in lecture building Y.

The inaugural address by Prof’in Dr Angelika Epple (in German)

The inaugural speech of Rector Prof’in Dr. Angelika Epple on 13 October 2023 in Lecture Hall Building Y at Bielefeld University.

Many international guests of the university came to attend the inauguration, including representatives of the international partner universities from Bologna (Italy), Guadalajara (Mexico), and Vienna (Austria). The president of Osaka University in Japan, a long-term strategic partner of Bielefeld University, sent a digital greeting to Angelika Epple for her inauguration.

Greetings by Shojiro Nishio, President of Osaka University

Shojiro Nishio, President of Osaka University, addresses Angelika Epple with a greeting. Osaka is one of Bielefeld’s strategic partner universities.

The international partners from the NEOLAiA network had come to Bielefeld for their network convention in the days around the new rector’s inauguration. They were able to not only inspect the growing Bielefeld Campus in a joint tour with chancellor Dr. Stephan Becker and rector Professor Dr. Angelika Epple, but also had the opportunity to plant another tree in the European Forest behind the Social Field by building X.