At the end of November, a truly memorable event took place in lecture hall F of the clinical teaching building J1 of the Hannover Medical School (MHH): none other than EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, herself a student at the MHH in the 1980s, had the honor of attending the memorial symposium of “her” professor – Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Schwartz (1943–2024) – to participate. After being welcomed by MHH President Prof. Dr. Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner gave the opening speech for the symposium “Public Health – Research, Teaching, Shaping the Future – from the idea to the creative power in the healthcare system” in honor of Schwartz, one of the pioneers of public health in Germany and director of the Institute for Epidemiology, Social Medicine and Health System Research at the MHH from 1985 to 2009. Following various lectures – including: by Prof. Dr. Andreas Seidler, Prof. Stefan Willich and Prof. Dr. Ulla Walter – discussed with the two moderators Prof. Dr. Marlies Dierks and Prof. Dr. Volker Amelung former graduates and current students under the heading “PH: what’s left? – where are we going?”
>> As guest of honor and former student of Professor Schwartz, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave the opening speech, in which she presented both personal insights and a visionary agenda for global health policy. In her speech, von der Leyen described Professor Schwartz as a visionary who was always ready to take unconventional paths: “He was someone who dared to think things that no one had thought before. Who made his way through the dense undergrowth. He embodied that as a professor, as a teacher, as a mentor.”
She also recalled her own time as a public health student and research assistant in the late 1990s, when she was faced with the challenge of combining a mandatory internship with her upcoming birth. While she was already on the verge of postponing her internship for a year, Schwartz offered her a solution that was revolutionary for the time: a computer-assisted, web-based remote internship. This pragmatic and forward-thinking approach enabled her to complete her studies without delay while her daughter was born. According to von der Leyen, for Schwartz, every single life counts and the belief that all people deserve equal opportunities for a healthy life.
Based on Professor Schwartz’s legacy, von der Leyen outlined four central pillars on which a resilient health policy must rest today:
1. Global responsibility: The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear that national solo efforts are not enough in an interconnected world. Von der Leyen emphasized that Europe had shown solidarity by overcoming fragmentation and exporting vaccines. With the “Global Gateway” initiative, the EU is investing massively in capacity building in Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to promote the independent production of vaccines and medicines and reduce dependencies.
2. Foresight: A forward-looking policy must recognize crises before they escalate. This particularly applies to the health consequences of climate change, such as the spread of tropical diseases in Europe. By founding the EU agency HERA and establishing the European Health Union, Europe has taken measures to secure supply chains and respond to new pathogens within 100 days.
3. Innovative power: The technological revolution, particularly through artificial intelligence (AI), offers enormous opportunities for the early detection of cancer and cardiovascular diseases as well as the faster development of new drugs. However, von der Leyen also emphasized that innovation must always serve people and that the protection of patient data must remain the top priority.
4. Trust: In a time when disinformation and targeted manipulation undermine trust in science, communicating fact-based information is essential. As an example, she cited successful campaigns against HPV vaccination myths in Ireland, which showed that concerted education can turn things around.
At the end of her speech, the EU Commission President emphasized the importance of academic freedom, which makes Europe a global magnet for top researchers. The massive increase in the number of applicants for EU research scholarships is a sign of hope. If the pillars of responsibility, foresight, innovation and trust can be further strengthened, she will look to the future with confidence despite the current global disorder.
