Campus Stories

"The Lord of the Buildings" – that's what the Bremen regional magazine “buten un binnen” once called Hans-Joachim Orlok in a report. After all, when it comes to buildings and areas used by the university, he is the one to call. He has a history with the university that began with his studies in 1978

Frieder Nake is not entirely sure if he really is the longest serving teaching staff member at the University of Bremen. Probably. After all, his 100th semester will begin in April. After nearly 50 years of teaching, the 82-year-old computer science professor has a few stories to tell.

She knows how languages are taught efficiently and well and how learning successes are made visible: Claudia Harsch is the head of the Languages Centre of the Universities in the Land of Bremen (SZHB). She is also a professor of language teaching and learning research at the University of Bremen.

Petra Droste established the Career Center at the University of Bremen. She emphasizes that she obviously didn’t do it alone but rather with her team. The center has provided support to many people embarking on their career journey and will turn 20 on October 1.

Dominik Lange wants to change things in society. Climate protection and sustainability are particularly important to the student. That is why he is an active member of his degree course, the AStA Students' Union, and the Academic Senate at the University of Bremen, as well Students for Future.

Dr. Doris Sövegjarto-Wigbers knows the University like hardly anyone else. And not only because she has worked there for over 25 years. As the Climate and Environment Manager, the 62-year-old is connected to basically everybody: From the University Executive Board to the facility management.

Hemmersbach arrives and everyone immediately fears for their rooms.” That is her image – of that the cheerful woman is sure. “I want to do right by everyone and find compromises,” says the head of the Room Management working group.

Jessica Winter is a committed European. The 25-year-old even changed her degree at the University of Bremen in order to work more intensely on European topics. Her interest was piqued thanks to her work as part of the YUFE Alliance (Young Universities for the Future of Europe).

“Everything is possible.” That`s Friederike Moschner’s motto. For nearly one year now, she has been responsible for the central marketing at the University. She is currently working on the introduction of a new corporate design for the university – right on time for the university’s birthday in 2021

When Torsten Radeke from the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science talks about his apprentices, he has a lot of success stories to tell. The man with the mischievous grin is liked. Together with his eight-person team, he shows up to four young people per year how to be an IT specialist.

Professor Marko Rohlfs is a scientist who loves the diversity of insects. He talks about their lives like interesting stories. And he is interested in fungi. But not in the ones with a cap - rather for mold fungi. Some of his other “colleagues” in the research laboratory are fruit flies.

Christmas with family and a New Year’s part with friends are cancelled this year for Saskia Tenberg. In just a few days, she will fly to the island of Zanzibar via Amsterdam and Dar es Salaam.

More than two decades ago when Karsten Lehmkuhl, a trained radio and television technician joined the University of Bremen, he determined his nickname by choosing “Lemmi” for his e-mail address. Today, the friendly head is known as Lemmi throughout the whole campus.

“I’m spinning too many plates.” That is what a stressed office worker may say from time to time when he or she has lost the overview of their to-do list. Jörg Riedel doesn’t spin plates but keeps balls in the air. He finds “Relaxation like when meditating or practicing yoga”.

Khaled Swaidan’s distinctive feature is his unusual hairstyle. On the one side, his hairdresser, a Turk from Bremen’s Neustadt district, has cut a section of hair similar to a parting and kept the hair relatively short whilst the top displays an unusually high quiff.

Hanna Deutschmann is a singer in the choir of the University of Bremen. She has an alto voice full of passion for music. Two years ago, she stood together with 4,000 other singers for the first time on the market square in Bremen to sing the 11 songs of the music festival "Bremen so frei".

Today is a special day for Dr. Roy Karadag. “My little daughter is crawling,” happily exclaims the father on parental leave. Until the end of August 2019, the political scientist will only be able to perform his duties at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS) to a limited…

“Entrepreneurship” and “refugee” are banner words in the research work of Dr. Aki Harima. Born in Japan, she is a postdoctoral fellow at the Chair in Small Businesses & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX). She recently published a book together with her boss, Professor Jörg Freiling, and Professor Sibylle…

We all have our idea of a custodian. They scurry through the buildings, use their wrench here, and pinch the pliers there. A conversation with Günther Süllow clears up a misconception. The good spirit at the University of Bremen is the function master for facility management. But his most important…

Social mobility through education: That certainly applies to Dr. Peter Mehlis. The trained precision mechanic worked for various large industrial companies in Bremen: at Airbus, Mercedes and Siemens. As a union worker, he heard about the two-year course at the Academy for Labor and Politics, the…

Every two years, the University invites you to its science festival, the OPEN CAMPUS – when the University’s twelve Faculties and institutes present themselves in pagoda tents on the green meadow with games, fun, experiments and culinary offerings, and famous rock stars make provide music and…

Dr. Benjamin Tannert, “Benny” to his friends, shows what he can do. The likeable young man briskly gets up from his wheelchair. Staggering a little, he holds on to the table top. Only very briefly, then the computer scientist sits down again. The physical effort is visible. The 34-year-old had to…

When Soner Uygun was a pupil at elementary school, he did not have one male teacher. Also in the first 2 years of secondary education, only women were in charge of classes. It wasn’t until his third year of secondary school that two male teachers eventually showed up. Today, Soner Uygun is a Ph.D.…

Kerstin Schill, a Professor for Cognitive Neuroinformatics at the University of Bremen, was recently elected to the Senate of the German Research Foundation for a second term. In this highest body of research funding and self-administration in science, she represents the field of informatics for the…

When Maria Kristalova talks about her research work, she easily gets carried away. A doctoral student of Professor Jutta Günther in the Faculty of Economics, at the moment Maria is full of anticipation. Not only is she excited about finishing her dissertation, but also because a great event is…