Georg Weinblum Foundation
The Georg Weinblum Foundation is the result of Gisela Weinblum’s (Gertrud Marie Gisela Weinblum, née Thieß; * 1899; † 07.04.1982 in Hamburg-Bergedorf) dedication to the legacy of her late husband.
Gisela Weinblum's last wish was originally to donate her estate to the German Maritime Search and Rescue Association (DGzRS, Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger) under the condition that one of their new rescue ships be named ‘Weinblum’. The DGzRS, however, was not able to fulfil this condition [1].
Nonetheless, in recognition of Gisela Weinblum’s desire to keep her husband’s name alive, a compromise was reached between all parties in 1986. Ninety percent of the money was donated to the DGzRS without any terms and the remaining ten percent was used to establish the Georg Weinblum Foundation. The Georg Weinblum Foundation has two objectives [2]:
- Providing financial support for the successful implementation of the Weinblum Memorial Lecture series in conjunction with the Weinblum Memorial Foundation
- Endowing the annual Georg Weinblum Award for outstanding doctoral dissertations or equivalent scientific publications
Steering Committee
The steering committee of the Georg Weinblum Foundation consists of four members. Originally, these were Hans Böhrnsen (1986 – 1993) and Volker Reimann (1986 – 2003), the executors of Gisela Weinblum’s last will, as well as Karl Wieghardt (1986 – 1994) and Som Deo Sharma. The following members belong to the current steering committee:
- Harald Keil (since 2005), professor emeritus, former Director of the Institut für Schiffbau
- Som Deo Sharma (since 1986), professor emeritus, University of Duisburg-Essen (since 1986)
- Stefan Krüger [3] (since 2007), Head of the Institute for Ship Design and Ship Safety at Hamburg University of Technology
- Jürgen Friesch (since 2012), former Director of the Hamburg Ship Model Basin
Further members were: Ulrich Külper (1993 – 2005), Heinrich Söding (1994 – 2002), Gerhard Jensen (2002 – 2012) and Horst Nowacki (2004 – 2007).
If you have questions or requests for Foundation representatives, please contact us. We will forward your inquiry to the responsible parties.
Documents
[1] Letter from Karl Wieghardt to Ralph D. Cooper
[2] Charter of the Georg Weinblum Foundation (in German)
External Links
[3] Stefan Krüger at Hamburg University of Technology