"Do keep it up: not confrontational, but sustainable demanding", said Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel who congratulated the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt of its 20th anniversary and praised the long-standing work of the Foundation.
The proposal for establishing an environmental foundation was "visionary" and had created "social developments" the Chancellor said at a festive ceremony in Berlin where the DBU celebrated the anniversary with some 400 guests, among them renowned personalities from politics, economy, science and environmental protection. The founding fathers, the then Finance Minister Dr. Theo Waigel and Prof. Dr. Hans Tietmeyer, former Federal Reserve Chairman, congratulated and certified the Foundation that it had "adopted and implemented its mission in an excellent manner”.
The wide spectrum of support of the Foundation was reflected in the presented projects: The topics ranged from concentrating photovoltaics and energy-efficient engine technology over ionic liquids to the winners of the DBU-youth contest “Discover Diversity" which presented the Chancellor extracts from newly discovered herbs from the Goethe’s era. The musician and singer Peter Maffay reported via video message from his DBU-funded children's and youth project in Romania. How the DBU invests in junior staff that showed representatives from the DBU scholarship programme.
