ZEW Founding Director Professor Heinz König Passes Away

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Professor Heinz König who passed away on Wednesday, 20 November 2002, shortly before celebrating his 76th birthday.

With the passing of Professor Heinz König, the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) loses not only its founding father, but also an outstanding scientist. Even after his retirement as chief scientist, König maintained connections with ZEW, serving as a research professor and consultant in scientific and strategic questions. With his death, German economic research loses one of its leading economists. König crucially advanced econometric research in Germany and influenced generations of scientists. He contributed his expertise to numerous scientific and economic bodies and commissions, both on a national and international level.

ZEW has a huge deal to thank Professor Heinz König for. He headed the research institute from its foundation in 1991, to April 1997. He showed exceptional commitment, building up ZEW as a new institute for empirical economic research while continuing his research and teaching activity as a professor at the University of Mannheim. Aside from research and teaching, he was particularly concerned with ensuring the transfer of research findings, and with the provision of scientifically-sound political consultancy.

In ZEW’s development phase, Heinz König's exceptional scientific reputation, his experience in science management and his eye for committed and scientifically outstanding staff members helped ZEW to achieve its present position in the German research landscape. The German Council of Science and Humanities expressively praised his accomplishments in 1998, when their evaluation found that ZEW had developed into a centre of excellence for applied empirical economic research in Germany. It is Heinz König who must be given most of the credit for this achievement.

Heinz König studied economics at the University of Mainz. He obtained his Ph.D. at the same university in 1953, before completing his habilitation at the University of Münster in 1958. He then moved to the USA where he spent a year working as a Rockefeller Fellow at MIT, Harvard University and Stanford University. He subsequently taught economics and statistics for three years at the University of Münster. He worked from 1962, until his retirement in 1996, as chaired professor at the University of Mannheim. Between 1968 and 1973, he was Dean of the economic and social sciences faculty. From 1969 to 1996, he was Director of the institute for economics and statistics. He served as President (Rektor) of the University of Mannheim from 1979 to 1982. Heinz König was visiting professor at many foreign universities. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen. He received several other honourable proposals from universities in Münster, Zürich, Bonn, Munich and Vienna which he turned down, remaining loyal to Mannheim.