Hermann Parzinger

As President of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz he is responsible for all cultural institutions of the former state of Prussia; these are the State Museums of Berlin, the State Library of Berlin, the Secret State Archive of Prussia, the Ibero-American Institute and the State Institute of Music Research. the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz is the largest and most important cultural institution in Germany. After his studies of Prehistory and History at the LMU Munich (1979-85) he was Assistant Professor at LMU in Munich and after his doctorate (1985) and habilitation (1991) he worked in different leading positions at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) first in Frankfurt (1990-94) and then since 1995 in Berlin, later he became President of the DAI from 2003 until 2008, before assuming the current position.He received the distinguished Leibniz Prize (1998), the first time this award went to an archaeologist. Honors include honorary doctorates from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and in Novosibirsk, the Great Cross of Merit with the Star of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany and the Order Pour le mérite for Sciences and Arts.