In a festive ceremony held today (28 March 2014), the Faculty of Law of the TU Dresden awarded an honorary doctorate to the President of the Republic of Korea, Park Geun-hye.

“We are extremely proud that President Park Geun-hye is now an honorary doctor of the TU Dresden. We are very pleased with the existing scientific and economic relationships between the TU Dresden and our Korean partners which will, no doubt, continue to grow after this honourable visit,” said the Rector of TU Dresden, Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen. In his welcome address he highlighted the unparalleled success, unique in Germany and Europe, of the TU Dresden since reunification: “In only twenty years, we have managed to become part of the elite group of only eleven German universities of excellence and have developed an excellent reputation also internationally. The growth rates in research projects, research infrastructures, third-party funds and awards are unequalled.”

The successful German reunification is regarded in South Korea as a model of the anticipated Korean reunification.

The Minister-President of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, also highlighted the German reunification in his welcome address: “The most important aspect of German unification is that people who were once separated can now live in peace and freedom together in one country. It is for this reason that I think that a commitment to unity is so very worthwhile,” he said and encouraged President Park to not give up in her efforts for unity on the Korean peninsula.

As a freely elected president, Park Geun-hye has been the leader of the Republic of Korea since February 2013 and represents an economic and social policy based on a social market economy model. The dean of the law faculty, Prof. Horst-Peter Götting, emphasised that it is precisely Park’s efforts and services for the development of a democratic social order and a social market economy and combating poverty in South Korea as part of her government programme, “A new era of hope”, which are being recognised with the honorary doctorate: “We also honour her efforts for a strengthened cooperation in many different fields with Saxony and the TU Dresden. The visit to our university is an immense honour and expression of the interest of intensifying and developing already existing scientific contacts between the TU Dresden and South Korean research facilities.”

In his laudatio, former prime minister Dr. h.c. Lothar de Maizière, highlighted Park’s career as well as her political achievements and strategic principles which have made her an exceptional figure who, during the course of a consistent policy of trust-building measures, wishes to realise Korean unity. In the “policy of trust” of President Park Geun-hye, we in the eastern federal states, in particular, recognise the elements of a policy which also paved the way for German unity. We understand and appreciate this quiet yearning and the clever action which distinguishes her policy of trust and national unity.” Furthermore, Maizière highlighted Park Geun-hye’s special efforts for internal reconciliation and the balancing out of the traditionally strong regional and ideological contrasts in her country. “The decision to award the honorary doctorate of the Faculty of Law of the Technische Universität Dresden, the most successful university in the former GDR, is not least due to her sincere efforts for a conception of history honouring all aspects of the past, which is one of her outstanding national political achievements.”

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