2013 Award Winners
Entrepreneurial visionary and pioneer of Steinbeis
Special Prize Winner Prof. Dr. h. c. Lothar Späth
The jury of the Löhn Prize honoured the outstanding achievements and contributions of Prof. Dr. h. c. Lothar Späth, as co-founder and pioneer of Steinbeis, with a special prize. Thirty years ago, together with Johann Löhn, he developed the Steinbeis model with great enthusiasm and political and entrepreneurial foresight. After completing his training in public administration, Lothar Späth served as Deputy Mayor for Finance and Mayor of Bietigheim-Bissingen. For many years, he was active as a board member and managing director in companies within the property development and construction industries, as well as a member of various supervisory and advisory boards. From 1972 to 1987, Lothar Späth was Chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Baden-Württemberg State Parliament; from 1979 to 1991, he held the party chairmanship of the Baden-Württemberg CDU and was subsequently appointed its Honorary Chairman. In 1978, Lothar Späth became Minister for the Interior and, shortly afterwards, Minister-President of the State of Baden-Württemberg, a post he held until 1991. He then returned to the private sector, where he first took on the role of managing director, then chairman of the executive board, and finally chairman of the supervisory board of what is now Jenoptik AG. From 2005, he served as Chairman of the Management Board of the investment bank Merrill Lynch for Germany and Austria. For many years, his expertise was in high demand, which he contributed to various supervisory bodies and advisory councils, but particularly through his voluntary support of funding organisations.
During his time as Minister-President, Lothar Späth recognised early on the need for political action to manage the structural change in Baden-Württemberg’s economy, which was characterised by small and medium-sized enterprises. Although regarded as a matter of course today, his technological foresight was met with scepticism and criticism at the time. Yet Lothar Späth remained undeterred. He commissioned Johann Löhn – at the time Rector and Head of the Technical Advisory Service at Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences – to lead a ‘Technology Transfer’ working group. The findings of this group formed the basis for the appointment of a Government Commissioner for Technology Transfer (RBT). Within a short space of time, Johann Löhn presented a concept for the role of a Government Commissioner for Technology Transfer. Lothar Späth appointed Johann Löhn as Government Commissioner for Technology Transfer and, concurrently, as Chairman of the Board of the Steinbeis Foundation. This laid the foundations for the Steinbeis model. Lothar Späth emphasises: “Not getting bogged down in concepts, but inspiring people with our ideas and putting them into practice – that was both our credo. Even after my time as Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, I did not lose touch with Steinbeis. Steinbeis has become a successful self-sustaining organisation and is the hallmark of technology transfer.” Lothar Späth’s strategic foresight, his decisive action and the personal support he provided form the foundation upon which the Steinbeis model stands. For this, Steinbeis thanks Lothar Späth: with the 2013 Löhn Prize as a special award and with the assurance that we will continue to build upon these cornerstones.