Eberswalder Hochschulgesellschaft e.V.

Born on 5 February 1930 in Rübeland in the Harz Mountains, Gunther Wolff studied Forestry in Eberswalde from 1949-1953 at the then Faculty of Forestry at Humboldt University in Berlin. Until 1956, he worked as a forestry judge in Sauen, among other places, and dedicated himself early on to the topic of natural forest management. The results of his work were incorporated into his 1959 dissertation in Eberswalde - where he had been working as a scientist since 1956 - entitled "Das Revier Sauen: Inventory, planning and success of biological forest management". His habilitation on smoke damage diagnosis using false-colour aerial photographs, which he completed in Tharandt in 1970, was also dedicated to a highly topical subject. He was honoured with the Gold Medal of Merit in Forestry for his scientific achievements in 1985.

"Do something with music!" was the task that the head of the Institute of Forest Sciences, Prof Dr Albert Richter, gave him in 1964 to enrich the cultural life of the company. The result was a unique music festival in the ruins of Chorin Monastery. Wolff and his voluntary helpers succeeded in maintaining this festival beyond the change of system. In 1997, he was honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit for these achievements. As chairman of the association, he held all the reins until 2009 and continued as artistic director until 2013.

Immediately after reunification, Wolff founded the Association of Friends and Supporters of Forest Science Teaching and Research, which he later chaired and of which he was a member of the board until his death. The declared goal of reopening the Faculty of Forestry at the HU in Eberswalde ultimately led to the successful founding of our Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences with the faculties of Forestry, Landscape Management and Nature Conservation, Wood Science and Technology and Business Administration, of which he was appointed founding rector on 15 January 1992. He was then elected Rector in December 1994, a position he held until the age of 68 in December 1998. Gunther Wolff continued to follow the development of our university with great interest: He contributed to the commemorative publication for the tenth anniversary, was present at numerous events, including our 20th anniversary, and was actively involved until the very end in the research project currently underway to analyse the history of the closure of the faculty in 1963.

He passed away on 20 February 2013 at the age of 83.