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The decision to make the Leopoldina Germany's national academy of sciences is to be welcomed. The road to a national academy for Germany has been a long and rocky one. Back in 1990,
just months after reunification, then science minister Heinz Riesenhuber asked the Leopoldina — the learned society with the longest tradition in the German-language part of the world — to
take on the role. But having just emerged from 40 years of communist quasi-isolation, the leaders of the 355-year-old academy declined to do so. Seventeen years, two government changes and
four science ministers later, Germany finally has a national academy. And it is the Leopoldina that will form its basis (see page 470). When science minister Annette Schavan, a Christian
Democrat like Riesenhuber, announced on 16 November that the Leopoldina should fill this role, it this time accepted the invitation. > Germany will benefit from a national academy that
can provide > genuinely independent advice on scientific questions. Germany's seven regional scientific academies were surprised, and in some cases annoyed, by the decision. The
country's _Länder_ (states) have far-reaching autonomy in cultural affairs, which is why designating the national voice in science to a single body has been problematic in the past. As
a result, Germany lacks a body that can represent the national opinion on science to the outside world and to German policy-makers in the way that the Royal Society does in Britain, or the
National Academies in the United States. Schavan's move therefore deserves applause. It resolves, by satisfyingly non-bureaucratic means, an issue that had threatened to become buried
forever between folders and beneath reports. That it was made by virtual fiat, with little public consultation, doesn't spoil the effect. Germany will benefit from a national academy
that can provide genuinely independent advice on scientific questions. The challenges posed to the federal government by such matters as global warming, genetics and demographic change
demand such a mechanism. The current, fragmented academy landscape doesn't match the needs of a large modern nation such as Germany. Some would have preferred to set up a new body (see
_Nature_ 443, 371–372; doi:10.1038/443371b 2006), but this is not actually necessary. The Leopoldina, formed in 1652 and based in Halle in eastern Germany, demonstrated in communist times
its independence and its moral and scientific integrity. It has all it takes to serve as a national academy, and it should take up its work with confidence. Germany's regional academies
should accept the invitation to assist it in its new task, particularly by adding their strengths in the humanities, where the Leopoldina lacks expertise (the academy will be responsible
for _Wissenschaft_, the German word for science that actually embraces the humanities as well as hard science). If the outcome proves to be as solid and deeply rooted in science as is the
Leopoldina's reputation, then this decision was worth the 17-year wait. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Better late than never.
_Nature_ 450, 458 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/450458a Download citation * Published: 21 November 2007 * Issue Date: 22 November 2007 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/450458a SHARE THIS
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