Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany conferred on Gert Wagner

Gert G. Wagner was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by Germany’s President Horst Koehler on February 8th, 2008. Wagner is Professor of Economics at the Berlin University of Technology (TU Berlin) and Faculty Member of the DIW Berlin Graduate Center and the International Max Planck Research School LIFE. Since 1989, he has been responsible for the largest and most widely used household panel study worldwide: the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at DIW Berlin (German Institute for Economic Research.

Ernst Rietschel, President of the Leibniz Association, to which the SOEP belongs as a “Service Institute,”  expressed his congratulations to Gert G. Wagner: “This award honors a distinguished scholar who has also rendered outstanding services in the improvement of the German research infrastructure.“

Berlin’s Senator for Research and Education, E. Juergen Zoellner handed over the Knight’s Cross to Gert G. Wagner. Zoellner said, “Professor Wagner has made an outstanding contribution to research, to public policy, to the public, and to Germany. Wagner is without doubt one of the most distinguished social scientists in Germany. Researchers the world over work with the data sets of SOEP, which is thus regarded as one of the most successful research projects ever in the economic and social sciences in Germany.”

Gert G. Wagner studied economics and sociology in Frankfurt am Main, then completed his doctorate in 1984 at the Technical University in Berlin, where he attained his post-doctoral qualification (Habilitation) in 1992. After a short time as an adjunct professor in Berlin, he held a professorship in social policy and public economics at the Ruhr University in Bochum (RUB) up to 1997. After declining an offer from the University of Goettingen, he accepted a professorship at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) (EUV). Since 2002, he has been a professor of economics at the Berlin University of Technology (TUB).

Up to the beginning of 2008, Gert G. Wagner served for six years as a member of the German Science Council, which advises the federal and state governments on questions of promoting and developing universities, science, and research in Germany, as well as on creating new universities. Wagner has contributed to public discussion not only as a scholar and researcher but also through his work in an honorary capacity for the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), where he has led social and sociopolitical discussions. Since 2004, he has been Chairman of the “Chamber for Social Order“ of the EKD. As a member of various governmental advisory bodies, he was very active in policy advice between 2002 and 2005. As a member of the “Rürup Commission” convened by the German government to make proposals for social security reform, he proposed a far-reaching reform of the pension system and made a definitive contribution to the still ongoing debate over the reform of the health care insurance in Germany, bringing the political discussion to a scientifically sound level.