Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer
A Pillar of Democracy – On the Role and Defence of Academic Freedom in Our Time
Lecture on 27 November 2026
Alongside an independent judiciary and a free press, science is one of the pillars of a liberal and resilient democracy. It is indispensable to social progress – not only because it drives innovation and contributes to economic growth, but also because it is grounded in evidence and critical thinking and helps anchor these principles in public debate.
For science to fulfil these multiple roles, reliable public funding is essential. Equally important, however, are academic freedom, openness to the world and a diversity of research topics. Unfortunately, we are seeing political actors here in Europe and Germany attempting to undermine these fundamental conditions, following paths similar to those taken by anti-science forces in the United States and Argentina.
We must stand firmly against this development. But how? Within the scientific community, this is still a learning process. It is a complex one because, although science as a human activity defines itself according to its own principles, the framework within which it takes place – and the way in which it is perceived – is shaped both by institutions and by individual scientists.
What might an effective defence of academic freedom look like – one that brings everyone on board, both the scientific community itself and the wider public? Finding good answers to this question is important – and increasingly urgent.
Prof. Dr. theol. Georg Essen
Prof. Dr. Patrick Cramer
Born on 3 February 1969 in Stuttgart
Patrick Cramer has been President of the Max Planck Society since 2023. He studied chemistry in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Bristol and Cambridge. In 1998, he received his doctorate from Heidelberg University for research conducted at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Roger Kornberg at Stanford University.
From 2001 to 2014, he was Professor of Biochemistry at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), and from 2014 to 2023 he served as Director of the Department of Molecular Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, formerly the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.
For his research on gene transcription and its regulation in eukaryotic cells, Cramer has received numerous awards, including the 2023 Shaw Prize, the 2022 Gregori Aminoff Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the 2021 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine.
Cramer is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society. He has contributed to the scientific community in numerous capacities, including as Director of the Gene Center Munich from 2004 to 2013, Chair of the EMBL Council from 2016 to 2019, and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin from 2016 to 2022.
