TU Dortmund University Awards Honorary Doctorate to Donald Tusk, President of the European Council

Welcome speech of the President
Acceptance speech

More than 700 participants were guests at the award ceremony in the Audimax of TU Dortmund University on Sunday morning. By conferring an honorary doctorate on Donald Tusk on its anniversary day, President Prof. Dr. Ursula Gather emphasised in her welcoming speech that TU Dortmund University is once again underscoring its own commitment to European values such as freedom, truth and a sense of community. Professor Süssmuth said that the honorary doctorate sends a "powerful signal" in a time when the commitment to freedom and cooperation in Europe seems to be under attack.

In her laudation, Süssmuth praised Donald Tusk for his many years of involvement in the Polish political scene and his passionate commitment to the European Union. "With the profound belief that European integration is the only way to sustain freedom and democracy and to strengthen these in society, Donald Tusk resembles the founding fathers of the European Community. And this holds true even though or maybe even because he spent more than half of his life behind the Iron Curtain," said Süssmuth.

TU Dortmund University awarded the honorary doctorate upon the initiative of the Faculty of Humanities and Theology in the discipline of political science. As the laudations emphasise, Donald Tusk combines active political engagement with value-based reflection; his biography thus unites political practice and scientific insight. His political activity, moreover, sustainably influences the European debate in political science on issues such as the process of European integration. Prof. Dr. Christoph Schuck, Dean of the Faculty and a political scientist himself, said: “With the honorary doctorate we want to thank President Tusk for his achievements in the European integration process. And we would also like to encourage him to continue his commitment for our beloved Europe.”

President Tusk thanked TU Dortmund University for the honorary doctorate: “I am proud and I am moved by this special distinction,“ he said. Applause arose in the audience when he declared in German: “Ich bin ein Dortmunder.” He shared the enthusiasm of all Dortmunders for Borussia Dortmund, he said, because the football team also reflected the close relationship between his home country Poland and Germany. Regarding Europe he said: “It is more important to build bridges than to build walls. “ He quoted the former German president Johannes Rau, another holder of an honorary doctorate from TU Dortmund University: “We need to reconcile not divide.“

At TU Dortmund University, Donald Tusk continues the series of thus far 60 prominent holders of honorary doctorates. Besides Johannes Rau, these include Konrad Zuse, the inventor of the first computer, Fritz Pleitgen, former director general of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), and Jerzy Buzek, former Polish prime minister and chemical engineer.

Brief Biography of Donald Tusk 

Donald Tusk has been President of the European Council since 2014. He was born in 1957 in Gdańsk, Poland, and studied history at the University of Gdańsk from 1976. He was active in the solidarity movement of Poland in the 1980s, first as the founder of a student association, later underground after the ban of the association. With the advent of the Third Polish Republic in 1989, he helped shape the development of the free party system. In 2007 he became Prime Minister of Poland, and in 2011 he was the first incumbent to be re-elected. Three years later he gave up his post as Polish Prime Minister to take over the Presidency of the European Council. He has already received several important awards for his political commitment to strengthening the European community of values, including the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen (2010).

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