The DPG's Annual Meeting took place on March 4 - 9, 2005 at Berlin.
As the bus from the airport passes the Federal German Chancellory building (equivalent to our Langevin Block on Parliament Hill) next to the Reichstag in the centre of Berlin, one can see a banner covering the length of the building, saying "The state exists for the people, not the people for the state", Albert Einstein, I dream of seeing such a banner on our Parliament!
The German government, along with several foundations (notably the Heraeus foundation) is supporting the German Physical Society (DPG) in its International Year of Physics 2005 activities (which the Germans call the Einstein Year) to the tune of about $18 million Canadian dollars.
The German Chancellor (Prime Minister) was scheduled to address the grand opening of the DPG Congress for the International Year of Physics, but was replaced at the last minute by the Minister of Education, due to illness of the chancellor. The ceremony included the speech of the minister, a speech by the Mayor of Berlin, a speech by the DPG president, Knut Urban, THREE musical interludes by a violin and viola duet, an excellent talk by the noted historian, Fritz Stern (Columbia University professor emeritus), and a reading from letters between Einstein and the wife of Max Born, read by Germanys most prominent TV actress (from their equivalent of Da Vincis Inquest or Law and Order). Four Nobel laureates were in attendance. The congress had 7,500 physicists registered (Germanys population is 2.5-3 times that of Canada), with 100 high-school students invited from across Germany.
The Germans are, by now, experts at this sort of thing, having had a Year of Physics in the year 2000, prompted by their perception of declining enrollments in the natural sciences. They managed to achieve an increase in first-year physics enrollment of 50% in the last five years, although demographics may also have played some roll in this. They have a program of Highlights of Physicswhich is presented in a big way in various locations every year.
An excellent lecture for the public was given by Prof. Ruder of Tuebingen on Einsteins Holodeck what Einstein couldnt see. 1300 people attended this talk in one of Berlins premiere locations, the Urania Hall. His thesis was that relativity is not difficult, as anyone, even a computer, can take a square-root, but that visualizing the effects of relativity was difficult, due to the rarity of travel at relativistic velocities. His solution, to teach a computer to take the square root of 1-v2/c2 and then to make computer-generated graphics to produce DVD videos of bodies observed to be traveling at relativistic speeds (taxing the limits of computational ability with the graphics, but not with the square-root) was eminently successful. The videos were great, showing spheres, cubes, etc. and then showing a tour of his home-town at relativistic speeds.
A symposium on Physics Goes Public was held with participation by the presidents of foreign physical societies or their delegates. Participants included delegates from UNESCO, Portugal, Viet Nam, France, Marty Blume of the APS, and many others. The German delegation discussed mainly what they had achieved, how government ministers had been brought on board, and how help from foundations was essential. They emphasized that having close to 100% of all physicists in the country as members was essential to their credibility. The importance of offering sponsors high profile in posters, press-releases, etc. was underlined.
For more information see: http://www.dpg-einstein.de/index.html.en