"Today we celebrate your success," President Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ehrenzeller stated, congratulating the new PhDs on their graduation. "But with your scientific activity you have also have been introduced to success’s dark twin: failure." With this statement "Successful failure" became the theme of the Rector’s address.

Regardless of a doctoral student's motivation, work-ethic or creativity, there is never a guarantee of success in a dissertation project, Bernhard Ehrenzeller said. "Last year, for example, the pandemic thwarted the plans of many researchers. Experiments had to be postponed, redesigned, field research visits cancelled and archive visits postponed,” he elaborated.

Bernhard Ehrenzeller urges graduates to see setbacks as opportunities, "this, I believe, is the secret to success. Learning from past failures allows one to move forward.”

Image: Foto Lautenschlager GmbH