Goethe-Universität — Press releases

Goethe University PR & Communication Department

Feb 26 2026

13:18

As democratic norms face growing strain, a new interdisciplinary series in Frankfurt - part of the DemoReg research network - brings together social research and music theater to explore the emotional and political dynamics of regression, and the possibilities of renewal.

When Opera Meets Democracy Research

How can democracy be strengthened amid mounting internal and external pressures? The new event series “Fractures – Democracy in Times of Regression" seeks to open fresh perspectives. A collaboration between Goethe University Frankfurt, the Institute for Social Research, the Sigmund Freud Institute, and Frankfurt Opera, the initiative forms part of the Frankfurt branch of the DemoReg research network.

FRANKFURT. The Hessian research alliance “Challenges to Democracy in Times of Its Regression – Times, Spaces, and Discourses" (DemoReg) investigates the causes and consequences of developments that threaten democracy. Funded by the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Arts and Culture, the alliance combines foundational research with empirical analysis and practice-oriented knowledge production, with particular attention to strategies for strengthening democracy.

“We expect that this interdisciplinary academic alliance, in dialogue with the opera, will generate new perspectives on the topic," says Vera King, Professor of Sociology and Psychoanalytic Social Psychology at Goethe University Frankfurt and Director of the Sigmund Freud Institute. A first collaboration during last year's conference “After Us, the Deluge" demonstrated the potential of this partnership. Music theater, she notes, carries particular emotional force through sound and staging. “Art illuminates the affective dimensions of communal life in ways that are indispensable for understanding social and political dynamics," King adds.

The series opens on June 20 with a public panel at Frankfurt Opera titled “Anti-Democratic Mobilization and the Power of Emotions." Held in conjunction with the new production of Gioachino Rossini's Tancredi, the discussion brings together opera director Manuel Schmitt, social psychologist Vera King, and sociologist Stephan Lessenich, moderated by dramaturg Konrad Kuhn. The opera's narrative – depicting a community threatened by internal and external dangers, social exclusion, and radicalization as regressive response – resonates strongly with contemporary debates. Following the panel, audiences can continue the exchange in the “Opera in Dialogue" format.

“Music theater is a multifaceted art form whose strength often lies in connecting works of the past with the present," says Konrad Kuhn. “For Frankfurt Opera, it is a privilege when performances enter into dialogue with academic discourse – especially with renowned partners such as the Institute for Social Research and the Sigmund Freud Institute."

On December 10, a full-day interdisciplinary symposium, “Images of the Future – Democracy After Its Regression," will take place at the former Dondorf printing house, with participation from the opera. “At a time when the future appears blocked, expanding the horizon of imagination is essential to revitalizing democracy," says Stephan Lessenich, Professor of Social Theory and Social Research at Goethe University Frankfurt and Director of the Institute for Social Research. The symposium will feature contributions from political and social sciences, philosophy, psychoanalysis, social psychology, and the arts. The specific opera to be discussed will be announced in late April.

Further Information
Prof. Dr. Vera King
Professur für Soziologie und Psychoanalytische Sozialpsychologie
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel. +49 (0)69 798 36531
E-Mail king@soz.uni-frankfurt.de

Editor: Dr. Anke Sauter, Science Communication, PR & Communications Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt, Tel. +49 (0)69 798-13066, sauter@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de

Feb 25 2026

11:16

Extended Senate selects incumbent for a second term starting January 2027

Enrico Schleiff re-elected as President of Goethe University Frankfurt

Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, professor of cell biology at Goethe University Frankfurt and its President since 2021, was elected by the Extended Senate on Wednesday for another term as President. The term of office is six years and will begin following his appointment by the University Council on January 1, 2027.

FRANKFURT. For the first time since the re-election of Prof. Rudolf Steinberg in 2006, Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff has been chosen to lead a second term of office as president of Goethe University Frankfurt. The professor of molecular cell biology of plants and former vice president of the university secured the required absolute majority of 18 votes in the second round of voting. Eligible voters included 34 members of the Extended Senate, which consists of regular Senate members and their deputies. The second candidate, physics education specialist Prof. Dr. Roger Erb, received 16 votes.

“I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me by the Extended Senate and very pleased about the outcome of the election," Schleiff said, adding that, "In recent weeks, I have held numerous conversations, listened carefully to encouragement and criticism alike, and engaged in an open exchange with members of our university community during the public hearing alongside Roger Erb. Building on six years of experience as Vice President and my first term as President, I intend to continue implementing the concepts we have developed together, consolidate what we have begun, and integrate the insights I have gained from these conversations into the next phase of our work."

“My first term coincided with years of considerable challenge for the university, requiring us to respond swiftly to both institutional and broader societal developments," Schleiff continued. “This led to a period of intense transformation and rapid decision-making. Such a pace cannot be sustained indefinitely without placing strain on the institution and its members. At the same time, what we have achieved is not yet fully secured and in some areas is even at risk, given increasingly difficult financial and political conditions. The years ahead must therefore be guided by consolidation and reliability. On the basis of our University Development Plan, we will create stability and predictability for our colleagues and our students. I invite all Goethe University members to work with me, the Executive Board, the Senate, the University Council and our committees to shape teaching and research and to strengthen our dialogue with society. Our immediate priority will be the forthcoming review of our joint Excellence Strategy proposal within the Rhine-Main Universities alliance with TU Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz."

Silke Lautenschläger, who chairs the University Council, congratulated Schleiff on the election: “We had two outstanding individuals on the ballot, and I would like to thank Prof. Erb for his commitment. The University Council will continue to support the outgoing and incoming president with advice and assistance. Prof. Schleiff has set a very promising course for Goethe University, particularly through the successes in the Excellence Strategy, the joint proposal of the Rhine-Main Universities, and many other strategic decisions. The University Council is very much looking forward to continuing this collaboration."

Images for download: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/183483413

Feb 20 2026

12:20

Research team led by Goethe University shows that due to quantum physical effects even “flat” molecules are always three-dimensional

The quantum trembling: Why there are no truly flat molecules

Formic acid is considered a molecule in which all atoms lie in a single plane. A research team at Goethe University, together with cooperation partners, has now demonstrated experimentally that the atoms in formic acid jitter out of this plane continuously on a minimal scale. As a result, the molecule is not flat most of the time but three-dimensional, thereby losing its symmetry. The quivering of the atoms are a a quantum physical effects, according to which particles are never at rest.

FRANKFURT. Traditional chemistry textbooks present a tidy picture: Atoms in molecules occupy fixed positions, connected by rigid rods. A molecule such as formic acid (methanoic acid, HCOOH) is imagined as two-dimensional – flat as a sheet of paper. But quantum physics tells a different story. In reality, nature resists rigidity and forces even the simplest structures into the third dimension.

Researchers led by Professor Reinhard Dörner of the Institute for Nuclear Physics at Goethe University have now determined the precise spatial structure of the “flat" formic acid molecule using an X-ray beam from the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source at the DESY accelerator center in Hamburg. They collaborated with colleagues from the universities of Kassel, Marburg and Nevada, the Fritz Haber Institute, and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

To do so, they made use of two effects that occur when X-ray radiation strikes a molecule. First, the radiation ejects several electrons from the molecule (photoelectric effect and Auger effect). As a result, the atoms become so highly charged that the molecule bursts apart in an explosion (Coulomb explosion). The scientists succeeded in measuring these processes sequentially, even though they take place within femtoseconds—millionths of a billionth of a second.

For this purpose, they used an apparatus invented at Goethe University and continuously refined since then: The COLTRIMS reaction microscope. Based on the measurement data, they were then able to calculate the original geometry of the formic acid molecule. The result: The two hydrogen atoms of formic acid oscillate slightly back and forth, meaning that the molecule is not flat.

Reinhard Dörner explains: “In the quantum world, atomic nuclei are not tiny spheres that remain fixed in place. They are more like vibrating clouds. Even if we cool a molecule down to absolute zero, this trembling – the so-called zero-point motion – never stops."

The consequence is radical: An atomic nucleus does not have an exact location, only a probability of being found in a particular place. In a sense, it is “a little bit everywhere". As a result, a formic acid molecule is effectively three-dimensional at almost every moment.

Dörner adds: “Through this tiny step into the third dimension, the molecule loses its symmetry and can no longer be superimposed onto its mirror image – similar to our left and right hands. Formic acid is chiral – it has a left-handed form half the time and a right-handed form the other half."

In chemistry, two such chiral forms – so-called enantiomers – can have completely different effects: While one form of a molecule may act as a medicine, its mirror image may be ineffective. Normally, this handedness arises from the fixed structure of a molecule.

Dörner concludes: “As we were able to show using the example of formic acid, quantum trembling alone can generate two different mirror-image realities from a symmetrical molecule. This means that handedness – an important property of life – does not arise here from the molecule's static blueprint, but solely from the incessant trembling in the quantum world. More generally, our findings with formic acid show that geometry is not a static property but a dynamic event, and that a flat molecule is in reality only the average value of its atoms trembling in all directions."

Publication: D. Tsitsonis, M. Kircher, N. M. Novikovskiy, F. Trinter, J. B. Williams, K. Fehre, L. Kaiser, S. Eckart, O. Kreuz, A. Senftleben, Ph. V. Demekhin, R. Berger, T. Jahnke, M. S. Schöffler, R. Dörner. Probing Instantaneous Single-Molecule Chirality in the Planar Ground State of Formic Acid. Physical Review Letters (2026) https://doi.org/10.1103/bvqj-pm3n

Picture download:
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/183287293

Captions:
(1) Trembling hydrogen: Even at absolute zero, the two hydrogen atoms H1 and H2 of formic acid vibrate and thereby protrude from the plane of carbon (C) and oxygen (O). Image: Institute for Nuclear Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt

(2) Like right and left hands: Quantum mechanical zero-point vibration—the “trembling" of the atoms—makes formic acid a chiral molecule whose two forms, like the right and left hand, cannot be superimposed. Image: Institute for Nuclear Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt

Contact:
Professor Reinhard Dörner
Institute for Nuclear Physics
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel: +49 (0)69 798-47003
doerner@atom.uni-frankfurt.de
http://www.atom.uni-frankfurt.de/

Bluesky: @goetheuni.bsky.social
Linkedin: @Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Feb 9 2026

15:26

Provenance research at Goethe University anticipates further extensive restitutions

University Library Transfers First Set of Nazi-Looted Books to Frankfurt’s Jewish Community

The Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library (UB) at Goethe University Frankfurt has been systematically reviewing its collections since 2020 to identify Nazi-looted property and return it to its rightful owners. The provenance research is supported by the German Lost Art Foundation. For the first time, volumes have now been restituted to the Jewish Community of Frankfurt, including books from the collection of one of the city's prominent Jewish families.

FRANKFURT. In numerical terms, it was a comparatively small restitution: five volumes were handed over within the premises of the University Library (UB). What made the occasion exceptional was that this marked the first time the UB returned books to Frankfurt's Jewish Community. Among them were volumes previously owned by individuals of central importance to the predecessor community. Julius Blau (*1861), an attorney and notary, served as chair of the Israelite Community from 1903 until his death in 1939 and was actively involved in numerous Jewish aid organizations. His term of office included milestones such as the construction of the Westend Synagogue (1910) and the Philanthropin – the city's historic Jewish school – on Hebelstraße (1908), but also the early years of the Nazi era. His son Ernst (*1892) worked as a librarian for the Israelite Community, emigrated to France in 1939, and died in 1941 at the Gurs concentration camp. Two additional books originated from the community library itself or from the “Tagesheim der erwerbslosen jüdischen Jugend" [Day Home for Unemployed Jewish Youth].

“Mr. Justizrat Dr. Blau with best regards from Vf" is handwritten in a publication about the “Frankfurter Sammelkatalog", bound together with other booklets in a single volume. Another booklet in the same volume bears a personalized bookplate identifying “Dr. Ernst Blau," Julius Blau's son, as the owner. A copy of Nahum Norbert Glatzer's “History of the Talmudic Era" is identifiable by a stamp from the Israelite Community, while the “General Encyclopedia" carries a stamp from the Day Home for Unemployed Jewish Youth. Such clear evidence of previous ownership is not always available to the UB's provenance research team. The exact route by which the books entered the library's collection can no longer be reconstructed. Based on cataloging data, however, it is clear that the volumes must have arrived before the end of the Nazi regime.

Although the restituted books are neither valuable nor rare editions, their return is nonetheless of great significance to Frankfurt's Jewish Community: “For us, this is a very important acknowledgment of the injustice inflicted on Jews in Frankfurt," says Rachel Heuberger, a member of the Jewish Community Frankfurt's five-person board and a former University Library employee, where she led the renowned Judaica collection until 2019. She welcomes the fact that, with funding from the German Lost Art Foundation, the UB is now able to systematically review its holdings. Julius and Ernst Blau are well-known figures within the community, and their memory is held in high regard. In 1936, the Israelite Community was designated as the Blau family's sole heir through an inheritance contract. In 1964, it received limited “compensation" for the family's losses, including payments related to the Jewish Property Tax, the Reich Flight Tax, and the Dego levy imposed at the time of Ernst Blau's emigration. The family home was burned down during the November Pogroms of 1938.

Before the Nazi era, the Israelite Community's library comprised 11,531 works in 14,085 volumes, as recorded by librarian Dr. Ernst Blau in 1932. These included the valuable book collection of the Marburg philosopher Hermann Cohen and, on loan, the collection of Frankfurt Orientalist Raphael Kirchheim. Like most Jewish property, the library was later confiscated by the Nazis. The recovered books are now being integrated into the Jewish Community's current collection. Given the scale of the losses, reconstruction of the original library is not possible, Heuberger explains. However, following the identification of additional suspected cases of Nazi-looted property, the University Library expects to carry out further restitutions. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us," says provenance researcher Darleen Pappelau.

Goethe University's Executive Board established the Forum for University History with the goal of bringing together and making accessible projects focused on exploring the history of the university and its collections. Provenance research at the UB is part of this growing network.

About the University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg (UB JCS)

The University Library Johann Christian Senckenberg is one of Germany's leading academic libraries, known for its extensive collections and resources. It serves multiple roles: as a university library with numerous state-level responsibilities, as a scientific library for the city of Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region, and as a specialized library contributing to nationwide literature and information services.

https://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/

Images for download: Link einsetzen

Captions:

Image 1: Following the handover of the books on the University Library's grounds in Bockenheim: Dr. Daniel Korn (Member of the Board, Jewish Community Frankfurt), Dr. Rachel Heuberger (Member of the Board, Jewish Community Frankfurt), Bernhard Wirth (Head of UB's Provenance Research Project), Daniel Dudde (Member of the Provenance Research Project), Darleen Pappelau (Member of the Provenance Research Project), Dr. Mathias Jehn (Head of UB's Curation, Specialized Information and Engagement Department). (Photo: Baunemann)

Image 2: The first five books returned by the University Library to Frankfurt's Jewish Community. (Photo: Baunemann)

Image 3: The volumes from the collection of librarian Dr. Ernst Blau are adorned with a beautiful bookplate. (Photo: Baunemann)

Image 4: Stamps indicate the Israelite Community or the Home for Unemployed Jewish Youth as the previous owners. (Photo: Baunemann)

Further Information
Dr. Mathias Jehn
Head of UB's Curation, Specialized Information and Engagement Department
Freimannplatz 1
60325 Frankfurt
Phone +49 (0)69 798-39007
E-Mail m.jehn@ub.uni-frankfurt.de

Dr. Anke Sauter, Science Communication, PR & Communications Office, Theodor-W.-Adorno-Platz 1, 60323 Frankfurt, Tel. +49 (0)69 798-13066, sauter@pvw.uni-frankfurt.de

Feb 6 2026

15:15

Frankfurt researchers discover an unusual metabolic pathway in the gut bacterium Blautia luti

Taxiing through the Gut: Formic Acid in the Microbiome

Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt have discovered a surprising role for formic acid in the human gut: The small molecule acts as a kind of “taxi" for electrons – both within bacteria and, likely, also between different microorganisms. The gut bacterium Blautia luti produces formic acid as part of a metabolic trick that allows it to respond flexibly to what is available in the gut. In addition to carbohydrates, the bacterium can also metabolize toxic carbon monoxide derived from the body's own hemoglobin degradation.

FRANKFURT. Among the many trillions of microorganisms in the human gut is Blautia luti. Like many gut bacteria, it metabolizes indigestible dietary components, such as fiber in the form of carbohydrates. This process produces, among other things, acetic acid (acetate), an important energy source for our intestinal cells and a signaling molecule that can even influence our well-being via the gut-brain axis.

Taxis for electron transport
B. luti lives in the gut without oxygen and cannot respire, but only ferment. During this process, carbohydrates are converted into lactate, succinate, ethanol, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen, which are excreted as metabolic end products. Too much hydrogen in the gut is unhealthy because it inhibits further fermentation. Therefore, small single-celled organisms known as archaea consume the hydrogen, convert it into methane, and thus regulate hydrogen levels in the gut. Hydrogen thus acts, so to speak, as an electron taxi within a bacterium and between different bacteria. However, this process involves a substantial loss of energy and is therefore disadvantageous for the bacteria.

B. luti has an additional, better option. Raphael Trischler and Prof. Volker Müller, Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics at Goethe University Frankfurt, found that B. luti produces formic acid (formate) instead of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen, with hydrogen bound to CO₂. In this case, formic acid is the electron taxi, allowing the energetically costly production of hydrogen to be bypassed.

Formic acid as an electron store
To produce formic acid, B. luti uses the enzyme pyruvate formate lyase. This enzyme is rather unusual in acetogenic bacteria. “The electrons are essentially stored in the formic acid," explains Trischler. However, formic acid is also unhealthy at high concentrations.

B. luti detoxifies formic acid together with CO₂ via a special metabolic pathway, the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (WLP), converting it into acetate. In the WLP, CO₂ is transformed via two different “branches" and ultimately assembled into acetic acid. In the first branch, CO₂ is normally converted into formic acid by a specific enzyme – formate dehydrogenase – using hydrogen. “But B. luti completely lacks formate dehydrogenase," explains Raphael Trischler, who studied the bacterium for his doctoral thesis. Instead, B. luti uses formic acid directly. Sugar breakdown on one side and acetic acid production on the other are thus linked via formic acid – a clever strategy that gives the bacterium an energetic advantage.

Useful side effects
In the laboratory culture studied, B. luti excretes formic acid. In the complex food web of the gut, however, the situation is different, and formic acid does not accumulate there. Methane-producing archaea can convert formic acid into methane, but B. luti has another trick up its sleeve. Reducing formic acid in the WLP requires electrons that originate from carbohydrate fermentation. But B. luti can also use gases produced by other bacteria for this purpose. “In the presence of hydrogen, the formic acid disappears completely," reports Trischler.

Particularly remarkable is B. luti's ability to utilize carbon monoxide. This highly toxic gas is produced in the human body during the natural breakdown of hemoglobin, the red blood pigment. “Bacteria like B. luti can thus detoxify carbon monoxide produced by the body itself using formic acid," explains Müller. This also explains why so many gut microbes possess the enzyme carbon monoxide dehydrogenase.

B. luti has yet another property beneficial to humans: In addition to acetate, it produces succinate (succinic acid). Succinate promotes the growth of other beneficial gut bacteria, stimulates the immune system, and is also an industrially valuable raw material for biotechnological applications.

The study highlights how diverse metabolic strategies in the gut are. “Even within related groups of bacteria, there are fascinating differences," says Müller. “Understanding this helps us better decipher the interactions between different gut bacteria and their role in human well-being."

Publication: Raphael Trischler, Volker Müller: Formate as electron carrier in the gut acetogen Blautia luti: a model for electron transfer in the gut microbiome. Gut Microbes (2026) https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2025.2609406

Picture download:
https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/183002483

Caption:
1) Interspecies formate transfer. Formate is produced by various bacteria and taken up by B. luti, which converts it into acetate. B. luti can also produce formate itself. Image: Raphael Trischler, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/AI

2) In the lab: Raphael Trischler (seated) and Volker Müller in the laboratory at an anaerobic chamber. The chamber contains no oxygen but nitrogen, allowing oxygen-sensitive bacteria such as B. luti to be handled safely. Photo: Jennifer Roth, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

3) Formate as a taxi for electrons. Top: During interspecies formate transfer, B. luti consumes carbohydrates and produces short-chain fatty acids such as lactate, acetate, or succinate, but also formate. The short-chain fatty acids are then absorbed by the intestine. Formate is absorbed by other intestinal microbes and converted into short-chain fatty acids and methane (not shown). Below: During intraspecies formate transfer, B. luti metabolizes the formate with carbon monoxide (CO) or hydrogen (not shown) to produce short-chain fatty acids such as acetate. Short-chain fatty acids contribute to intestinal health. Image: Volker Müller, Goethe-University Frankfurt

Contact:
Professor Volker Müller
Molecular Microbiology and Bioenergetics
Institute for Molecular Biosciences
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel: +49 (0)69 798-29507
vmueller@bio.uni-frankfurt.de
https://www.mikrobiologie-frankfurt.de/
http://acinetobacter.de