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The research department mourns the death of the founder of the Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Prof. Dr Dieter Bökemann

Dieter Bökemann

Prof. Dr Dieter Bökemann was born in Siegen, Westphalia, in 1936 and graduated in civil engineering from the TH Karlsruhe. Dieter Bökemann's great interest in the then young discipline of regional science, in which he then wrote his dissertation and habilitation, was already awakened there. In 1971, he was one of the first professors to be appointed to the newly founded degree programme "Spatial Planning and Regional Development" and was appointed Director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Research, which he led with prudence and collegiality until his retirement in 2004. Here are just a few of his many and varied achievements during this period:
 

  • Dieter Bökemann recognised the importance of IT technologies and mathematical-statistical methods for spatial planning and regional analysis at an early stage. In the 1980s, he therefore organised the installation of his own IT system at the institute.
  • Numerous publications in national and international media, including his magnum opus "Theory of Spatial Planning".
  • Membership of many scientific associations and societies. He was also Vice President of the "European Forum Alpbach" and co-founded the "Austrian Society for Spatial Planning", which is still active today.
  • Dieter Bökemann was also heavily involved in university self-administration. From 1989-1991 he was Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Spatial Planning.


Our sympathy goes out to his wife Regine, his children and grandchildren.