German pharmaceutical and science giant Bayer inaugurated a new advanced laboratory wing on the Jewish campus in Berlin in a ceremony attended by the company’s chief executive, senior healthcare executives, and Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, the rabbi of Berlin’s Jewish community and founder of the campus. Bayer employs about 116,000 people worldwide and funded the new science center, which is intended to give young people and students a high-level place to study science and technology.
The main issue behind the project was its name. Because of Bayer’s difficult wartime history, including cooperation with the Nazi regime during World War II, company leaders and Jewish community officials agreed the facility would not bear Bayer’s name. Instead, it was named the Finkelstein Wing, after Dr. Hans Finkelstein, a Jewish German chemist and scientist who worked for the company before the war and made important scientific breakthroughs.
Teichtal and the company say the naming is meant to restore historical justice and honor Jewish scientists whose achievements were erased under Nazi rule. At the opening, Bayer’s chief executive and other executives joined Teichtal and the Berlin rabbi in cutting the ribbon and placing the official commemorative plaque.
Teichtal said, “This partnership proves that history cannot be changed, but it can and should be used to build a better future.” He said the labs are equipped with modern study tools that allow students to do practical research at a very high level. Teichtal added that the center’s purpose is to strengthen Jewish education in Germany while combining it with uncompromising academic and professional excellence, and to attract students because of the quality of the education, not out of fear of rising antisemitism in Europe.
