German Federal President Horst Köhler Visits DESY

From left: First Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust, Federal President Horst Köhler, DESY Director Professor Albrecht Wagner, Professor Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association.

On the first stop of his Hamburg visit, German Federal President Horst Köhler came to DESY this morning, where he took a tour of the FLASH experimental hall and tunnel in the company of his wife, Eva Luise Köhler, and the First Mayor of the City of Hamburg, Ole von Beust. “With his visit, Federal President Köhler acknowledges a worldwide unique pioneering facility that has been available in Hamburg for researchers from various natural sciences for over a year. FLASH not only plays a pioneering role for the superconducting accelerator technology. With regard to the research opportunities at the planned European X-ray laser XFEL, FLASH also lays the foundation for completely new insights into the structure and dynamics of the nanoworld,” said DESY Director Professor Albrecht Wagner, who welcomed the Federal President in the FLASH experimental hall together with Professor Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association, and other members of the DESY Board of Directors.