Rüdiger G. Klimecki †
11. February 2009
With the death of Prof. Rüdiger Klimecki, the University of Konstanz has lost an outstanding university colleague. For twenty years, Klimecki was Professor of Management in the Department of Politics and Management at the university. He was elected several times to serve as dean and spokesperson for the department. In 1993, he received the State Educator’s Award from the Ministry of Science and Art (in Baden-Württemberg). From 1996 to 1998, he served as Vice-Rector for Instruction at the university. Since 2003, he had directed the university’s Academy for Scientific Training (AWW). He also served as a guest professor at the universities of Shanghai and Kiev, and in the years 2002 to 2005, as chairman of the Academic Commission on Human Resources in the Association of Professors of Business Administration (VHB).
The business economist Rüdiger Klimecki began his career in industry. After graduating high school, he completed an apprenticeship at Deutsche BP AG before going on to study economics at the University of Essen where he received his doctorate in 1981. From 1984 to 1986, Klimecki was a postdoctoral fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation. He received his habilitation in 1986 in the field of business administration at the University of St. Gallen. There he was a lecturer in and research director of the Institute for Leadership and Human Resources. In 1989, he was appointed to a professorship in Konstanz.
Rüdiger Klimecki had a central impact on the profile of his department as one of the leading social scientific research and training sites in Germany, with its combination of political and management science. He understood how to build bridges, linking practical teaching in the field of management to inquiry in political science. Klimecki was involved in the Center of Excellence "Cultural Foundations of Integration,” with his research project on the management of multicultural organizations in the context of United Nations’ peace operations. As a teacher, Klimecki helped produce a generation of students whose first-class education in management in Konstanz led to outstanding career opportunities not only in public administration but also in business consulting and the personnel and organization departments of large companies.
Rüdiger Klimecki was highly respected as a colleague and professor. In his department, he leaves behind a painful hole, and not just in his field of expertise. Having a personality marked by wisdom and warm cordiality, Klimecki made a decisive contribution to collegiality and balancing the interests of faculty members in his department and beyond.