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Lothar Wieler: He has headed the RKI since March 2015
Photo: Jens Schicke / IMAGO
The President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, will resign at his own request on April 1st.
The institute announced this in a press release.
Wieler will devote himself to new tasks in research and teaching, it says.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach agreed with the step.
Wieler has headed the RKI since March 2015.
Especially with the corona pandemic, which also arrived in Germany almost three years ago, he became one of the most important advisors to politicians on health issues.
Wieler's deputy, Lars Schaade, is now to head the RKI for a transitional period.
»During the pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute has proven its excellence.
It was a privilege to be able to work in an exposed position together with a motivated team of excellent experts during this crisis," said Wieler.
He thanks his employees, they have done the country a great service.
»Prof.
As President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar H. Wieler has rendered lasting and outstanding services to the country in overcoming the pandemic," said Minister of Health Lauterbach, according to the RKI announcement about Wieler's resignation.
Germany would have come through the pandemic worse without Wieler.
"I regret all the more that he will leave the RKI," Lauterbach continued.
Wieler's resignation was by mutual agreement.
At the end of 2021, Wieler gave one of his few interviews to SPIEGEL.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the RKI provided daily information about the corona situation in Germany.
Again and again there was criticism of Wieler and the work of the RKI, especially from the FDP.
In the summer, deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki complained about "data chaos" at the RKI and called for Wieler to be fired.
Lauterbach rejected this on the grounds that the RKI had "always provided good data".
In the meantime, the relationship between Wieler and Lauterbach was also considered to be cracked.
For example, discord caused that the RKI published a report on its website about a year ago that advocated “maximum contact restrictions”.
Exactly at the time, Lauterbach had presented its own measures at the federal-state level.
Surprised and annoyed by the RKI report, Lauterbach confronted Wieler and made it clear to him that something like this should never happen again.
In addition, the RKI's decision to reduce the convalescent status from six to three months caught Lauterbach cold.
Since then there has been speculation that Wieler could lose his position.
Now he has apparently laid it down voluntarily.
Future plans still unknown
Already at the beginning of the pandemic, in January 2020, when there were only the first reports of a strange lung disease in China, which later turned out to be Covid-19, Wieler wrote in a guest comment for "Die Welt": "We have to be prepared, arm ourselves – against known and against new pathogens from the animal kingdom.«
Details of Wieler's future plans were not given.
Before moving to the head of the RKI in 2015, the veterinarian was Professor of Microbiology and Animal Diseases at Freie Universität Berlin.
Wieler comes from Königswinter in the Rhineland, lives with his wife in Berlin, is the father of two adult daughters and is a member of the Bundesliga soccer club 1. FC Köln.
koe/dpa