Honorary Doctor and Professor of the Faculty of Humanities since 21 October 2011.
Bernd Neumann studied for his degree in Education between 1963 and 1966 in Bremen, where he was as a teacher for five years. He was elected as a member of the Bremen State Assembly in 1971, as of 1973 he became the chairman of the CDU Group. Between 1979 and 2008 he held the position as the chairman of the CDU for the City-State of Bremen. Since 1987 he has been the member of the Bundestag.
Since November 2005 Bernd Neumann has been the Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery and Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs. He is entirely committed to the development of German-Hungarian cultural, scientific, artistic relations. He played a very important role in the establishment of the Foundation Department of German History and Culture in South-East-Central Europe in February 2007. The Department has been delivering successful work for the last nearly 5 years on the field of science, education and public life. A decision of the Minister, the Department was supported by almost 100 million HUF for the first five years.
The Foundation Department of German History and Culture in South-East-Central Europe has been contributing directly and indirectly to developing the international relations of the University's Faculty of Humanities. As a result, the Faculty is cooperating with many great institutions, such as the Institute for German Culture and History in Southeast Europe (Munich), the Federal Institute for German Culture and History in Eastern Europe (Oldenburg), the Herder Institute, the Regensburg Southeast Institute (Marburg), the Institute for the History and Regional Studies of Danube Swabians (Tübingen), and the scientific cultural institutions of surrounding countries (Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia).
These successful co-operations could not have been realized with the support and the personal commitment of Bernd Neumann, whose Doctor et Professor Honoris Causa title is raising the reputation and the academic prestige of the University of Pécs.