The German Geo Societies: Out of the Comfort Zone?

Dear members,

we would like to inform you about discussions concerning the future of the German Geological Societies and thus also the DMG. In short, the question is whether the geo-specialist societies want to come closer together in light of the ever-growing challenges in integrated research and society-relevant solutions of our time.

In September 2021, the presidents and one additional member each from the German Mineralogical Society, the German Geological Society - Geological Association, the German Geophysical Society, and the Palaeontological Society (the four sponsoring societies of DVGeo), the president of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources BGR, as well as one representative each from the Senckenberg Society and the GFZ Potsdam, met for a workshop titled "The Future of the Geoscientific Societies in Germany" in Karlsruhe. The aim of the workshop was to address the question of whether the organization of solid earth sciences with their associations still meets the demands of today's time. What are these requirements for the DMG?

The disciplines of the DMG have always been at the center of the most exciting fundamental topics in geo- and material sciences: for example, how materials determine the inner dynamics of our planet, how the formation of magmas in the Earth's mantle drives the differentiation of the planet and causes volcanoes to grow, how chemical weathering regulates the Earth's climate over millions of years, how minerals and microbes have co-evolved throughout Earth's history, or how the crystal structure of carbonate minerals controls the shell structure of marine organisms. Beyond Earth, highly advanced miniaturized analytical instruments search for the foundations of life and little green men on Mars and comets, and they reconstruct the detailed chronology and mechanisms of planetary accretion. However, these major questions can rarely be addressed by a single discipline alone: Dynamics and material flows of the Earth's mantle are a topic of mineralogy and geophysics, co-evolution of minerals and life a topic of mineralogy and paleontology, chemical weathering a topic of hydrogeology, geomorphology, geochemistry, and near-surface geophysics, and the Earth's climate development a topic of geology, geochemistry, and paleontology. For the compartments of the Earth are interconnected within a common system. In Mars exploration, all disciplines have long been working together anyway.

Today, however, humans have pushed numerous elements of the Earth's system, such as the climate system, biodiversity, ocean pH levels, the availability of clean drinking water, and the sustainable use of geo-resources, to a limit beyond which the stability of a planet habitable for humans can no longer be guaranteed. These challenges are being recognized by an increasing number of people in society. This also includes the development of a final repository for high-level radioactive waste. The problem analysis as well as the proposed solutions are clearly central geoscientific topics.

Although a young generation sees and engages with these problems out of concern for their future, the number of students in the geosciences is not increasing. The potential and already exercised role of the geosciences is hardly recognized by society.

We have therefore come to the conclusion that the historically rooted fragmentation of the geosciences and their associations no longer allows us to fulfilll our responsibility in addressing the complex scientific and societal challenges. How can we increase our societal relevance and strengthen our ability to contribute to solving global problems?



In the workshop in Karlsruhe and subsequent discussions, we carefully considered whether we, the geoscientific associations in Germany, need to jointly pursue this goal. Is it time for the umbrella organization of the geosciences, DVGeo, to take the next step toward deeper integration? This could mean that in the future we will jointly handle our administrative and organizational tasks while preserving the identity of the associations within DVGeo. This will achieve visibility thru the necessary size to build a joint professional organizational structure. We want to improve perception and influence in science, politics, and the public sphere.

Of course, the potential implementation of this measure carries risks that will concern some of you. The main risk we see in leaving our club's "comfort zone" is the loss of our clubs' identity, the marginalization of their disciplines, and the potential loss of financial autonomy. We take these concerns seriously and have therefore given deep thot to a common association structure that, on the one hand, significantly reduces the administrative burden for our members and, on the other hand, preserves the structures and names of the existing associations and their sections at the second level of the integrated society. Thus, our sections and working groups such as Crystallography, Archaeometry, or Petrology would remain active as before, while others, such as Raw Material Research, might come together with Geology and Geophysics in a larger framework.

We orient ourselves by role models: The German Physical Society DPG is an organization with over 50,000 members. The fundamentally different fields such as "Cosmos and Matter" on one hand and "Environmental Physics" on the other are independently active in sections and interdisciplinary working groups. The Society of German Chemists GDCh "unites people connected to the chemical and molecular sciences," and it has 30,000 members. A look at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) is also worthwhile. 18,000 members are united under a common organizational structure. The 22 "Scientific Divisions" have their own topics, their own meetings, their own awards, and mostly their own journals (at Copernicus).

We see enormous opportunities thru this potential development: the wide range of specialized expertise that we unite under our roofs can be much better introduced to a larger geoscientific community. Especially for the high methodological competence of the DMG disciplines, from their complex physical devices to material characterization using Computational Mineralogy, there would be an opportunity to apply this internally to solve major research questions and externally to serve the pressing societal issues of today. This would give mineralogical expertise far greater visibility than is currently possible within the existing structure. Above all, the integrated structure would represent the "Geosciences" degree programs much better than the individual associations, and would gain attractiveness among students and doctoral candidates.

We hope that you share our concern for the further development of DVGeo under the pressure of today's times to meet our responsibilities, even if you are critical of a possible unification under one roof in some respects.

In the coming months, we would like to discuss these concepts with you. The opportunity for this was provided in April 2022 for the extended board at a DMG workshop: "Future of Mineralogy" in Bad Honnef (results were not yet available at the time of going to press), will be available at the next general meeting in Cologne, or you can write us an email.



Best regards, Your

Friedhelm von Blanckenburg (Chairman) and Horst Marschall (Deputy Chairman)