The 2015 Kurt Dörr Prize was awarded during the Department of Economics’ graduation ceremony on November 14 at the Electoral Palace in Mainz. Presenting the award during the graduation ceremony has become a tradition—but this year saw an important change: The Kurt Dörr Prize for outstanding commitment to the Department of Economics was awarded for the first time under the association’s new name—Alumnity.
In keeping with the spirit of alumni engagement, the corresponding dedication was also honored. The topic of “alumni work” is on everyone’s lips these days. For “Alumnity” and its predecessor associations, this has not been the case only recently—quite the contrary. As early as 1987, Prof. Dr. Ute Diehl and Prof. Dr. Jörg Mehlhorn asked themselves: “Where do our graduates actually end up?” The answer to this question formed the basis for the founding of “Marketing Forum Mainz e.V.,” one of the precursors to our current association, “Alumnity.”
Professors Diehl and Mehlhorn maintained contact with their graduates through the association at that time, organizing field trips, lectures, and gatherings even long after the graduates had completed their degrees. Even today, Alumnity has many members who originally joined the Marketing Forum. For this pioneering role and their extraordinary commitment to maintaining contact with graduates, Prof. Dr. Ute Diehl and Prof. Dr. Jörg Mehlhorn were awarded the Kurt Dörr Prize this year.
