Obituary for Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fürst

Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fürst †

Prof. Dr. Dietrich Fürst died in Hanover on 11 June 2024 at the age of 84.

Dietrich Fürst was born on March 2, 1940 in Zwickau, Saxony. After graduating from high school in Kiel, he studied economics at the Universities of Kiel (1960-61) and Cologne (1961-64). From 1965-1967 he was an assistant at the Municipal Research Center (today: difu) Berlin and then from 1967-74 assistant to Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinrich Hansmeyer at the Department of Public Finance and the Institute of Public Finance at the University of Cologne. In 1968 he obtained his doctorate there with the topic "The equalization function of the district levy", in 1974 he habilitated there with the topic "Municipal decision-making processes. A contribution to the selectivity of political-administrative processes".

In 1974, his academic career took him to the Department of Political and Administrative Sciences at the University of Konstanz as a substitute for Prof. Dr. Fritz W. Scharpf, and in 1975 he was appointed to a C3 professorship there. In 1981, he was appointed C4 Professor of Regional Planning and Spatial Research at the Institute of the same name in the Department of Regional Planning at the University of Hanover (now part of the Institute of Environmental Planning in the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover). He held this position until he retired at the beginning of 2004. He continued to be highly active scientifically for more than 10 years, as evidenced by numerous publications.

Prof. Dr. Fürst was appointed Corresponding Member of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) in 1981 and Full Member in 1990. He was one of the most committed members of the ARL and played an active and in some cases leading role in well over 20 working committees, particularly on regional planning issues. He has been involved in several editorial committees for basic works on spatial planning and spatial development. His lectures have influenced many ARL events.

In the mid-1990s, he was on leave for a year and conducted research as a fellow at the Institute for Work and Technology in Gelsenkirchen. In Lower Saxony, he was primarily involved in the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft zum Studium Niedersachsens (WIG) as a member of the board and, in particular, for its journal Neues Archiv für Niedersachsen (New Archive for Lower Saxony) as the long-standing head of the editorial team. He was also very active in the Hanover Competence Center for Space and Region, an institution that mediates between science and practice.

Prof. Dr. Fürst took advantage of the opportunities for collaboration at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Development at the University of Hanover to conduct leading research in Germany on the organization of environmental administrations and the ecological orientation of spatial planning. Later, he also conducted studies on the transferability of concepts and approaches from the Anglo-American world (such as mediation, regional management, regional cooperation, coordination and leadership, place-making, regional and local governance, strategic planning, planning cultures) to German planning, in particular regional planning. At an early stage, he also dealt with the (tense) relationship between spatial planning and spatial development, which gains its attractiveness not least through the allocation of funding. In terms of methodology, Fürst and his colleagues perfected the structured interview in research projects, where it was important to ask the relevant actors the key questions in a targeted manner ex-post. Fürst always remained an economist and political and administrative scientist and was an interested observer of the planning community. Above all, he has rendered outstanding services to the transparency and comprehensibility of planning decisions and actions, particularly at the regional planning level.

In addition to his core subject of regional planning, Prof. Dr. Fürst taught students of regional planning/landscape and open space planning and geography, in particular planning theory and methodology as well as the basics of administrative science at a high level, with many of them realizing how valuable and practical this was for their understanding and advancement after entering professional life in the administration or in contact with the administration. It is no coincidence that a whole series of alumni from his years at the University of Hanover are still shaping the practice of landscape planning and spatial planning in Lower Saxony today. After a series of short assignments for the GTZ, he introduced the subject of planning in developing countries.

Prof. Dr. Fürst was a formative personality for planning science research in German-speaking countries for many decades. His words attracted a great deal of attention not only in academic discussions, but also in planning practice - far beyond his time at the university. Last but not least, he was instrumental in raising Hannover's profile as a location for planning science research and teaching.