The vote will be on whether the name "German Chemical Society" should be replaced by the name "German Society for Chemistry". A change in the association's name requires a change to the statutes (see below). The GDCh Board has therefore decided to hold the vote.
No. In July 2024, we asked you for your opinion on a possible renaming of our German Chemical Society to the "German Society for Chemistry". However, this was not an official vote, but merely a survey of the mood among our members.
Almost 8,100 people (27% of all members) took part in the survey in July within a few days. More than 68% of the participating members voted for a name change.
As expected, the proportion of women who voted for a name change was even higher than that of men, at 83%, but still a remarkable 63%. And we saw something else:
The assumption that younger people would favor a new name has not been confirmed. In all age groups, broken down into five-year cohorts, the approval rating was between 60% and 72%, with no correlation with age. We see this vote and the high level of participation in the survey as a clear mandate to pursue this topic further.
We are repeatedly asked that the name German Chemical Society no longer corresponds to the reality in three respects.
Firstly, we not only have male members, but now also about a third of our members are female. When the GDCh was founded in 1949, the few female chemists who existed at the time hardly played a role in the GDCh. That is different today.
We are increasingly being asked at Conferences or other events or on social media that our name does not include everyone. This criticism often comes from people who are involved in our society or would like to be involved. Our honorary members have also made suggestions to reorient themselves in line with the times. These are all serious voices that we do not want to ignore. Many of our members value diversity and language that includes all genders.
Secondly, the GDCh is not just made up of German chemists. Our members come from all regions of the world and we are proud of this because this diversity enriches our society.
Thirdly, not all of our members have studied chemistry. In addition to chemical laboratory technicians, chemical technical assistants and members from the physics, biology and engineering professions, we are open to all other professions - everyone who is committed to our statutes is welcome.
All of the points mentioned in the last question would be reflected in the name German Chemical Society: a chemical society based in Germany that is internationally and interdisciplinary active through its multinational and interdisciplinary membership.
And – this was also important to many members who participated in the survey – this name is inclusive, it excludes no one, but includes everyone who wants to be part of it.
The survey from July showed that tradition is important to many members; after all, we have been the German Chemical Society since 1949. There is no doubt that the GDCh has done well with the name for 75 years and has thus established a tradition.
However, we see that this name no longer fits our modern society. We also assume, of course, that the GDCh will continue to exist for many decades, so that a new name would at some point be just as rich in tradition.
The “ GDCh ” as the established short version of our association name will remain.
Many members who are critical of a new name have noted that the proposed new name is not consistent with the abbreviation “GD-Ch”. We understand this objection.
However, we think that this disappointment is bearable when we see that other professional societies have long been doing this (such as the Austrian Chemical Society, which continues to abbreviate itself as “GÖCh”, after its former name “Society of Austrian Chemists”).
DECHEMA is also now called "Society for Chemical Engineering and biotechnology e. V." and no longer "German Society for Chemical Apparatus Engineering", as it was when it was founded in 1926. Only "CHEM" remains in accordance with the long name. However, no one has ever been bothered by the fact that "DE" and "A" no longer apply and that neither "T" nor "B" have been included in the acronym.
We are also increasingly appearing internationally as the German Chemical Society, GDCh. And perhaps the coincidental congruence of "German" and "G" is advantageous here. And in the final analysis, we are and will remain, at home and abroad, and among members and non-members, simply the GDCh.
Many survey participants who are open to a name change have suggested that the name Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft (DChG) should be used again. This would be obvious, but not wise for the following reason:
The name German Chemical Society is associated with a predecessor organization of the GDCh of the same name, in whose (name) tradition one does not want to place oneself lightly - especially after coming to terms with the behavior of the DChG during the years of National Socialism in Germany.
The GDCh commissioned a study on this in the early 2010s. It was published in 2015 as a 700-page book entitled "Chemists in the Third Reich". The interview with the historian and author of the study, Helmut Maier, can be found here: The title "Historians must evaluate and so must the GDCh" sets a good example: We cannot use the DChG as a model for the GDCh. By using this name, we would have to repeatedly draw distinctions from the earlier DChG. We should avoid doing this.
This is what some participants asked in the survey. Others see the initiative as a concession to the "gender debate" or to what they consider to be an undesirable or fleeting zeitgeist. In addition to a general rejection of any change, in some cases this feedback may also reflect the fear that the GDCh could neglect other activities and projects because of the debate on the name change.
We expressly assure you that this is not and will not be the case. We - the members of the board and the employees in the GDCh Office - are constantly dealing with numerous important tasks and challenges of our professional society and the many facets of chemistry in Germany. For this, you have expressed your trust in the elected Board and given it the mandate, which is why we do not ask you to vote on all activities.
The topic at hand here is just one of many – but its implementation requires a change to the statutes. And for this purpose, the GDCh statutes provide for a vote among the membership, in accordance with good association law.
We also believe that the fact that more than 8,000 members took part in the survey within a few days (see above) clearly shows that the name of our company is important to many of you. We have therefore decided to hold this vote on the name of our company now.
We are aware that there are many women who can live well with the "generic masculine" and therefore feel addressed by the current name of our society. But we want to show respect to all members - and there are enough of them for whom this no longer applies in our day and age.
We would also like to take this opportunity to point out our young members, who decided by vote a few months ago that “JCF” should no longer stand for “JungChemikerForum” but for “JungesChemieForum”.
A change to the statutes is approved if at least three quarters of the incoming responses agree with the proposal ( GDCh statutes §20, paragraph 3 ). The hurdles for a name change are therefore high.
Important: The decision on a change to the statutes is made by all of our members. Neither the Executive Committee, nor the Board , nor the office can initiate a change to the statutes without the consent of 75% of the participating members.
We, the Board of the GDCh, would therefore like to promote this and ask you to support us in giving ourselves a new, contemporary and future-oriented name that better suits our current society and our guiding principles.
At its last meeting on December 3, the GDCh Board decided to conduct the survey on the amendment to the statutes between February 10 and 22, 2025. The proposal to amend the statutes will be announced to all members in good time. Most of our members will receive the survey by email. Please make sure that you have provided us with a valid email address and that emails from the GDCh do not get lost in the spam folder. Members without an email address will receive the voting documents by post.
All current information can be found here on these pages ( www.gdch.de/Satzung2025)
The result of the survey on the amendment to the statutes will be communicated to the Board at its meeting in March 2025 and published afterwards. The result will be announced on this page and in the usual GDCh media (Nachrichten aus der Chemie, homepage www.gdch.de, GDCh newsletter, GDCh app, and social media).
Please contact the GDCh public relations (pr@gdch.de)
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Application for Statute Amendment 2025
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last modified: 31.12.2024 11:34 H from K.J.Schmitz
