The former rector of the RUB and former president of the German Red Cross, Prof. Dr. Knut Ipsen passed away. The RUB mourns the loss of its extremely prominent advocate of peace law. With his time in office totaling ten years - from 1979 to 1989 - Ipsen is the longest serving rector in the history of the RUB.

"With Knut Ipsen, we are losing an outstanding personality from our ranks," says Rector Prof. Dr. Martin Paul. “He achieved a great deal here, not only through his formative tenure, but also in particular through the founding of the internationally renowned Institute for Peacekeeping Law and International Humanitarian Law. He was a stroke of luck for the RUB – a scientific and university political doer.”

Predestined for managerial tasks

The long list of honors and offices shows: Knut Ipsen was not only an outstanding scientist, but also a prominent public figure at home and abroad. His commitment and in-depth knowledge of international humanitarian law and peacekeeping law predestined him for managerial positions at the university as well as in politics and society. Among other things, Ipsen received honorary doctorates in Kraków, Sheffield, Wroclaw and Frankfurt/Oder. He was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, a member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy and the Commission “Common Security and Future of the Bundeswehr” at the Federal Ministry of Defence. From 1994 to 2003 he was President of the German Red Cross. In addition to scientific honorary marks, he often received high civic recognition for his services, such as the Ring of Honor of the City of Bochum or the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Bio
Knut Ipsen was born on June 9, 1935 in Hamburg. Between 1959 and 1962 he studied law at the University of Kiel. From 1964 to 1967 he completed his legal clerkship in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1967 he received his doctorate in Kiel. After deputizing for a chair in Kiel, he took over the chair for public law (international law) at the RUB in the summer semester of 1974. Two years later he became a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Development Research and Development Policy at RUB. From 1977 to 1979 Ipsen was vice rector for teaching, and in the following ten years he was rector in charge of the RUB. 

At the same time, he became a member of various scientific and socio-political institutions, for example the Mediation Committee of the German Development Service, the German Red Cross, the Association of German Scientists and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Even after his time as rector of the RUB, Ipsen remained involved in university politics. In 1988 he founded the Institute for Peacekeeping Law and International Humanitarian Law at the RUB and was a member of the directorates of the Institute for Mining and Energy Law and the Institute for Research on Germany. From 1991 to 1993 he was founding rector of the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder. In July 2000 he became emeritus. 

Knut Ipsen had been married since 1963 and had two children.