VLB General Assembly extends Administrative Board

摘要

(oh) The assembly, chaired by VLB President ULrich Rust, began by honoring the memory of Prof. Dr. Ulf Stahl and Prof. Dr. Reinhold SchiLd-bach. Both of whom were closely associated with VLB Berlin for decades and passed away a short time ago. Next, the VLB Managing Directors Dr. Josef Fontaine and Gerhard Andreas Schreiber gave their reports on the concluded 2018 financial year, which was influenced by major challenges. Sales revenues from analytics, merchandise sales, events and membership fees were slightly positive. However, with the first full year in the new building, the real operating costs could be determined for the first time. Due to the extensive building services the operating costs were higher than expected. Another negative influence was also the protracted formation of the German government after the Bundestag election in September 2017, which dragged on for several months up until 2018. For this reason, research funds previously applied for and already approved could only be accessed with a substantial delay. This leads to reductions of more than € 600k in 2018. A further reduction in revenues was caused by the decline in extraordinary income in the form of cash and in-kind donations. Due to the slow elimination of construction defects and open disputes, the new VLB building commissioned in 2017 could not be finally accounted for in 2018. Overall, the VLB therefore concluded the financial year 2018 with a substantial loss.