Top German geoscientist fired after police raid, faces allegations of financial crimes
Reinhard Hüttl had risen to the very top of German science. The soil scientist was head of the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), where he commanded a staff of more than 1200 and a €95 million budget. He was vice president of acatech, Germany’s engineering-focused national academy, and vice president of the nation’s most prestigious state academy, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). His advice even reached Chancellor Angela Merkel—for example as a government adviser with the Council on Bioeconomy.
That world has come crashing down. Last month, police raided
Hüttl’s homes and offices in Berlin and Potsdam on suspicion of fraud, breach
of trust, and illegal acceptance of benefits by a public official—offenses that
can be punished with fines or prison sentences. On 26 January, the GFZ board
dismissed him, saying it “no longer sees any basis for a trustworthy
cooperation.” The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which
finances the bulk of the GFZ budget, terminated his contract the same day.
Hüttl denies the allegations and has said he would sue BMBF
for unlawful dismissal, although labor courts in Berlin and Potsdam said on 16
February that no lawsuits have been filed. Meanwhile, the high-profile case is
turning heads in science policy circles across the nation. “Science is damaged
severely if it is perceived to be led by interests and to be corrupt,” says
Klaus Gärditz, who specializes in science law at the University of Bonn.
The case is also raising questions about whether Germany’s
many science academies have adequate policies for avoiding conflicts of
interest and disclosing financial ties. In German science, the boundaries of
what is acceptable are not clear, says Peter Weingart, a sociologist of science
at Bielefeld University and long-term BBAW colleague of Hüttl’s. “The idea that
members would declare conflicts of interest didn’t occur to us.” (Weingart adds
that he believes the accusations against Hüttl—who stepped back from his BBAW vice
presidency on 1 February—are unfounded.)
Hüttl’s troubles began in October 2020, when GFZ revealed in
a statement that an anonymous whistleblower had alleged that Hüttl had violated
financial compliance rules. He was relieved from his duties “until further
notice,” and was banned from entering GFZ premises and using its resources. The
center turned the case over to the Brandenburg state public prosecutor office
responsible for fighting corruption, which says it is also investigating two
other suspects. Hüttl, however, is the prime suspect.
The prosecutor’s office has not yet decided whether to
charge Hüttl, and declined to provide specific information about the case. But
according to information in a search warrant, first reported in the German
newspaper Welt am Sonntag and reviewed by Science, the possible crimes are
diverse. Hüttl is alleged to have billed private trips and meals to GFZ,
acatech, and the Centre for Energy Technology Brandenburg (CEBra), a research
institute affiliated with the Brandenburg University of Technology
Cottbus-Senftenberg, where Hüttl held a professorship. In a statement to
Science, Hüttl says he doesn’t currently have access to seized documents, but
that he’ll prove those allegations wrong.
The search warrant also alleges that Hüttl illegally
accepted options on shares and reimbursements from Novihum Technologies, a
German company seeking to make rich soil from brown coal, in return for help
securing grant money for the company. The accusations are unfounded, Hüttl
says.
A third set of allegations relates to two organizations
linked to China’s state-owned electrical grid, the Global Energy
Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) and the
Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute (GEIRI), which both lobby for
a green worldwide supergrid. The warrant alleges that GEIDCO or GEIRI paid for
a private tourist trip to China for Hüttl, and paid $50,000 to CEBra annually
since 2018, in return for Hüttl’s influence and contacts. Science has seen a
document Hüttl apparently sent to GEIDCO that lists 41 activities in 2019 as
“contribution to GEIDCO,” including meetings with China’s ambassador to
Germany, members of BMBF, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
In 2018, GEIDCO head Liu Zhenya, who was head of the state
grid company for many years, was elected as a member of acatech. Hüttl and
acatech didn’t respond to questions about who nominated Liu to the academy.
Hüttl denies working for GEIDCO or GEIRI, and says the
payments to CEBra were for a science project that will eventually publish
results. “I did not draw benefits,” he says. GEIDCO, GEIRI, and the state grid
company did not reply to email inquiries. Acatech, CEBra, and Novihum declined
to answer questions, referring to the ongoing investigation.
Public officials like Hüttl are allowed to do paid work on
the side, but need permission from the institution where they are employed.
Hüttl says GFZ was aware of his “diverse activities” and approved of them. But
a BMBF spokesperson says it had no knowledge of Hüttl’s activities for GEIDCO.
Hüttl did not provide a list of his side jobs in response to a request from
Science, even though he has publicly stressed the importance of transparency in
the past. “Politics and the public expect—and can expect—freedom of thought, a
high degree of interconnectedness, and transparency from us,” Hüttl said at a
2010 event with Merkel.
Following Hüttl’s resignation, BBAW says it will soon ask
members a set of questions, modeled on U.S. national academy rules, to identify
potential conflicts of interest. “I think that the model of self-reporting,
used up to now, does not meet the standard anymore,” says BBAW President
Christoph Markschies, who took office with Hüttl in October 2020.
The affair may also lead to more scrutiny of conflicts
relating to China. Recently, the United States has cracked down on foreign
influence in science, even arresting researchers who failed to disclose funding
from China. But European nations have largely ignored the issue. Sebastian
Heilmann, a political scientist at the University of Trier, says European
organizations should toughen up conditions for grants from countries like
China, for example by requiring disclosure and setting clear rules for
interactions. And research managers from publicly funded institutes shouldn’t
consult for Chinese state-owned organizations, says Asena Baykal, of the Global
Public Policy Institute in Berlin, who studies cooperation with nondemocracies.
In the wake of the allegations, Hüttl has abandoned other
positions. Acatech suspended him on his request, and he gave up his
chairmanship of the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences,
Technologies and Engineering. But Hüttl remains on the supervisory board of the
car manufacturer BMW. Earlier this month, he got a new job: leading EUREF
Energy Innovation, a company developing hydrogen energy. On 3 February, the CEO
of its parent company, real estate developer EUREF AG, put out a statement
saying he was proud to have attracted a “renowned, excellent and active
scientist.”
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