1963

Contacts with politicians

Together with von Baeyer and his Heidelberg colleague Prof Dr Dr Karl Peter Kisker, Häfner presents plans for psychiatric reform in Germany and for a model institute to the Federal Minister of Health, Dr Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt. The Minister shows interest and suggests further elaboration of the plans for the institute. With regard to funding, she refers the matter to the state of Baden-Württemberg. However, the state's Minister of Education rejects direct funding from the state. Häfner and his fellow campaigners are advised to found an association in order to create a legal institution as a basis for action. The founders of the German Cancer Research Centre, which opened in Heidelberg in October 1964, had also chosen this path.