Prof Dr Bernhard Köppen new president of the German Association for Demography

Köppen succeeds Prof Dr Norbert F. Schneider, former Director of the Federal Institute for Population Research and now Senior President of the DGD. Schneider had been a member of the society's Board of Directors for nine years as President and Vice President.

The handover of office to Köppen, a population geographer from the University of Koblenz, took place during the DGD annual conference on the key topic of "Demography and official statistics - prospects and potential for cooperation" at the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden.

Dr Jonas Birke, post-doctoral researcher in the Koblenz Geography division, will be the DGD's managing director in future. Birke takes over the position from Dr Frank Siwaczny (Federal Institute for Population Research).

The German Association for Demography is a politically independent association of academics and persons and institutions with a scientific interest or activity in the field of demography or related disciplines.

The DGD was created in June 2001 through the merger of the German Society for Demography, founded in Hamburg in 1952, and the Johann-Peter-Süßmilch Society for Demography, founded in 1990 on the initiative of demographers from the former GDR.

The German Association for Demography sees itself as a platform for the discussion of current, theoretical and methodological issues in the demographic sciences. It promotes the advancement of knowledge in questions of theoretical and problem-oriented demography and deals with methods and results of demography and population sciences, population statistics and relevant research in the participating disciplines in order to promote understanding of demographic research in the general public. To this end, it organises annual meetings, other scientific conferences, courses, lectures and promotes publications.