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Germans Visit State for Biotech: Group Wants to Learn From Wisconsin's Success

Posted on: Thursday, 6 April 2006, 03:03 CDT

By John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Apr. 6--In the three decades since Wisconsin signed a sister-state agreement with Hessen, a prosperous state in western Germany, the partnership has yielded scores of literary and academic exchanges.

When Wisconsin pioneered American welfare reform in the 1990s, German politicians bent on making changes to the European entitlement system made repeated trips to Dairyland. The Hessen Club sprung up in Germantown to preserve Hessian food, dance and culture.

As the alliance celebrates its 30-year anniversary this week, however, it can point to a far more strategic reason to invigorate the old trans-Atlantic ties: biotechnology.

A 15-member delegation from Hessen, intent on emulating Wisconsin's success as an international bioscience center, arrived Wednesday in Wisconsin and plans to spend today touring Madison's booming University Research Park.

On Friday, the delegation is to meet Milwaukee business leaders before heading to Chicago to participate in the life sciences' leading trade show, BIO 2006, jointly planning several events with representatives from Madison. Lavish lunches and receptions are planned.

The visit illustrates how other nations have come to envy Madison's role in a research-intensive 21st-century growth industry.

"The Hessens want to look at what Wisconsin's doing and what can they learn," said Stefan Hauke, a business consultant who moved to Milwaukee from Frankfurt several years ago. He is helping to organize the delegation.

Back home in Germany, the trip is being taken seriously, at least the mainstream German media. The nation's largest newspaper, the Bild Zeitung, known for aggressive political coverage and splashy cheesecake photographs, is sending a reporter with the delegation.

Alois Rhiel, the Hessen state minister of economics and transportation, is leading the delegation. Joining him are parliamentarians from each of the four parties represented in the Hessen statehouse. Business leaders include the chief executive of Genius Biotechnologie GmbH, a Darmstadt group that consults on biotechnology, agriculture and food safety.

The partnership, signed in September 1976, seems prescient in light of Hessen's evolution the past 30 years.

Frankfurt, Hessen's biggest city, has grown into the dominant financial metropolis of continental Europe. It's home to the European Central Bank, which controls Europe's 12-nation common currency, the euro.

Frankfurt is also a hub of international business, hosting 700 American companies, more than any other city on the European continent, including Manpower, Johnson Controls, Harley-Davidson and Briggs & Stratton.

And yet, for all the strengths of Germany's economy -- which is respected for its well-engineered sedans and machinery -- biotechnology is not among them.

Frankfurt slowly is building a fledging biotech center. The Frankfurt Biotech Innovation Center, barely 2 years old, has 13 start-ups. The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, contrast, hosts 110 companies and employs more than 5,300 people.

Starting in 1999, Hessen's politicians began visiting Madison with biotech in mind.

And when Gov. Jim Doyle visited Germany last year, he signed a research agreement between University Research Park and Frankfurt's biotech incubator.

After the Madison visits today, the group plans a reception Friday at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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