"WE NEED EVEN MORE COURAGEOUS PIONEERS TO MASTER THE CHALLENGES OF THE MILLENNIUM" / DEUTSCHER UMWELTPREIS AWARDED FOR THE ELEVENTH TIME - PRESENTED BY FEDERAL PRESIDENT RAU TODAY

Osnabrueck, Germany (ots) - Europe's best-endowed environmental award, the Deutscher Umweltpreis, worth EUR 500,000, was awarded for the eleventh time today. Federal President Johannes Rau presented it to the Head of the Biomechanics Department at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Professor Dr. Claus Mattheck (55), and to the Founder and Manager of HJS Fahrzeugtechnik, Hermann Josef Schulte (56, Menden). He underlined, that environmental protection had to remain a permanent topic also on the political agenda: "We believed too long that there is a contrast between ecology and economy, but environmental protection creates jobs and does not destroy them." With the award, the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) appreciates the pioneering achievement of Professor Mattheck, who nationally and internationally translated the language of nature into technical products and committed himself to the tree protection. The entrepreneur Schulte is awarded for the research and development of non-polluting exhaust technologies in vehicle construction, specifically for the development of a particle filter for diesel engines. (A detailed article in English can be found on www.dbu.de )