On Saturday, September 20, 2025, Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin bid farewell to Prof. Dr. Heidi Höppner in the Audimax on her well-deserved retirement. On this day, colleagues, companions, students and cooperation partners honored her impressive commitment to interprofessional healthcare, her innovative strength in teaching and research and her formative role at ASH Berlin.
Pioneer and shaper
Heidi Höppner was appointed the first female professor of physiotherapy in Germany in 2002. After ten years at Kiel UAS, she moved to ASH Berlin in 2012 - attracted by the SAGE profile and the combination of social, health and educational sciences in the physiotherapy/occupational therapy degree program. Since 2022, she has held the professorship for Interprofessional Healthcare and System Design and headed the online course Interprofessional Healthcare - online (IGo), which she played a key role in shaping.
As a bridge-builder between the professions, she never saw cooperation as an optional extra, but rather as a structural principle. In teaching, projects and university development, Heidi Höppner opened up spaces in which healthcare, social and educational professions could learn, research and design together - resulting in teams that share responsibility and consistently put patients at the center. Networking was more than just a tool for her: it was an attitude. She connected students, colleagues and practice partners across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, creating a lively exchange system of cooperation that enables innovation and develops impact. Where routines had become rigid, she brought movement - with smart questions, clear positions and a willingness to try out new things. Whether digital teaching, interprofessional curricula or transferable theses: Many of the things that seem self-evident today, she initiated early on and consistently pushed forward. As an educator and mentor, she provided guidance, encouragement and professional acuity to generations of students and young academics; she demanded - and encouraged - critical thinking, the assumption of responsibility and the joy of learning together. At the same time, she was an advocate for systemic change: for patient-centered, networked and sustainable care, for clear framework conditions, fair cooperation and the clever use of digital possibilities - always with the aim of improving care.
"For me, interdisciplinarity in higher education is an essential key to change," she emphasized several times. In her work, she combined scientific excellence with a clear social mission: to make healthcare patient-centered, networked and sustainable.
The "Interprofessional Healthcare - online"(IGo) course was a project close to her heart, as it enables experienced students to continue their academic development - including online. She supervised innovative theses, the quality of which has already won several awards, and motivated students to contribute their expertise to practice and politics.
A program full of appreciation
The farewell ceremony began at 3 p.m. with a musical prelude by Prof. Dr. Elke Kraus and words of welcome from the Dean's Office and Executive Board. Prof. Dr. Bettina Völter paid tribute to Heidi Höppner with the following words: "It is appropriate to describe you as a nationally and internationally networked pioneer of the academization of the therapy and healthcare professions. You urge that the academization of physiotherapy and occupational therapy, as well as the academization of other therapy and healthcare professions, becomes a full academization. This should not stop at the bachelor's degree, but go all the way to a doctorate and professorship. You are just as committed to research on your own behalf by researchers with relevant professional qualifications as you are to the qualification of women from non-academic educational backgrounds up to the level of doctorate and professorship."
Prof. Dr. Michael Erhart emphasized: "You have shaped this degree course like no other".
This was followed by Prof. Dr. Heidi Höppner's own contribution "The art of leaving" - a personal retrospective and at the same time a look ahead. She said: "Nothing was given to me - and yet, it was a gift ... to go new ways with you".
At 3:45 p.m., Dr. Beat Sottas spoke about the prospects and challenges of healthcare provision in his lecture "Thinking ahead for healthcare professions and nursing (at the end of history)". "What always irritates me is that the healthcare professions see everything to do with the market as a disruption," said Beat Sottas.
After a break with refreshments at 16:15, the commemorative publication was presented - a collection of voices from science, practice and teaching that pay tribute to Höppner's work.
From 5:10 p.m., companions and students recalled joint projects, successes and special moments from research, teaching and university development in personal contributions. Brigitte Heine-Goldammer: "I am sure that your creativity and inspiration will not give you free time."
The closing ceremony at around 6 p.m. brought thanks, applause and the prospect that Höppner will remain connected to interprofessional collaboration even in retirement.
The university says thank you
Her work has left its mark on minds, projects and relationships - in degree programs and curricula, in networks with practice and politics, in the attitude of entire teams towards interprofessional collaboration. It can be seen in excellent theses, new formats of teaching and learning and in a culture that promotes courage, clarity and responsibility. For this we say: Thank you. We look back with great appreciation on what we have achieved and at the same time look forward - to further encounters, ideas and impulses that enrich our joint work. Even in retirement, the connection to Heidi Höppner will remain as an inspiring voice and reliable partner for strong interprofessional healthcare.
