The Günter-Thiele-Award for Excellent Doctoral & Postdoctoral Theses
Wishing to stimulate the academic discussion of Public Relations and Communication Management in Europe, the University of Leipzig’s Foundation for the Support of PR-Studies (SPRL) in cooperation with EUPRERA awards a prize for excellent doctoral and post-doctoral theses. The award honours academic excellence in the fields of Public Relations and Communication Management. It bears the name of SPRL’s foremost initiator, Dr. h.c. Günter F. Thiele. The prize will be announced and awarded every two years by an academic board consisting of leading PR-scholars and representatives of the foundation and EUPRERA. It is valued at EUR 2,500. For further information and deadlines for submission, check www.sprl.de

The Award’s Founder: Günter F. Thiele
Dr. h.c. Günter F. Thiele (*1937) was born in Bitterfeld, Sachsen-Anhalt, Eastern Germany. After an apprenticeship as an assistant smelter in Bitterfeld’s Elektrochemisches Kombinat, he studied German literature at the Martin Luther-University in Halle and Media & Communication Sciences at Leipzig University. 1958 he began to work as an editorial assistant of Radio GDR in Leipzig, but moved to Western Germany in 1959. Here he began a career in the Internal Communication of Henkel. After leaving Henkel, he worked as a copy-writer at the advertising agency Eggert. 1968 he acquired the small PR firm ABC, Düsseldorf, and within 20 years turned it into the biggest consultancy in Germany: 175 employees, bureaus in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich. From 1987-1991 he acted as president of the German Association of Public Relations Consultancies (GPRA). Günter Thiele is the initiator and one of the co-founders of the Foundation for the Support of PR Science at the University of Leipzig (SPRL). In 2002, he received the honorary doctorate of the University of Leipzig.