Anyone who grew up with German television knows it: Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Show with the Mouse). And with it, Christoph (Biemann), the man in the green sweater, who has been explaining how things work to children in the "Sachgeschichten" (fact stories) since the early 1980s. Last Thursday, on October 3rd, the time had finally come. The Maus (Mouse) and Christoph actually visited the MPQ. There was a reason for this, as on the Day of German Unity, it is traditionally the Maus-Türöffner-Tag (Mouse Door Opener as Day), where all educational institutions across Germany can participate and develop a children's program to inform the little ones about their activities.
The MPQ also had its open house as well the entire Garching research campus, with all its institutions, invited interested families and children to come and marvel. The Maus was able to see everything that the MPQ had to offer this day. From the live reading of the latest episode of the radio play Alice im Quantenland (Alice in Quantumland), to workshops and rooms full of experimental stations where many exciting experiments could be tried out as well as lab tours and lectures where both young and old gained insights into the work of the researchers.
And why did the Maus and Christoph come specifically to the MPQ among all the activities across Germany? It might also be related to the fact that exactly one year ago, on the last Maus-Türöffner-Tag, one of the three Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Ferenc Krausz, was announced here. In this sense, Ferenc also succeeded in enthusing the Maus and enticing it to his workplace.
Pictures: Silke Stähler-Schöpf
