It was quick to focus on information technology, and today is a leader in interdisciplinary fields such as business informatics, law informatics, bio-informatics and computer linguistics. Top-ranking institutions associated with the university – such as the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Max Planck Institute of Computer Science and the International Conference and Research Centre for Computer Science (IBFI) Schloss Dagstuhl – strengthen the status of this business location. As a result of business start-ups, an IT cluster has formed that also enjoys an excellent reputation internationally.

Only recently, Professor Wolfgang Wahlster of the Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence was appointed to the Royal Swedish Academy. In future, he will be deciding on the candidates for the Nobel Prize. What is more, Wahlster is just one of many Saarlanders who are known well beyond the borders of the state. They also include Klaus Töpfer, Director of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi, Peter Scholl-Latour, the most famous German foreign correspondent, and Frank Farian, the music producer who had huge hits with Boney M. Currently, however, the most famous Saarlander in Germany is Peter Hartz. A member of the Volkswagen board, he “fathered” the labour market reform that bears his name.