Horst Böttger In Memoriam

Memories of friends and colleagues who worked with him at different times

Horst Böttger, President of the EMS 2014 to 2017, passed away on 9 May 2026 in Frechen near Cologne, where he spent the last year of his life, close to the family of his son. Horst has been a central actor in the still formative years of the EMS in the late noughties and early 2010s.

At leaving ECMWF to retire, then-President Dave Burridge convinced Horst that he was the right person to establish an EMS Committee on Meetings (the idiosyncratic name being a legally of Horst) as a strategic body to ensure that the central activity of the organisation is developed successfully into the future. Under Horst’s clear-sighted stewardship the committee has focussed on highly relevant strategic questions while at the same time making sure that the organisation of the meetings each year were properly taken care of: selecting conference venues, establishing the  programme structure, proposing key themes.
Sylvain Joffre, Finland, who became Horst’s successor as chair of the Committee on Meetings remembers Horst as “such a nice, friendly, expert and collected person. It has been a privilege and learning experience to be in the Committee on Meetings under his leadership and as CoM Chairman under his EMS Presidency. Apart from his decisive role and contribution to the success of the ECMWF, CoM got structured and started functioning with clear transparent and energising driving procedures under his time as Chairman. My dear Horst: Rest in peace! “

In 2014 Horst became the President of the EMS, and he took on this responsibility with a clear view of what are the most relevant activities to be developed for the organisation to become established as a relevant actor in the meteorological community in Europe – despite already being under the spell of his wife being seriously ill. Tanja Cegnar, Slovenia, Chair of the EMS Committee on Media and Communication under his leadership pays tribute to him “as a very kind and dedicated person, strongly committed to the community and to the development of the EMS. His vision and efforts have left a lasting legacy that will continue to guide us.”

Heinke Schlünzen (Germany), Treasurer of the EMS from 2015 to 2024 says of Horst: “When I joined the EMS Executive Board as a representative of the DMG in 2011, Horst had already been there for a long time. As Head of the CoM, he knew everything about the conference and gently taught me, a complete novice, the most important things. Working with him was straightforward; it was easy to communicate and exchange ideas with him. Unfortunately, all his plans for life after work were shattered when his wife unexpectedly fell seriously ill. I would have very much liked him to have had a few more carefree years, and for us to have met at many more EMS annual conferences.”
The former director of the Austrian Weather and Geophysical Service, Fritz Neuwirth, remembers him: “Horst was a quiet man, but certainly full of humour and an exceptionally kind person.”

Martina Junge, who worked closely with him both during his time as Chairman of the Committee on Meetings and subsequently as President, found him to be extremely focused in his work and in his goals, and held him in high regard; at the same time, she found working with him to be a thoroughly pleasant experience, as his approachable manner was simply engaging, both in professional collaboration and in personal interactions. Few people possess this combination of skills and qualities.

Horst Böttger was born in Berlin in 1946, and studied Meteorology at the Free University of Berlin, where he continued to work partly as analytical meteorologist in the Institute’s real-time weather service, which was responsible for all forecasts for the media, warnings for the fire service, etc., for the West Berlin area.
In the early 1979, he moved to the ECMWF, where he worked until his retirement.

Throughout his working life and in his voluntary work, he was deeply committed to meteorology and made a lasting impression on those who knew him.
Florence Rabier, France, Director General ECMWF, 2016-2025, remembers him as „a very bright and kind person, who was definitely missed when he left ECMWF. People who worked directly for him had a huge respect and admiration for his capacity to handle both human and technical issues.”

Petra Grasse, who got to know him early on and worked at the Meteorological Institute of the Free University of Berlin until her retirement, puts it this way: “When I started at the institute as a 16-year-old in 1973,  part of his work consisted of that of an analytical meteorologist; we sometimes worked the night shift of the Wirtschaftswetterdienst together. Mainly, he was a a research assistant in the group of Prof. Klaus Frädrich – who was also his PhD  supervisor – working alongside two female meteorological technicians. Whenever he was on duty, the meteorologists’ room was always full of fun. He also supported his colleagues at the weather service by doing two or three night shifts a month. With his open and down-to-earth manner, I didn’t find him all that unapproachable, which is why I thought he was quite remarkable – somehow more of a ‘peer’. I always liked his dry sense of humour.
He encouraged me to learn coding back then, which I went on to do. That helped me a great deal personally and was absolutely the right move career-wise.  I still think back on that today and I’m grateful to him for that ‘nudge’ he gave me back then.”