// Contents 14 // Fashion 14 I 15 F R M 0 1 | 2 0 l e y t S S K D / k c o t s r e t t u h s © FASHION À LA FRM The Fashion Week is moving from Berlin to Frankfurt and has major as- pirations. What does the creative scene expect? BY KATHRIN ROSENDORFF (TEXT) > The news that Frankfurt is now to become a fashion city, too, took more than a few by surprise. Fashion designer Wolfgang Joop was one of the fi rst to comment when the announcement was made that the Fashion Week was relocating from Berlin to Frankfurt: “Perhaps Frankfurt really does have something pragmatic to go for it. It’s a business and banking city like Milan.” It was Messe Frankfurt, the trade-fair operating company, that landed the coup; it’s the world’s largest trade-fair, conference and event organizer, and has its own trade-fair complex – along with Berlin’s Premium Group, which organizes Europe’s largest fashion fair. e kick-off is scheduled for summer 2021, when more than 2,000 designers, brands and fashion companies will fl ock to Frankfurt. 20 // Technology ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN BE HELPFUL ANYWHERE Professor Kristian Kersting of TU Darmstadt was the fi rst ever winner of the German AI Award. He knows what artifi cial intelligence is good for. BY MARTIN ORTH (INTERVIEW) AND JONAS RATERMANN (PHOTOS) winner of the German AI Award. Were you surprised? > Professor Kersting, last year you became the fi rst ever Most defi nitely! At the time I was still commuting between Bonn and Darmstadt and was pretty blown away on the day I got the call from Chris Boos. He is considered a pioneer of AI and was the chair- man of the jury; I’d actually met him briefly once. He asked me if I was aware of the award. I said I had heard of it and asked who had rithms. You can imagine it like a recipe for a dish. We describe step by step what the computer needs to do to learn from its own expe- riences or those of others. On your website it says that you want to reach the point where computers can learn as fast and fl exibly as humans. How close are you to that goal? won it. He said: “Well, you!” I could hardly believe my ears. May people imagine an artifi cial human being, but we are miles or What was the award for? even centuries away from that. At the moment we’re talking about specifi c isolated skills. Take the chess computer or Computer Go, for Here, we are pursuing a vision. We are working on making AI sys- example. If I were to say to one of them: ‘Bake me a pizza’, then I tems more similar to human beings. Humans are easily able to ge- wouldn’t get anything out of it. Nevertheless, we are slowly starting neralize with just a few examples, for example to distinguish bet- to combine individual isolated skills with one another. ween dogs and cats, so machine learning also has to be achieved with limited data. at’s part of what we call the third wave of AI. What defi nes the strength of Darmstadt? You head up the Artifi cial Intelligence and Machine Learning Lab have been almost a dozen professors and a notable exchange at the TU Darmstadt. What exactly do you do there? with the cognitive sciences, the twin discipline of AI. The co- Machine learning is all about developing computer programs that gnitive sciences use information-theory approaches to descri- imitate learning is one way or another. To do so, we write algo- be the behavior of human beings and thus to understand them. Darmstadt invested in AI early on. In the meantime, there 20 21 F R M 0 1 I 2 0 FASHION How Frankfurt’s looking forward to the Fashion Week ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Why Darmstadt leads nationwide 26 // Lifestyle ORGANIC FARMING THRIVES IN FRM FrankfurtRhineMain is fast becoming an organic produce hub – and everyone’s getting involved. A trip to places where the world is still grand. BY ROBERT MAUS (TEXT) AND JONAS RATERMANN (PHOTOS) 26 27 F R M 0 1 I 2 0 32 // Life Sciences WHEN WILL THE VACCINE BE READY? The Paul Ehrlich Institute in Langen decides whether a corona vaccine goes on clinical trial and whether it is subsequently appro- ved. Director Klaus Cichutek explains where things are heading. INTERVIEW: MARTIN ORTH 32 33 F R M 0 1 I 2 0 t u t i t s n I - h c i l r h E - l u a P © > Professor Cichutek, how would you describe the role of the Paul Ehrlich Institute during the corona crisis? Th e Paul Ehrlich Institute is the German Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines. We actively contribute to combat- ting the worldwide corona pandemic. In the case of vaccines, we focus on making sure vaccine products are safe and sufficiently effective. To this end, we are busy intensively advising national and international vaccine developers on the clinical trials, the necessary non-clinical tests, and also the development path through to approval. We authorize the clinical trials in Germany for vaccines and biomedicines, and together with the experts from the other national medicine approval authorities in Europe the production of the vaccine is assured, that extensive non-cli- nical studies have been carried out on the vaccine’s safety and to demonstrate it triggers a specifi c immune response, and that du- ring the clinical trials its safety as a medicine and effectiveness will be shown. us, at least 3,000 persons must take part in the Phase 3 trials, preferably more, in order to determine the side ef- fects of 1 to 1,000 vaccinations or more with due certainty. In April, you authorized the clinical trial of a potential Covid vaccine made by Mainz-based biotechnology company BioNTech. It involves so-called RNA vaccines. What is special about them? at the European Medicines Agency we evaluate the applications BioNTech was the fi rst applicant in Germany and at that point in for approval as soon as these are received. Approval itself is gran- time the third or fourth worldwide. e special thing about RNA ted by the European Commission. The development of a vaccine seems to be very time-intensive and complex. Why is that so? vaccines is that they can be developed far more swiftly than the established inactive vaccines. ere is no need for the complex culture of the virus, such as is required, for example, for infl uen- za vaccines, which is something that has to take place under Vaccines are administered to millions of primarily healthy per- next-level safety conditions. According to the manufacturer, sons, among them children and young people, for the purposes within the short space of a few weeks many millions of vaccine of preventing an illness. e benefi ts of the vaccines must there- doses can be produced. Even if, to date, there are no RNA-based fore clearly outweigh the risks. is is the reason why, prior to human vaccines that have been approved, there is already data approval of a clinical trial, there must be proof that the quality of from clinical trials with RNA tumor vaccines. LIFESTYLE How FRM is fast becoming an organic farming hub CORONA Why FRM is playing a central role in combatting corona 03 Editorial 04 Contents/Imprint 06 Locals > Who’s the talk of FRM 14 Fashion MARBURG GIESSEN LIMBURG BAD HOMBURG > How the Fashion Week is being welcomed FRANKFURT HANAU 20 Technology > Where Artificial Intelligence really helps 24 Technology > What Software AG is planning 26 Lifestyle > How FRM is fast becoming an organic farming hub 32 Life Sciences > When will there be a corona vaccine 36 Life Sciences > How the corona network functions 40 Future > What does the future hold in store 44 Destinations > How FRM resembles the world 50 Looking forward/back > What’s special about apple wine WIESBADEN MAINZ OFFENBACH ASCHAFFENBURG DARMSTADT HEPPENHEIM Back to nature: The cover photo shows a horse rider at Domäne Mechtildshausen – see also pp. 26-31. IMPRINT Publisher FRM – The magazine on the FrankfurtRhineMain metropolitan region is published by FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH International Marketing of the Region in cooperation with FAZIT Communication GmbH, Frankfurt am Main. For FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH: Eric Menges, President and CEO Publishing house FAZIT Communication GmbH, tel.: +49-69-75 91-3101, Managing Director: Hannes Ludwig Address of the publishing house and editors Frankenallee 71–81, 60327 Frank- furt/Main, Germany, which is also the legal address for all responsible persons and representatives stated in the imprint. Editor Martin Orth (responsible) Art director Stefanie Schwary Production Anabell Krebs Distribution Jadwiga Jaenicke, tel. +49-69-75 91-3011, fax +49-69-75 01-4361 Notes Articles by named contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial desk. Reprints only with the publisher’s authorisation. Printed in Germany, Copyright © by FAZIT Communication GmbH 2020. The magazine’s paper is eco-friendly. It has been produced with chlorine-free bleached pulp. Cover photo Jonas Ratermann Ad photo on the back Holger Peters 04 05 F R M 0 1 I 2 0 FThe magazine on the FrankfurtRhineMain metropolitan regionISSUE 2020ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Why Darmstadt leads the way FASHION How Frankfurt looks forward to the Fashion Week LIFESTYLE How FRM is fast becoming an organic farming hub DESTI-NATIONS Where FRM resembles key international places FUTUREWhat an Offenbach forecaster predicts LOCALS Who is the talk of the town in FRM CORONA Why FRM plays a central role in combatting the pandemicTimes of changeThe latest trends in FrankfurtRhineMain>English Edition