Wulff Plinke was awarded the Humboldt-Universit?ts-Medaille on 12 December 2018 as part of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics' 25th anniversary celebrations following its re-founding in 1993. Sabine Kunst, President of Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin (HU), emphasised his long-standing commitment to Berlin as a centre of knowledge, and in particular to the HU and the Faculty of Business and Economics. Wulff Plinke made a very special contribution to the rebuilding of the HU's tradition-steeped Faculty of Business and Economics after reunification and made a lasting contribution to restoring and continuously strengthening the faculty's national and international visibility and acceptance in research and teaching, both among the academic and non-academic public.
Wulff Plinke was appointed to the HU in 1993; between 1993 and 1996 he was the first Dean of the Faculty of Economics after its re-establishment. Thanks to his indispensable commitment, the Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (WWG) was founded at the HU in 1995, in which he was involved as deputy chairman of the board for 14 years. Together with a group of internationally operating companies, he founded the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin in 2002 and headed it as Founding Dean until his retirement in 2011. Today, Wulff Plinke is Chairman of the Board of the Society of Friends and Sponsors of ESMT. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities of Berlin and Brandenburg and the German Academy of Science and Engineering acatech.