 It is the Dutch equivalent of the widely known annual Hettner lectures at the University of Heidelberg.After his death, Humboldt's friends and colleagues created the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ("Stiftung" in German) to continue his generous support of young academics.Although the original endowment was lost in the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, and again as a result of World War II, the Foundation has been re-endowed by the German government to award young academics and distinguished senior academics from abroad.