All areas of high technology in our modern society are built on physics. A deep understanding of natural physical processes together with the pursuit of knowledge form the basis for numerous applications: Computers, satellites, GPS navigation, lasers, modern imaging in medicine and the Internet are a direct result of basic research in physics. Physics provides and develops answers to many challenges we face in the present and the future, such as climate, environment and energy and also to fundamental topics, such as the origin of the universe or the wondrous world of quanta.