 Steinberg was blamed for favouring the legal and the economics department over sociology and the humanities, while a so-called cluster of excellence co-funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft on "The formation of normative orders" ("Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen") was created, comprising also philosophers and social scientists.With nine years in the office, none of Steinberg's predecessors served a longer term than he did.He announced that he will step back as university president on the day after his 65th birthday for the end of 2008.