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Academies of sciences and humanities are fellowships of
scholars, elected for
distinction and achievement in their disciplines. Thus, an academy is a
scholarly
society that provides its members with opportunities for regular
interdisciplinary
discussion of their research findings. Commemorating the 250th
anniversary of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the
former
President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Johannes Rau, used the
following
words to describe the significance of academies in today’s academe: “No
other institution lets scientific dialogue take centre stage as much as
the academies
do. Nor is any other institution as firmly rooted in scientific
tradition as
they are. In my view, this is more important than ever. After all,
science can
only withstand the increasing pressure from society and the economy and
even
transform it into positive energy if it maintains places of refuge for
itself which
are at a safe distance from day-to-day business.” Taking this quotation
a bit
further, academies may be characterised as places where science is the
only
thing to be considered. They are the places where science can take
shape
and find its own identity – both of which are prerequisites of a
fruitful dialogue
between science and society. Furthermore,
the German academies of science and humanities are non-university
research organisations, and provide funding for long-term basic
research
projects. Thanks to their organisational structure they are able to
carry
out large-scale research projects processing huge amounts of data at
competitive
costs while meeting high scientific standards. This proves the
“Academies’
Programme”: coordinated by its umbrella organisation, the “Union of the
German Academies of Sciences and Humanities”, the German academies of
sciences and humanities run one of the Federal Republic of Germany’s
most
significant and comprehensive research programmes in the humanities.
Even
in an international context, the Academies’ Programme is quite unique.
The
great academies of other nations have projects of their own as well,
many of
them carried out in cooperation with German projects. What is absent,
however,
is a similar programme of research cooperation. The latter is a
peculiarity
of the German tradition, as Professor Volker Gerhardt, the chairman of
the Union’s
Scientific Commission, points out. Moreover,
the German academies of science and humanities are guardians of
classical education. They organise scientific conferences and public
lectures
series, and also promote the emergence of new talent in science and the
humanities.
To honour outstanding research achievements they award prizes and
medals.
When did Academies of Sciences and Humanities Come into Existence?
The name “Academy” goes back to Plato’s school of philosophy and learning
(approximately 385 BC). After the revival of the academic idea in Renaissance
Italy, academies in the modern sense of the word began to emerge in the latter
half of the 17th century. As scholars increasingly distanced themselves from
theology and public law, turning towards the experimental natural sciences,
and developing a historico-philological criticism of sources, those in power
took a growing interest in the small independent learned societies of those
days.
This resulted in the foundation of academies which were granted substantial
privileges by the rulers and, in some cases, even governed by them. Germany
saw the foundation of the world’s first academy of natural and medical
sciences, the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1652. The
Royal Society of London was established in 1660, the Paris “Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres” in 1663, and the “Académie des
Sciences” in 1666. Finally, in 1700 Leibniz succeeded in establishing a single
academy covering all disciplines, the “Society of Sciences of the Elector of
Brandenburg” in Berlin, which later became the Royal Academy of Prussia.
The Brandenburg Society has remained the model for the German academies
of sciences and humanities until today. Eighteenth-century Europe was characterized by a rapidly growing academy
movement. Persons of learning wanted to “understand” the world rather than
simply believing and accepting what they were told, they craved a supranational
and interdenominational “république des sciences” transgressing social
borders – and found it in the academies and societies of sciences and humanities.
As a result of the history of the German Reich and of the country’s federal structure,
Germany has never had a national academy. Here the principle of territoriality
was adhered to instead, and gained even further weight after the Second
World War, when it was decided that educational and cultural matters were to
be the responsibility of Germany’s federal states.
The eight academies forming the
Union
are the following:
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1992/1700), seat:
Berlin
and
Potsdam
Göttingen
Academy
of Sciences and Humanities (1751)
Bavarian
Academy
of Sciences and Humanities (1759), seat:
Munich
Saxonian
Academy
of Sciences and Humanities in
Leipzig
(1846)
Heidelberg
Academy
of Sciences and Humanities (1909)
Academy
of
Sciences
and Literature,
Mainz
(1949)
North
Rhine-Westphalian
Academy
of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts
(1970), seat: Düsseldorf
Academy of Sciences and Humanities in
Hamburg
(2004)
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