Over the course of its eventful history, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities has gone by a variety of names. In 1992, it was reconstituted in the tradition of the Prussian Academy of Sciences through a state treaty between the federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Its headquarters are located at Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. The Academy, whose history goes back to the Kurfürstlich Brandenburgische Sozietät der Wissenschaften (Society of Sciences of the Elector of Brandenburg), founded by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz under Elector Frederick III in 1700, has been shaped by 78 nobel prize laureates. From its earliest days, it sought to unite the humanities and the natural sciences, and thus became of model for all academies founded in the more recent past. Its past members include the Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, Lise Meitner, Theodor Mommsen, Albert Einstein, and Max Planck. With approximately 200 elected fellows, all of whom are outstanding representatives of their respective disciplines, the Academy is an association of scholars across disciplinary and state boundaries. With a staff of about 250, it is also the largest non-university research institution with a humanities profile in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. The Academy is dedicated to promoting the liberal arts and sciences, with a research profile built around projects on reconstructing cultural heritage. Its projects include compiling large dictionaries, editing texts and sources from ancient, medieval, and modern history, editing the classic works of scholars from a diverse range of academic fields, as well as preparing documentations. In interdisciplinary projects – an innovative approach among German academies – Academy members work together with external experts and junior researchers to address issues relevant to the future of our society. To pool the existing skills and resources in these research projects, the Academy established three centres dedicated to “Basic Research in Ancient History”, “Prussia – Berlin”, and “Languages”. In various ways, the Academy also promotes the dialogue between science and society, e.g. by means of public events on a broad range of topics, annual themes, the GEGENWORTE journal, and the “Academy and School” initiative. Among the research institutions based in Berlin, the Academy occupies a special position, combined with its integrative function. Its international network includes about 20 academies on four continents. In cooperation with the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, it founded the “Young Academy” in 2000 – then a unique form of promoting outstanding talent among junior researchers in Germany. 

Under the leadership of the Halle (Saale)-based German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, along with acatech, the German Academy of Technological Sciences and the other academies which together form the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, it contributes to the work of the National Academy. 

Funding for the Academy comes from the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, with a significant portion of its research being supported in the Academies’ Programme, which is funded by the federal and state governments.