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The Academies |
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Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
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| The Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities was constituted in 1909
in the tradition of the Electoral Palatine Academy of Sciences, which had been
founded by Elector Carl Theodor in 1763. Now the state academy of Baden-
Württemberg, it has always remained committed to the Academy's founding
idea of assembling the land's eminent scientists and scholars for the purpose
of interdisciplinary discussion and independent research. The Heidelberg Academy,
as well as its sister academies, has been both a scholarly society in the
traditional sense and a modern non-university research institution; it organises
conferences and public lectures series and promotes young scientists through
programmes such as the “WIN-Kolleg”, the Academy's college of young scientists,
and the “Academy Conferences for Young Scholars”. Ordinary fellows of
the Academy must have attained distinction in their branches of scientific study,
and have to be residents of Baden-Württemberg at the time of election. The
Academy is currently home to a total of 20 research projects covering a broad
range of disciplines. Projects include the Goethe dictionary, for example, produced
in cooperation with the academies in Göttingen and Berlin. As a dictionary
devoted to a single individual’s linguistic repertoire, it presents Goethe’s
entire vocabulary in alphabetical order and will serve as a resource for research
in the history of science and culture. Furthermore, “The Role of Culture in Early
Expansions of Humans”, a research project begun in 2008, seeks to reconstruct
the spatiotemporal migratory patterns of hominines in Africa, Asia, and
Europe between 3 million and 20,000 years ago, and to shed light on the natural
and cultural preconditions for their expansion. The cultural dimension of
human development is of key importance in this project; archeological digs in
Africa, Southwest Asia and Germany currently provide important insights in
this respect. Additional research is currently devoted to a commentary on the
main works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, an annotation that will combine,
systematize, and expand existing research. Nietzsche ranks among the
most significant and influential philosophers in the history of Western civilization;
his global impact on philosophy, literature, anthropology, psychology, and
on the criticism of religion and culture is hard to overestimate.
The current President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities,
which is headquartered in a grand ducal palace below Heidelberg Castle, is
Prof. Dr. Hermann H. Hahn.
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| Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Karlstraße 4 69117 Heidelberg Tel. 06221 / 54 32-65, -66 Fax 06221 / 54 33 55  haw@adw.uni-heidelberg.de |
| Further Information | |
 Heidelberg
Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
| Further information on projects quoted | |
| Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch (historical
German law dictionary)Rock Carvings and Inscriptions along the
Karakorum HighwayWorld Stress Map |
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