Max-Weber-Stiftung Nachrichten

New Deputy Director of the Max Weber Network Eastern Europe

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 12:47:30 +0200

He is a historian of Eastern Europe with a focus on the history of the Russian-Soviet imperial space. As head of the office in Tbilisi, he follows in the footsteps of Andreas Hilger and will continue the already established focus on global history. He is also planning his own research on the South Caucasus and Central Asia as regions of transcontinental border-making and interaction.

Profil Moritz Florin

The Max Weber Foundation leaves Platform X

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 09:56:18 +0100

In future, like its project partners OPERAS and de.hypotheses, it will only use alternative communication channels in order to continue to ensure dialogue with the public and the scientific community on a basis of transparency and trustworthiness. To this end, the the central office maintains accounts on the following platforms, whose development it will also continue to monitor:

Bluesky
Mastodon
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram

In addition to social media, the central office provides information on the work of the Foundation and its institutes abroad for the entire Max Weber Foundation on its homepage, in the newsletter MWS News, in the research magazine Weltweit vor Ort, in the podcast Wissen entgrenzen and as part of the event series Geisteswissenschaft im Dialog.

Statement on the situation at the Orient-Institut in Beirut

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:39:55 +0200

Through its institute in Beirut, the Max Weber Foundation (MWS) is directly affected by the military escalation of the Middle East conflict in Lebanon. It is our mission and our concern to maintain a dialogue with local researchers even in politically difficult times. However, recent events no longer permit normal research operations, which is why the Orient-Institut has been temporarily closed.
We are endeavouring to ensure the safety of our colleagues and cooperation partners and their families and hope for a diplomatic solution as soon as possible that will enable the civilian population in southern Lebanon and northern Israel to live in peace.

Statement by the Max Weber Foundation on the listing of the German Historical Institute Moscow as an "undesirable organisation" in Russia

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 15:13:05 +0200

We note with regret and concern that the GHI Moscow is now considered an "undesirable organisation" in Russia. This decision represents a serious blow to freedom of expression and academic freedom. It was foreseeable in the course of political developments in Russia.

Since its foundation in 2005, the GHI Moscow has been a place of open international academic exchange and research. It has supported several hundred young academics in Russia with its scholarships. With the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against the whole of Ukraine, the institute discontinued its scholarship programmes, its cooperations with Russian state institutions and its event activities; only central services such as the library were continued. This was in the hope of preserving the last channels between Russian and German academics on site. At the same time, the MWS established a decentralised network in Eastern Europe, where expertise on Eastern Europe and Russia is to be maintained in Tbilisi/Georgia, Vilnius/Lithuania and, from autumn, in Helsinki/Finland. The Max Weber Network Eastern Europe thus creates opportunities for academics to continue researching Russian and Soviet history freely and independently.

Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska becomes Director of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:04:00 +0100

On 1 April 2024, sociologist and cultural scientist Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska will take over as Director of the German Historical Institute (GHI) in Warsaw. She succeeds Miloš Řezník, who is returning to the Faculty of Philosophy at Chemnitz University of Technology after ten years in office.

Max Weber Foundation Deeply Shocked by Invasion of Ukraine

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 13:18:33 +0100

“The MWS and its employees worldwide are shocked by Russia's utterly unjustifiable attack on Ukraine. We are greatly concerned for those affected by these acts of war. Our institutes have long served the humanities and social sciences in Germany and in their respective host countries as places of research, the development of academic qualifications, and international scholarly interaction. All of our relations with our partners in the countries that host our institutes are characterized by mutual respect and trust. Consequently, the current situation hits us all the more,” says Hans van Ess, President of the MWS.

The MWS institutes foster peaceful international cooperation in the humanities and social sciences. They are dedicated to research, the advancement of young scholars, and sharing of knowledge. The institutes were founded for this purpose, also in countries where Germany had waged a devastating war of annihilation. The institutes are of inestimable value where political tensions threaten academic freedom, where scholars are under pressure, or where the burden of history makes dialogue difficult.

“The war in Ukraine constitutes a major setback for anyone who works toward understanding and dialogue, even under difficult circumstances,” continued van Ess, “but we will make every effort, especially in this situation, to use the opportunities of scholarship to build bridges. In this sense, the MWS will also be a place that scholars affected by the conflict can turn to.”