Chronicle of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 1981 - 2006

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1978
Berlin's House of Delegates resolves on October 6, 1978 to establish an Ernst Reuter Center for International Scientific Encounter (Center for Advanced Study) in memory of the city's first Governing Mayor and at the suggestion of the Senator for Science and Research, Peter Glotz. The text of the resolution reads: "To take up initiatives from the great scientific foundations; to restore connections to important intellectual currents that were interrupted by National Socialism and war and that are in part still underrepresented in Germany; to involve the city more firmly in international scientific communication; and to bring important scholars to Berlin, the Senate has resolved to establish an international scientific foundation that, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of his death, shall bear the name of Ernst Reuter, who like many others had to bear the fate of persecution and emigration and who, after the elimination of National Socialist rule, contributed decisively to this city's development in freedom. The task of this Ernst Reuter Center for International Scientific Encounter shall be to promote international scientific communication; to bring as guests to Berlin scientists from all over the world, particularly scholars whom National Socialism forced into emigration and their students; and to promote and expand the intellectual life of Berlin through contacts between foreign guests and German, in particular Berlin scientists." - A working committee, the "Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin", composed of representatives of Berlin's scientific institutions (Institute Director Circle) and coordinated by Shepard Stone (Aspen Institute Berlin), is charged with planning the implementation of this resolution. The committee meets for the first time in October.

1979
Senator Peter Glotz appoints Peter Wapnewski, Old German Philology, Technical University Karlsruhe, the Founding Rector. Peter Wapnewski heads further planning from December on.

1980
After a year of preparatory work, the "Memorandum on the Founding of an International Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin" is completed. On March 11, 1980, the Senate adopts the conception presented in the Founding Exposé. The Berlin House of Delegates also approves it with the votes of all parties on June 11, 1980. On the same day, the Founding Meeting of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Association comes together, consisting of the Presidents and Chairmen of the two West Berlin universities (the Free University of Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin), the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the German Research Foundation, the Max Planck Society, the West German Conference of Rectors, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Peter Wapnewski is elected Rector. - In June, the Volkswagenwerk Foundation declares its willingness to share with the Federal State of Berlin the financing of the Wissenschaftskolleg in its start-up phase by covering the costs of the stipends. - On December 12, 1980, the Federal State of Berlin and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin e.V. found the Ernst Reuter Science Foundation, whose task is the financial support of the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The Federal State of Berlin provides the Wissenschaftskolleg with the Villa Franz and Erika Linde (named after the first, 1910 owners) at Wallotstraße 19 as the institute's main building. Der Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors Association for German Science) assumes the sponsorship of the villa's remodeling (architect: Dorothea Haupt).
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1981
In January, the Academic Advisory Board meets for the first time. From then on, it meets twice a year, in November and May, to discuss the invitation of Fellows. - Joachim Nettelbeck is appointed Secretary of the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The first Fellows arrive on October 1; the official opening is held in the framework of a festive event on November 6.

1982
In May, the Wissenschaftsrat (German Science Council) notes that the "task assigned to the Kolleg is of supraregional importance" and is of "overall state science-policy interest" and recommends "taking up the Ernst Reuter Science Foundation into the common support of the federal and state governments in accordance with Article 91b of the Basic Law". - On October 26, 1982, a "cooperation agreement between the universities of the Federal State of Berlin (Free University of Berlin and Technical University of Berlin) and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin - Institute for Advanced Study' is signed. It covers the joint appointment of Permanent Fellows and the administrative support of the Fellows by the universities. - The Volkswagenwerk Foundation provides the Ernst Reuter Science Foundation the building at Koenigsallee 21 (White Villa) on the occasion of the latter's 20th working anniversary for the Wissenschaftskolleg. Monies from the Berlin state lottery are used to remodel the building for the purposes of providing services to the Fellows (Library, Fellow Services, and guest rooms).

1983
Federal President Karl Carstens visits the Wissenschaftskolleg on the occasion of the transfer of ownership of the White Villa on January 28, 1983. - A Fellow-Club e. V. is founded for Former Fellows. The Foundation Council members E. H. Bernhard Plettner and Edzard Reuter found the Friends of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

1984
Wolf Lepenies, Sociology, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and Free University of Berlin, is appointed a Permanent Fellow.

1985
After the Volkswagenwerk Foundation and the Federal State of Berlin financially secures the start-up phase of the Wissenschaftskolleg, the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology and the Federal State of Berlin each bear 50% of the operating costs of the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The Federal Culture Ministers Conference of the States passes a recommendation that German professors and lecturers be given leave if they receive an invitation to be a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The German Science Council again gives the Kolleg a positive evaluation. - The biologist Gunther S. Stent, Berkeley, is appointed a Non-Resident Permanent Fellow.

1986
On October 1, 1986 Wolf Lepenies assumes the office of Rector. Peter Wapnewski remains connected with the Wissenschaftskolleg as a Permanent Fellow. - Funds from the Federal State of Berlin are used to construct a new building with 3 apartments and 18 offices for Fellows (architect: Burckhardt Fischer) next to the main building, on the neighboring plot of land Wallotstraße 21.

1987
In the Villa Walther, five minutes by foot from the Wissenschaftskolleg's main building, 25 apartments are leased for Fellows and their families. - Yehuda Elkana, History of Science and Philosophy of Science, Tel Aviv, is appointed a Non-Resident Permanent Fellow. - A Berlin Research Association for the History of Science is founded and seeks to establish a history of science well based in the theory of science, with postdoc stipends, a Berlin Seminar, and Summer Universities.

1989
In October, a plan is developed with the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to found an Institute for Advanced Study in Central and Eastern Europe - the future Collegium Budapest, to which a consortium of seven German and Western European public and private donors contribute.

1990
Jürgen Kocka, History of the Industrial World, Free University of Berlin, is appointed a Permanent Fellow, and Rüdiger Wehner, Zoology, Theoretical Biology, University of Zurich, is appointed a Non-Resident Permanent Fellow.

1991
Wolf Lepenies is re-elected Rector. - An agreement is made in the presence of the State Premiere of Baden-Württemberg to establish the Collegium Budapest. - Walter Levin, the earlier primarius of the LaSalle Quartets, begins his annual lecture-recitals with young string quartets.

1992
The Collegium Budapest is officially opened in the presence of Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and the Hungarian President Arpad Göncz. - The Anna Krüger Foundation is founded; it is administered by the Wissenschaftskolleg. In accordance with the will of the name-giver, the Anna Krüger Prize is to be awarded to a scientist "who has written an outstanding work in a good and understandable scientific language".

1993
Beginning of a series of Ernst Reuter Lectures in memory of the first Governing Mayor; the first speaker is Jean François-Poncet. - Funds from the American Andrew W. Mellon Foundation are used to invite younger Eastern and Central European researchers in the humanities and social sciences to the Wissenschaftskolleg. - Informal association of "Some Institutes for Advanced Study" from Europe and the USA. These award the New Europe Prize for Eastern and Central European scientists; the first prizewinners are Andrei Plesu/Bucharest and Alexander Gavrilov/Saint Petersburg. With their prize money, A. Plesu founds the New Europe College in Bucharest, A. Gavrilov the Bibliotheca Classica in Saint Petersburg.

1994
At the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute in Jerusalem, the Wissenschaftskolleg uses funds from the VolkswagenStiftung to support, from 1994 to 1998, the project "Europe in the Middle East", in which young Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans investigate together the political-cultural significance of the traditions of the Enlightenment in Europe and the Middle East.

1995
Federal President Roman Herzog visits the Fellows of the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The Working Group Modernity and Islam is founded at the Wissenschaftskolleg with support from the Federal State of Berlin and the Federal Ministry for Science and Research. Advisors for this field are the philosopher and Islamic Studies scholar Aziz Al-Azmeh (1996-1998) and the Islamic Studies scholar and author Navid Kermani (2001-2003). - With funds from the state lottery, the Villa Jaffé (Wallotstraße 10) is remodeled and long-term leased for additional Fellow offices and apartments and for projects, in particular for the Working Group Modernity and Islam.

1996
Wolf Lepenies is re-elected Rector. - Daimler-Benz and Schering support Fellows in the area of Theoretical Biology for five years.

1997
With the aid of the Volkswagen Foundation, the Wissenschaftskolleg supports the founding of Point Sud - Muscler le Savoir Local in Bamako, Mali by the Former Fellow Mamadou Diawara. - Together with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, a lecture series in Theoretical Biology is founded and named for the biologist Ernst Mayr, Harvard. Ernst Mayr is the first lecturer.

1998
The Wissenschaftskolleg strives to Europeanize its institutional foundations. The Swiss government signs a contract with the Wissenschaftskolleg, beginning its participation in the basic funding of the Kolleg.

1999
Along with Switzerland, the Swedish foundation Stiftung Riksbankens Jubileumsfond contributes to funding the Wissenschaftskolleg.

2000
Jürgen Kocka resigns as Permanent Fellow to assume the office of President of the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB). Dieter Grimm, Public Law, Humboldt University, becomes a Permanent Fellow. - The German Science Council conducts its third evaluation, with the result that the Wissenschaftskolleg is taken up as a separate institution in the common support of the federal and state governments.

2001
Dieter Grimm is elected the third Rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg, taking office on October 1, 2001. Federal President Johannes Rau is present at the transfer of office. Wolf Lepenies remains a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg. - Stephen Greenblatt, Humanities, Harvard, is appointed a Non-Resident Permanent Fellow. - In Sofia, the Wissenschaftskolleg supports the founding of the Center for Advanced Study (CAS), headed by the historian Diana Mishkova (Mellon Fellow 1998/99).

2002
Raghavendra Gadagkar, Biology, Bangalore, and Andrei Plesu, Philosophy of Religion, Bucharest, are appointed additional Non-Resident Permanent Fellows. - The Hungarian writer Imre Kertész is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature during his stay as a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg. - The Wissenschaftskolleg supports the founding of the Studienkolleg zu Berlin, which is funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (studies foundation of the German people) and the Hertie Foundation.

2003
Horst Bredekamp, Art History, Humboldt University, is appointed a Permanent Fellow.

2006
Sybille Krämer, Philosophy, Free University of Berlin, is appointed a Permanent Fellow. - The Thyssen Foundation, the Wissenschaftskolleg, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science and Humanities decide on a five-year funding of the project Europe in the Middle East - The Middle East in Europe.